International

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS Serenity - Sopheak's Friendship School is an international project in the rural area of Siem Reap, Cambodia. To raise needed funds for this international project, the organising committee is having a YULE BALL. Come along and Dance & Dine the night away. Funds raised will go towards the building of this school which will offer FREE education to the people living in the rural areas of Siem Reap. To reserve tickets for this event, please go to our Serenity Events Page. RECYCLED SHOES SENT OVERSEAS The members of the Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra spent another successful night sorting and packing over 300 pairs of quality used shoes which are headed for Vanuatu and Sierra Leone. Over the past two years recycled shoes have been sent to help Australian Indigenous Communities, countries in the Pacific region and countries which have suffered natural disasters including earthquakes, floods and cyclones. Give Poverty the Boot is a unique and ongoing shoe recycling project set up by the Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra in 2009. Since it began, many local schools have participated in this recycling program. Distinctive yellow Rotary Otto bins were placed in participating schools and over the past two years over 5,000 pairs of shoes have been collected in our bins. The shoes are then sorted by the club, packed in plastic bags and taken either to Rotary’s Donations in Kind terminal or Overseas Disaster Resources. Because the shoes are in plastic bags they can be used as packing around other goods being sent in shipping containers. To date, shoes have been sent to the Philippines, Chile, Haiti and flood stricken Pakistan. The Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra is made up of community committed volunteers aged between 22 and 65. The club meets at 7pm every Wednesday at the Revesby Workers’ Club. To find out more information about the club and events visit http://revesbywirrimbirrarotary.org Sponsorship of project in Dhaka, Bangladesh with the Rotary Club of Dhaka The Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra, along with the Rotary Club of Dhaka, have sponsored an international Rotary project through Rotary Australia World Community Service. The project is being Chaired by Dr Chowdhury from Westmead Hospital. Dr Chowdhury plans to raise $200,000 to equip an operating theatre in a cancer wing of a hospital in Dhaka as well as to also to assist in the costs of building a recovery room for cancer patients. For more information on the hospital in Dhaka please go to their website: http://www.ahsaniacancer.org.bd/index.php. Below is a picture showing the progress of the building of the entire Dhaka hospital. Book Collection for Ranfurly Library Service In the 2010-11 year the Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra, with great assistance from Club members Helen Horton and Sue Ashton, collected and donated educational books to the Rotary supported Ranfurly Library Service. The Ranfurly Library Service collects educational books and ships them to remote and diverse international schools and communities. Rotary Foundation and the Rotary "Polio Plus" Project The Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra donated $1000 each to the Rotary Foundation and the Rotary "Polio Plus" Project. In support of the Rotary Polio Plus project, the Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra also attended a movie night on the 23^rd of February which was part of an Australian wide drive to raise funds for Polio Plus. The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation and through Rotary Foundation grants and programs, Rotarians can really make a difference internationally through projects such as financing the installation of a well for a village that lacks clean water, improving the environment, or providing scholarships to educate the next generation. The grants and programs available to Rotarians allow them to realize Rotary’s humanitarian mission throughout the world, including its number-one goal of eradicating polio. Through the Polio Plus program Rotary has helped reduce the spread of polio throughout the world since 1985. The Rotary Club of Revesby Wirrimbirra's donation of $1000 to the Rotary Polio Plus program will aid Rotary International raise the $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunisation campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk.