The previous laundry facilities.

The first load going through the new laundry.

City of Wolverhampton club President Richard Green has just completed another assignment, serving as Rotary Foundation Cadre Technical advisor on a $104,000 Global Grant project to construct and equip a new laundry for the perinatal/ maternity wing of the Gondar University Hospital in war-torn Ethiopia. Working in partnership with Rotary clubs in Del Mar near San Diego, California USA and the local club, Gondar Fasilides, a commercial sized washing machine, dryer, water purifier and autoclave in the new building were provided. Another vital member of the team was architect Rotarian cadre member Ron Pickford from Australia.

The hospital maternity staff were under severe difficulties because of the unrest in their country; virtual meetings and site inspections were often difficult to arrange.

A truly international team effort made possible by funding from the Rotary Foundation together with the goodwill of a large number of Rotarians across the world.

After a gap of 2 years, it’s great to be able to give our talented young people a chance to show off their musical and singing skills.

The Young Musician Competition  is part of Rotary’s commitment to provide a wide range of opportunities for youth. Everybody is welcome to come along and be thoroughly entertained by the performers’ incredible abilities.

Tettenhall Amateur Players (‘TAPs,’) is pleased to be presenting another wonderful night of entertainment for Rotarians, their friends and families. The posters say it all!!

Merridale Primary School are pleased to report the opening of their Community Larder.

Funds were provided by the Rotary Community Grants scheme to help families in urgent need.

Thank you to the school for providing such a service.

The Shoebox operation of 2021 has now been completed and on Friday December 3^rd all boxes were delivered to Shoebox HQ in Oldham.

As you can see from the photograph of the boxes in my garage prior to loading, we have managed to contribute this year a magnificent total of 314 Shoeboxes

Club Treasurer Derek Morgan with grandaughter Ella getting busy packing their shoeboxes.

Of those 314 Shoeboxes, over 70 were provided by Sylvia Morgan and Julie Hickman, who, along with their family and friends deserve this special mention as their contributions are really significant. They clearly both put an enormous amount of effort into filling so many boxes. New member Simon Love managed to procure many items suitable for youngsters which went toward the production of 40 Shoeboxes! Thank you Simon.

My friend Peter Kay from the Bethel Christian Fellowship in West Bromwich produced an also amazing 31 boxes and cash donations of £300 enabling me to fill a further 45 boxes on their behalf. So we give many thanks to them also. They are a busy Church but always find time to help those in need.

The remaining boxes were either given by our club members or in the most, their donations were sent to Treasurer Derek so that I could be ‘shopper of the month at Poundland. When applicable gift aid was added, I had just a touch over £1,150.00 to spend.

I spoke to Nigel Danby who is one of the organisers of the Shoebox scheme to ask how things were going and whether needs were being met by the scheme. He said that if they had double their annual total of over 50,000 boxes, it wouldn’t be enough!

There really is such a need still out there.

Our 314 boxes will bring great delight to many families in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.

So thank you-to everyone who contributed – this really is a wonderful scheme.

Mike Boyce.