The 2024 Rotary Christmas Appeal- outcomes.
The Christmas appeal at the Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton this year was supported by 25 club members, plus friends of Rotary and members of the Bethel Christian Fellowship Church of West Bromwich.Donations were made to the club which were then used to fund three projects and the followinfg recounts the outcomes.
Recipient number 1-
The Kanyama Free Baptist Community School in Lusaka, Zambia.
www.rotaryclubwolverhampton.co.uk/kanyama-free-baptist-community-school
Over 300 children of the school attended during the day of celebration in advance of Christmas and the last day of their school term.
Each youngster received fruit, pop, crisps and a small gift.
Sadly on the day of the celebration, the area was blighted by one of the relentless power cuts that are affecting Zambians at the moment due to nationwide power issues. The Head teacher, Beston Chilemalema confirmed though that despite this setback, the day went well, still with singing and dancing and that it was still a wonderful occasion. The photographs certainly confirm this. The school is located in an extremely impoverished township just outside the city centre of Lusaka and this clu
b has been supporting them for several years, in which time the school has doubled in size. Our most recent project has been the building of an extra classroom and with the help of a District Grant, the providing of much needed equipment for the school including new desks, a photocopier, hygiene and routine school equipment including the feeding programme.
The second recipient of the appeal funds was
The Kimbilio primary school in the Democratic Republic of Congo and another end of term celebration day. www.congochildrentrust.org/
The Kimbilio organisation is one that our club has supported for some years now. Based in the UK, the Congo Children’s Trust founded Kimbilio (this means sanctuary- in Swahili) to try to help with the plight of street children- sadly a very common occurrence in the largest cities of the DRC. Kimbilio run a day centre for street children and 4 transit homes where the main emphasis is on reintegration of youngsters with their families. 
In 2022 they opened a primary school on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, the second largest city of the DRC and this year the club funded a fun day for the 200 children who attend the school and also members of the 4 transit homes, who joined in the fun too. Youngsters were treated to food and drink with fun and games being the order of the day. The star of the show of course was Santa Claus who arrived to add even more excitement to the day.
During the current Rotary year, the club has helped to provide an English teacher for the school and also co-funded a Young Mothers Project.
And finally, the third recipient of appeal funds was The Rotary Shoebox Scheme.
Our club has a long history of support to the Rotary shoebox scheme and, 2024 was no exception. Member donations enabled purchases to be made on their behalf to make up Shoeboxes. The boxes are filled with gifts or household items for vulnerable youngsters and families who live principally in Romania and Moldova. 
Each box is more than just a box full of useful and fun items; it’s personal a gift, not just for the person receiving it, but for the family, too-a message of hope and a demonstration that someone cares about them. This year’s appeal produced 210 completed shoeboxes which are ready to transport to the Rotary distribution centre at Oldham for onward delivery to their Eastern Europe destinations.
Our friends at the Bethel Christian Fellowship Church of West Bromwich donated funds and gifts which produced a magnificent total of 65 completed boxes and we thank them very much. Special thanks also goes to PP Sylvia Morgan and her team for producing 40 boxes and Julie Hickman for filling 25 boxes. 
The final word I think should go to the Headteacher at the Kanyama Free Baptist Community School. He wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed both to the Christmas appeal but also for the support throughout the year. I think this gives you some idea of what our support means to them. So on behalf of the Grant Giving Committee who arranged this appeal- thank you.
And now- a few words from Beston….
Hello to all members of the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton and their friends.
I want to tell you that you are good people because, what you do shows how beautiful you are at heart, it shows how caring you are, it shows that you are not selfish with what God has blessed you with and you want us to be part of it.
It shows that God can provide using beautiful people like you.
With the money you sent us, we had a Christmas party and children went home with big smiles on their faces.
Children were excited to have this celebration because this does not happen to most of them. We sang songs of praise, we danced, we also presented some poems but most of all we really enjoyed the food. Really It was a beautiful experience and a wonderful day which we will never forget. To everyone who supported and make sure that this day come to pass, we are saying thank you so much for being there for us, we thank you for your generosity and may God almighty stone you with his big blessings. We are forever grateful to you all. We love you.
Head teacher Beston Chilimalema.
cash contributions from all the clubs involved, together with District Designated Fund (DDF) support from Districts 1210 in the UK and 3201 in India resulted in a Rotary Foundation grant of $8800 USD to make the project viable. The funding not only provided the equipment itself but the training of the medical staff who operate it.