2022/23
OUR STORIES
Every single day, Rotary clubs and members are making a difference in communities around the world, whether that is through service projects, activities for young people or social impact events. Here we take a look at some of our highlights of 2022/23.
BORN INTO WAR AND GASPING FOR AIR
FEBRUARY 2023
Rotary supported 30,000 mothers and babies in Ukraine with vital medical aid after identifying a ten-fold increase in oxygen deprivation in new-borns in the first six months of the war, compared to developed countries.
Dr John Philip, a Rotary member and Chairman of the Rotary Fellowship of Healthcare Professionals, coordinated large-scale humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, working with what was the Rotary GB&I Ukraine Crisis Taskforce, and clubs and districts
According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, between February and August 2022, almost 1,000 healthcare facilities were destroyed or damaged, putting strain on the country’s infrastructure.
Women were forced to give birth away from hospitals, in cold conditions, basements and even subway stations where crowds of people are escaping shelling without electricity or running water.
In total, the Fellowship raised more than £500,000, much of which has come from the generosity of Rotary clubs and their communities across Great Britain and Ireland.
Those funds supplied a huge range of goods and emergency medical aid, including 20,000 tourniquets, specialist battery-powered head torches, and £120,000 worth of orthopaedic instruments.
John even undertook the 1,350 mile journey from the UK to the Poland-Ukrainian border to deliver the 120 boxes of equipment.
YOUNG CHEF WINNER’S TUSCANY ADVENTURE
MAY 2023
After winning the national final of Rotary Young Chef 2023 in May, 15-year-old budding chef Eimhear McGrath got to experience an amazing culinary adventure in Tuscany alongside her mum Sarah.
A student from Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Penrith, Cumbria, Eimhear was chosen as the winner of Rotary Young Chef 2023 after blowing the judges away back in April and her prize was a trip to Toscano Saporita, a renowned cooking school in Tuscany.
The competition was sponsored by Filippo Berio, the UK’s most popular olive oil brand who also organised the trip.
Touching down in Pisa, Eimhear and Sarah were driven to Toscano Saporita where Eimhear and other students from around the world were taught skills in making the perfect pizza dough and producing beautiful ravioli.
Eimhear commented: “Everyone there was so welcoming, they made me feel part of the family.”
CONNECTION IS
A CURE
JUNE 2023
Rotary clubs have long been committed to fostering connections within communities, combating loneliness, and supporting mental well-being, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bridging Generations, a project organised by the Rotary Club of Chichester Priory, is tackling loneliness by connecting college students with older people. Every two weeks, a group of elders has coffee, cake, and a chat with students in the college canteen. Afterwards, many elders stay for lunch cooked by catering students. The Rotary club pays for transport, while Chichester College provides the space and refreshments.
“We savour these visits like reunions with long-lost friends,” Sylvia, who visits the project, says. “I really enjoy the discussions with the young people. Some of them are so aspirational.”
About 14% of UK adults felt that their well-being had been affected by feeling lonely in the past week; that’s about 7.4 million people across Britain whom the Office for National Statistics refers to as “the lockdown lonely”.
AQUABOX CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF AID
AUGUST 2022
What started as a small project by two Rotary clubs in Derbyshire has grown on an international scale.
Aquabox, the Rotary charity based in Derbyshire, celebrated its 30th birthday in 2022, and has continued to send water filters and humanitarian aid to disaster zones and conflict areas around the world.
During its first 10 years, Aquabox aid was sent to disaster zones across the world: Africa, the Caribbean, south America, south-east Asia and even North Korea.
Aid was also sent to conflict zones like Kosovo, Croatia and Serbia, supporting families caught up in the Balkan wars.
The 2004 tsunami presented the charity with a new challenge, and volunteers and Rotarians across the country worked around the clock to pack chlorine tablets, and fill and dispatch Aquaboxes to countries worst hit by this devastating natural event.
Then in 2010, Aquabox was approached by John Griffith, who had developed a simple ultra-filtration hand pump to convert polluted water into clean, safe water for drinking, for cooking and for washing. This was a giant leap forward: instead of using a carbon filter and chlorine tablets to provide safe drinking water for a few months, the new pump could process thousands of litres of water – and it could go on working for years.
KYIV BENCHES COMMEMORATE ROTARY SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE
FEBRUARY 2023
As a demonstration of gratitude for all the work done by Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland for Ukraine, benches that commemorate the work done by all the different Rotary teams on the Isles have been built in Shevchenko Park, Kyiv.
Maryna Dolzhenko led the project as a way of expressing Ukraine’s gratitude but also to show the people of Ukraine that the people of countries around the world are with them during this difficult time.
Maryna is a leader of a Rotary Intercountry Committee (ICC) in Ukraine. ICC’s are put in place to promote relationships between two or more countries, in turn increasing the chance of support between Rotary communities in different nations.
As well as thanking Rotary in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Channel Islands, the benches mention specific groups such as the Rotary International Fellowship of Healthcare Professionals.
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