By Les Sheppard | Community Service Chairman, Billericay Rotary Club
Thank you once again for your continued support for this GlobalGiving project. It is one of the various ways we raise money for our Benevolent Fund, from which we are able to support deserving local, national and international causes.
Helped by the generosity of you, our GlobalGiving supporters, since our last report in October we have made the following donations from our Benevolent Fund:
£50 to the British Legion: This is an annual donation we make as part of our participation in the Act of Remembrance held at Billericay war memorial.
£114 to purchase 4,000 purple crocus corms: This is part of Rotary's 'Purple4Polio' campaign, which aims to promote awareness of Rotary's long-term project to eradicate Polio. We have done this for several years at different locations around Billericay. This year our corms were planted at a very prominent location beside the main road near to Billericay rail station. We plant purple crocuses because purple is the colour painted on the little finger of each child inoculated against Polio by Rotary. The carpets of purple flowers at each planting site are highly visible each spring and signs at each site inform the public of the reason why the crocuses are there.
£320 to Quilters School's Pen Pals project: This pays for the project's postage costs. The children write regularly to volunteer senior citizens in Billericay who reply to the children. Each year the children invite their pen pals to an Afternoon Tea at the school, giving the opportunity to get to know each other better.
£100 to Lennox Children's Cancer fund: We give to Lennox on a regular basis. The charity provides support and respite care to families of children affected by cancer living in and around the Billericay and Basildon area.
£600 to Mary's Meals: This is a charity that provides daily school meals to children, mostly in needy parts of Africa. Providing the meals encourages the children to attend school and so continue their education rather than dropping out - a win-win! Each week at our Club meeting we raffle a bottle of wine and once a year we send a donation of the funds raised from the raffle. This year we were able to time our donation to coincide with a matched-funding event, which doubled the value of our donation.
£400 to Basildon Emergency Night Shelter: This group provides indoor overnight accommodation from December to March for people who would otherwise be sleeping rough in Basildon. It is manned by volunteers, some who are members of local churches and others who are members of the local community who want to help.
£200 to Africa Justice And Restoration (AJAR): This is a charity that provides free legal aid to pre-trial detainees in Kenya who have been wrongly accused, often by corrupt officials. It also provides aftercare to help these people rebuild their lives when they leave prison. This donation was in response to our New Year message, given by the incoming Team Rector of Billericay and Little Burstead, who was involved in the set-up of this charity in his previous role, working at a church in Nairobi.
£5,000 to End Polio Now: Our Club is a strong supporter of Rotary's 'End Polio Now' programme, which since 1979 has been working to rid the world of Polio. This donation was the result of various fund raising activities we have organised for the benefit of 'End Polio Now'. Polio is now endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. See the link below for more details.
Thank you once again for your continued support.
Links:
By Les Sheppard | Community Service Chairman, Billericay Rotary Club
By Les Sheppard | Community Service Chairman, Billericay Rotary Club
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