Rotary Foundation. Simon Bonello
Posted on Dec 10, 2016
Rotary Foundation
Monday 21st November 2016
Talk by Simon Bonello on the Foundation and the students from Malta.
Simon gave a very detailed account on how the Foundation was started and introduced the 3 students who gave accounts of their achievements.
Quite apart from our club’s activities and occasional District news we don’t often talk about what part Rotary International plays in the world. A Hundred Years of Rotary Foundation calls for some celebration particularly because our Malta clubs are direct recipients of the good this important wing of Rotary dispels. In 1917 Arch Klumph had this idea of an endowment fund dedicated to Doing Good in the World. His vision is today one of the world’s leading humanitarian foundation, thanks to the generosity of Rotary members worldwide, and this is how it all started.
1917 signals the start of the Foundation, with a donation of just €26.50
1985 signals the start of Polio Plus eradication
2007 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation issues a 100 million dollar challenge that Rotary matched in about half the prescribed time.
2012 The Gates Foundation participates again in the Polio program with a donation of 350 million conditional of Rotary collecting €200Million.
2015 is when Polio cases worldwide were down by 99.9% since 1985
2016 Today’s Foundation centenary goal is to raise an inclusive €300 million
Rotary members have helped immunise more than 2.5 billion children against polio.Today all but 2 countries are free from Polio.
In year 2014/15 program awards, that also include PolioPlus partner grants, totaled €123 million dollars. GLOBAL GRANTS sustain large-scale international activities always strictly within Rotary’s six areas of focus. These consist of humanitarian projects, scholarships and vocational training teams. Suffice to say that last year the Foundation approved 1078 global grants and program awards, totaling €64.9 million.
Scholarships:
Through our contribution each year our club donates an important sum of €5000 to the PolioPlus fund and €8,500 to the Rotary Foundation Annual Fund. From 1970 to 2015 our three clubs in Malta have won 23 Global Grant Scholarships, 10 of which were awarded in these last 10 years.
Apart from scholarships, Global Grants also apply to actual projects hosted outside of district, mostly in Africa.
Then followed a conversation and video meetings with the graduates:
Sandra Schembri Wismayer, Samuela Galea,Dr. Roberta Avellino,Nathan Adams.