The Rotary Club of Bromsgrove congratulates several members of our Interact Club who supported a student Rhys Aspland at South Bromsgrove High School in raising just over £250 by selling mince pies in the school. The money will go to a charity called ACEF (Akamba Children’s Education Fund). Rhys will travel to Nairobi in Kenya during 2020 with another family member to carry out work for the charity which supports access to education for many vulnerable children at Brainhouse Academy in a poor part of the country. Our Rotary Club has added a donation of £250 to the money raised by the students.

Lori Rampal was inducted as a new Rotarian on 10 December 2019 by our President Tony Docherty during our Christmas Party held at Manor Hill House in Upton Warren. Many thanks go to our Treasurer John Teece for organising the party. Lori joins her sister Priya and father Amal at the Bromsgrove Club which is a fantastic family achievement and must be something of a record to be celebrated! A very warm welcome to Lori!

Our Special General Meeting will take place at 730pm on 26 November at the Maekong Thai Restaurant. All members are warmly invited to attend.

We are very pleased to announce that the Basement Project in Bromsgrove was our chosen good cause when the Rotary Club of Bromsgrove along with seven other Rotary Clubs decided to participate in the Midlands Community Draw this year. The Basement Project received £320 in charitable funds through the sale of raffle tickets. The prize draw for the top prize of £1000 will take place at 7pm on 27 November at a Rotary event in Solihull.

The Rotary Club of Bromsgrove is delighted to be able to support the Guatemala Literacy Project with a donation of £200. With grant matching arrangements, our donation will become £500 with the support of Rotary District 1060. What is the GLP? The GLP is a network of individual Rotarians, Rotary Clubs and Districts, and the non-profit Cooperative for Education (CoEd), with a common interest in improving education for underserved students in Guatemala. Since 1997, over six hundred Rotary Clubs and eighty Districts around the world have participated in the GLP; in that time, 208,500 students have been helped to escape poverty through four sustainable programmes which are tried and proven to work.
The GLP was also recognized as “the gold standard of Rotary projects” by 2017-2018 RI President Ian Risley. Why Guatemala? Guatemala’s Central and Western Highlands exhibit one of the most extreme combinations of systemic poverty, illiteracy and inequality in the Western hemisphere. The indigenous largely Mayan populations that inhabit these regions suffer from malnutrition (rates which rank among the worst in the world), poor health outcomes, racism, high rates of illiteracy and low levels of educational attainment. Together, these factors virtually guarantee that the next generation will be no better off than the last.  The current grant aims to benefit 8500 children and their teachers to help them to escape their traditional cycle of poverty; four out of five indigenous Guatemalans live in poverty, and more than one in three cannot read or write.

We send every good wish to Amelia Hart and her family for Amelia’s operation which is due to be performed on 13 November to correct her scoliosis. Our Club is very pleased to have been able to donate towards the cost of the operation which is not available on the NHS. We hope that Amelia aged sixteen will soon be able to indulge her passion for playing football again!

Andy Wuzik and Ron Pearce represented the Club on 26 October at an evening to celebrate the life of Helen King one of the founding members of the Burnaid charity, which exists to support child victims of burn injuries and their families. Helen was involved with a number of Rotary Clubs and was for some time an Honorary Member of our Club. The event was organised by Burnaid and was held at the Tally Ho Club at the Police Training and Development Centre in Pershore Road Edgbaston. Helen passed away recently following a long and debilitating illness which she fought with characteristic positivity and strength. A number of Rotary Clubs were represented at the event, and Andy presented a cheque to Burnaid for just over £1500 which he raised with other musicians back in June at a Bluegrass music event in Bromsgrove High Street, which was supported by members of the Rotary Club of Bromsgrove. This was the third year running that Andy has made music to support Burnaid, and he is to be congratulated for his sterling efforts!!

The Rotary Club of Bromsgrove in collaboration with the Friends of St John’s was able to get the church lit in purple for World Polio Day on 24 October 2019. The club was successful in raising £1000 as a result of the fundraising dinner held at the Maekong Thai restaurant on 22 October. This amount will become £3000 with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and will go to support efforts across the world to eradicate polio.