Monthly Archives: September 2021

City of Wolverhampton Rotarians respond to a crisis.

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After contacting our honorary member, the Mayor of Wolverhampton Councillor Greg Brackenridge, we learned that the City is receiving a large number of refugees from Afghanistan and asylum seekers from other wartorn parts of the world.

A large number have already arrived.

From L-R, Denise Williams (Wolverhampton City Council,) Rotarians Lorraine MaCarthy, Sally Woods and President Richard Green.

An appeal was launched for clothing and other goods to help these suffering people who come to us with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

The response from Wolverhampton Rotarians, their friends and familes has been swift and almost overwhelming.

So great is the quantity of goods being received that our Rotarian who is collecting them, Sally Woods, says her car was overfull. So, Rotarian Lorraine McCarthy and the President joined Sally in making the first delivery to the Council collection centre.

The council officer in charge, Denise Williams, tells us that clothing and in particular men’s and ladies’ shoes and pushchairs for toddlers are still required, so we will keep the appeal going.

Well done Rotarians, friends and families for their support, and the City Council for offering a welcome to people who have suffered so much!

President Richard.

 

 

 

Rotary honours Wolverhampton’s finest young people.

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All the finalists with The Mayor and District Governor Robyn Davies.

The seventh annual awards ceremony to recognise Wolverhampton’s Young Citizen of The Year took place in the Mayor’s suite at The Civic Centre on Thursday, September 16th, in the presence of the Mayor, Councillor Greg Brackenridge.

All the Wolverhampton Rotary clubs work together in arranging the event in conjunction with a number of significant partners from the local business community. The initiative is named in memory of Rotarian Tom Warren who was the director of education and a member of the City of Wolverhampton club, who rose to become the President of Rotary worldwide in1945.

This year, for the first time, there were two categories – age ranges 13 to 18, and 19 to 25. Young people who had ‘gone the extra mile’ – whose personal courage, care for others, achievements or contribution to the community are recognised  by being nominated by friends, family or fellow school pupils. A large number of nominations were received and the selection committee had a tremendous task to arrive at a shortlist.

There were 5 finalists in the younger category and 4 in the senior one.

As we listened to the achievements of the young people, the audience were overwhelmed with admiration for every one of them. The winners received their awards from District Governor Robyn Davies. These took the form of a plaque and personal cheques, together with donations to a charity of their choice.

They were:

Winner Parwiz Karimi with President of the City of Wolverhampton Club, Richard Green.

13 -18 – Dylan Wright, whose lively personality had impressed the judging panel and who was described as an inspiration to his friends and colleagues. He had organised a great number of charity fund raising events and served as a volunteer in support of those charities.

In the senior category, the judges decided to make two awards. One was to Parwiz Karimi who founded the Afghan Youth Association in 2015 to provide a platform for students, graduates and young professionals to work together without any caste, creed or political preferences; now, following the crisis in Afghanistan, a new project has been started  called ‘Help Refugees.’

The second, joint award, was to Lucy Palin who created  ‘Project Give,’ which aims to tackle the problem of lost education time due to issues relating to periods.

Committee chairman Roger Timbrell thanked the members of the organising committee and the judges, who were The Mayor, Peter Madeley (Express and Star,) Amanda Evans (City of Wolverhampton Council education department) and Rotarians Chris Ager and Roger himself.

President Richard Green

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donations for Afghan Refugees arriving in Wolverhampton

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President Richard has been in touch with our Honorary Member, The Mayor of Wolverhampton seeking ways in which we Rotarians can provide support for Afghan Refugees who are arriving in the City.

The following reply was immediately received:

“From: Denise Williams <Denise.Williams@wolverhampton.gov.uk>

Hello Richard, thank you and The Rotary Club for your kind offer of support, it is greatly appreciated. 

I am coordinating the picking, packing and delivery of items. We are having deliveries dropped off Monday to Friday, to Graiseley Strengthening Families Hub, Pool St, Wolverhampton WV2 4NE. This allows for a coordinated and targeted approach and prevents multiple drop offs at the hotel. 

Current required items that have been requested are as follows; 

Women’s clothes, all sizes

Men’s clothes all sizes, including xl

Shoes for girls 32-44

Shoes for boys 32-44

Shoes for women 34-42

Shoes for men 40-45

Infant boy’s shoes size 22

Winter coats all ages, male and female. 

4 Pushchairs   

We would be grateful for any help with these items 

If I could be informed when deliveries are to be made, I will ensure that someone is there to receive the items. 

