As you are now well aware, Zones 30 & 31 are in a middle of a fundraising campaign for Our Rotary Foundation that will impact immediate needs and longer term needs worldwide. Rotarians will long be remembered for the good we are doing and your personal donation will determine the amount of good we can do.The best example of addressing immediate needs is the outpouring of donations for the Ukraine refugees. The Disaster Relief Fund has received over $10.4 million for this purpose. Every district in our two zones has participated.
In our last article, we noted the record-breaking Global Grants that were initiated in the last Rotary year, 2,066, with program awards of $130 million. Here are just two examples:
- In India: GG2231289 Rotary Club of Fort Wayne / Rotary Club of Raipur Greater Project Mamatva provided $155,434 to furnish and equip a maternal hospital intended to decrease the number of babies born with congenital heart defects in India. District clubs have worked with the free Sai Sanjeevani Children’s hospitals to provide pediatric cardiac surgeries, but with the opening of the Mother & Child Hospital, pregnant women will receive proper nutrition and prenatal care to give their baby a greater chance of being born healthy. Our hope is to greatly reduce the number of children who need cardiac surgeries at the Sai Sanjeevani Hospitals.
- In Mexico: GG2231086 Rotary District 6880 Alabama / Rotary Club of Guadalajara Colomos (District 4140). The John & Judy Germ Guadalajara Children’s Cancer Center Phase 4 project provides $121,624 of state-of-the-art neurosurgery equipment to address brain tumors and related issues in children. This equipment allows for minimally invasive procedures while pinpointing (with greater accuracy) the nature of the tumor, thus optimizing drug applications, surgery, and treatment. Approximately 10-20% of the children with cancer at Hospital Civil de Guadalajara have brain tumors at any given time. This project is the fourth phase of global grants in the hospital in honor of PRID John and Judy Germ, with the prior three grants providing $ 626.500 of other state-of-the-art equipment for treating children with cancer.
There is also a very real concern regarding Polio donations. To receive the 2-1 match from the Gates Foundation, we need to raise $50 million and donations are behind last year when we raised $52.9 million. We need the match to continue to immunize hundreds of millions of children until this deadly scourge is gone. Remember, it is only a plane ride away.
Our combined efforts are to reach pre-pandemic levels of giving, meaning we need to increase Annual Fund donations by $825,000.00 in our two zones. To keep our pledge to the children of the world, the six-month goal (Jan.-June) for Polio Plus is $800,000.
Reaching our goals begins with you. Please lead by example and provide hope to those so desperately seeking it – hope from Rotarians.
