Rotary Club - Index

Rotary Club - Deal - Index

THE REAL DEAL 8 August 2008
THE FOUNDATION MOMENT
The Polio Eradication Campaign – PDG Colleen Wood
colleen@woodsjewelers.com.
1. Imagine a place where there is no school -- a
place where children work all day either
gathering food or collecting water. These
children have no books, no chance to learn and
no chance for a better life. Now imagine that the
local Rotary Club has built a school but the
building sits empty – no desks, no books, no
teachers, and no students. Now you can help to
make this dream of a school a reality for the
children in Ikeja, Nigeria. Today this school sits
empty but the District Foundation team is asking
you to help fill it. For $75.00 you can sponsor a
child’s education. Your sponsorship will buy
books, desks, chalk boards, paper and pencils,
uniforms and help stock the
library. With your support we
will “Make Dreams Real” for
these children.
2. Every 15 seconds a child
dies. Every year 1.3 million
children mostly under the age of 5 die. These
children are dying because of contaminated,
unclean drinking water. They are dying because
they did something you and I take for granted.
They took a drink of water. Since 2005, the
Rotary Clubs in our district have been involved
in the Bio Sand Filter Project and approximately
1000 sand filters have been placed in individual
homes. The sand filters provide clean water to
drink and cook with. Again, this year we are
continuing the sand filter project and we will
continue to make the dream of clean, fresh
water a reality to families in Central America.
The cost of the filters remains at $60.00 a piece.
3. In a town in Nicaragua, children spend their day
combing the town garbage dump for food. With
flies swarming all around them, these children
fight off dogs and each other to get to the
decaying food in the dump. For over a decade,
Rotarians have been coming to Chinandega to
assist a Catholic priest who has been working to
save these children but every year there are
more and more children. Our district has made a
commitment to help these children and the
District Foundation Team is asking you to
sponsor a child’s education for $75.00. Your
sponsorship will insure that a child will get a hot
meal and learn to read and write.
4. The timeline for eradicating
polio began in 1985 when Rotary
announced its intention to eliminate the
disease. Under the guidance of then RI
President Charles Keller, funds poured
in and the eradication campaign was
off to a great start. In the Rotary year 2003-04
another push for funds was made and significant
achievements were made with the new influx of
funds. However, Rotary and its partners missed
its goal of eradicating the disease by 2005 by
parts of only 4 countries. Last year help was
received in the form of a grant from the Gates
Foundation. Every Rotarian in the world has
been asked to help match this grant and in doing
so, eliminate polio once and for all. The
Foundation team is asking every Rotarian in the
district to contribute to the polio eradication
campaign to help match this grant. This is your
chance to be a part of history.