Thanks again for your support

Regards

Denise 

Denise Williams

Partnership Manager

Tel. Office: 01902 556133 

City of Wolverhampton Council”

Our member Sally Woods has offered to provide a central collecting point for donations made by our club, and she will take the goods onwards to the Council’s collection point.

If anybody wishes to donate via Rotary, please place a message on https://www.facebook.com/rotaryclubofwolverhampton or contact us through this website

Enabling the Wolverhampton MS Centre to make a giant step in technology.

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The Wolverhampton MS Centre was founded over 25 years ago with huge support from the Rotary club of The City of Wolverhampton – support that has never faltered, and that will be ongoing.

The latest project is the funding of an Information Hub to provide a display service, both in the Centre and for MS sufferers at home, to perform keep fit exercises, demonstrate wellness techniques, give general advice and keep everybody in touch by means of a large screen and computer backup.

Peter Williams MBE along with Fraser’s daughter and son, Tim and Kathy.

The funding was made possible by a legacy left to the club by our much missed senior member, Fraser Dukes, and the Hub has been named in his memory. Fraser was a keen supporter of the Centre and had been very involved in its establishment, continuing to give medical advice for many years.

A memorial plaque was unveiled at a well attended gathering on the 9th. of September and it was entirely fitting that the unveiling was carried out by Fraser’s daughter and son, Kathy and Tim, in partnership with the centre chairman, Rotarian Peter Willams MBE.

Peter also paid tribute to Fraser and another Rotarian who was very much involved, the late John Baker. He said that without the support of the Rotary club, the great achievements of the centre would not have been possible.

Kathy, Tim, Peter and the Centre technical expert, Paul Williams all expressed their intense gratitude for the funding provided.

For more information on the centre’s work- click here; Centre Website

 

Eradication of Polio in Afghanistan Continues

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The following statement was received via email today from Michael K. McGovern, Rotary International PolioPlus Committee Chair

As the sun rose on 1 January 2021, we all worried about what this new year would bring.  For those of us who closely follow polio eradication progress, it was an especially worrisome time. 2020 and 2019 had seen an uptick in wild polio virus cases and in circulating vaccine derived cases. Polio vaccinations had had to be suspended for a while in 2020 due to the coronavirus and vaccines for Covid-19 were just starting to receive early use approvals.

The polio news was especially bad in Afghanistan. On the very first day of 2021, a wild polio virus case was reported.  In the next week, the national health minister was fired due to hints of corruption on non-polio matters.    Before month’s end, the government of Afghanistan ordered the UNICEF polio lead to leave the country relating to a verbal spat that had occurred in the President’s office. Then in March and June there were coordinated attacks on polio workers and their security teams leaving eight families having lost loved ones.  The Taliban denied responsibility for the attacks, and it appeared the attacks were tied to elements who supported ISIS or ISIL as they are also known.   We also noted that some areas of the country had been subject to over 30 months of a ban on house-to-house polio vaccinations.

While all this was going on other activities were occurring which have been mostly unreported. On January 17th, the Regional Directors of WHO and UNICEF met at the Taliban office in Doha, Qatar to discuss polio vaccinations and covid response in the areas controlled by the Taliban. While house to house polio vaccinations were not agreed to, the seven senior members of Taliban leadership indicated support for other measures to provide vaccination activities. In all areas of the country, health screenings continued unabated which showed no new wild polio cases and no positive identification of polio viruses in the environment. In a zoom call of polio partnership leaders the week of 17 August, Aidan O’Leary, the global WHO polio director, noted that Afghanistan has one of the best programs for polio surveillance in the world and it was not finding polio anywhere.  

After the fall of the Afghanistan government in mid-August, the new leadership has agreed to keep on the acting health minister who has been effective in righting the program since February.  Taliban leaders have visited the national and regional polio offices and pledged their support for the polio eradication program.   On 23 August, a Rotary sponsored roadside vaccination hut provided vaccinations to children under five with local Taliban providing the needed security. For security reasons, I will not share the photos I received but it was good to see the Rotary logo doing good in the world.

Rotary has just 35 members in Afghanistan.  They inspire me daily with their courage and perseverance. The polio program has always been politically neutral in every country. Rotary and our partners work with the leaders who are in charge. We now work with new leaders in Afghanistan. Rotary funds WHO and UNICEF.  We do not send any funds to the governments nor to groups other than WHO and UNICEF.   We monitor the spending they do on our behalf very closely. We have never been closer to eradicating polio in Afghanistan. We will continue to work with the Afghani people and our partners to finish what we began over 35 years ago.