The Rotary Foundation provides Global Grant funds for humanitarian projects all around the world. In a typical year over 1300 grants are made, usually totalling around 86 million US dollars.These include the building of schools under a one of the so called areas of focus of the Foundation called Basic Education and Literacy.

.All the projects are carried out under the care of local Rotary clubs working in partnership with clubs in other parts of the world. In order to ensure that the grants are properly expended, the Foundation has a cadre of technical advisors with specialist knowledge who will, in normal times, visit the projects and examine all aspects, including workmanship, quality and financial management. The present Covid19 pandemic has meant that such visits have to be carried out remotely, using Zoom technology.

The City of Wolverhampton club has 2 members of the cadre. One is Richard Green who recently carried out a 3 hour ‘visit’ to a school being built by the Rotary Club of Sunyani Central in Ghana, in partnership with a number of clubs in the USA. He was helped tremendously by Dr. Zoya Kpamma, a lecturer in archtecture  at the building department of Sunyani Technical University who gave his services free of charge as he carried out the inspections on site.

The project, valued at 114,000 US dollars is on course to open in January 2021 when 185 boys and girls will begin to receive a much better standard of education, and employment will be provided for 6 teachers.

A great number of Rotarians and other partners have worked extremely hard to deliver a great job in Humanitarian Service!

19 year old Oliver Hall from Wolverhampton attended RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) in 2018 and I was his team’s mentor.

As with all the youngsters, we’ve stayed in touch, and I’ve been able to support him through Rotary contacts, in his firm aim to join the RAF as an Air Operations Control Officer – the military equivilant

of air traffic control. Having previously arranged for him to visit RAF Cosford ‘behind the scenes’ – a visit

which included a meeting with the station commander Group Captain ‘Tone’ Baker, we’ve been able to follow up with a visit to the School of Air Operations Control (SAOC) at RAF Shawbury, with the valuable assistance of Rotarian Les Goodchild.

During the visit, Oliver was able to try a computer based simulation that trainees complete. He also had long discussions with several of the trainers and ask many

questions to enhance his experience.

Oliver is a member of the District 1210 Alumni Association and has been

volunteering on the Books4Home project outside his working hours.

Oliver says “The few hours I spent at SAOC were extremely valuable and reinforced my desire to join the RAF as an Air Operations Control Officer. I can’t thank Rotary enough for making the visit possible and aiding me in the process of joining the RAF.”

PDG Richard Green

Celebrating its Centenary Year in 2021

The Rotary Club of The City of Wolverhampton zoomed into the history books on Tuesday July7th when two new lady members were welcomed into the club via Zoom. Forty seven members and guests were present on-screen as the welcome to the two ladies was accompanied by the introduction of the new President for 1920/21 former City Treasurer Brian Bailey.

Rotarian Katie Guest

Katie Guest, development manager at the Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford and Sally Woods, a community fundraiser at Compton Care are the first duo in the country, and probably the world, to have received a virtual welcome into Rotary International. Katie and Sally bring the total of women in the City Club to eight. A remarkable achievement when only twelve months ago there were no lady members.

Rotarian Sally Woods

The prestigious City Club will be celebrating its centenary in 2021with high profile events planned to celebrate the work that Rotary has undertaken, wherever it has been needed.. Sterling work was undertaken during World War 2, help has always been forthcoming at times of national and international disaster and today the City Club continues to be at the forefront of voluntary community service helped by funding from its massive Dragon Boats and Best Foot Forward events and the familiar Tree of Remembrance in The Wulfrun Centre at Christmas.

The Rotary Club of The City of Wolverhampton has recently spearheaded ‘Let‘s Talk Rotary and You‘. A campaign aimed at encouraging membership from men and women of all ages, where they can enjoy the true friendship engendered by giving something back to their community. The club Membership and Development lead is Jeremy Hobbs (07929 323606) and he would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like more information about becoming  a part of this ambitious club.

L-R Rotary District Governor Ken Wagstaffe, Past District Governor Richard Green,Mayor Councillor Claire Darke, and Alice Bennett.

I represented the club at the presentation of a trophy and cheque on behalf of Rotary in Wolverhampton to 18 year old saxophonist Alice Bennett who has been selected by the Wolverhampton Schools Music Service as the Young Musician of the Year.

The presentation, which normally takes place at the pre tour concert of the Youth Orchestra, was held in the bandstand at West Park in the presence of the Mayor Councillor Claire Darke, and the District Governor, Ken Wagstaffe – attending his first engagement of the new Rotary year.

Alice has just left Wolverhampton High School for Girls and hopes to pursue a career as a professional musician. In addition to playing the saxophone, she is an accomplished violinist and is the leader of the Youth Orchestra. She hopes to do a gap year carrying out voluntary work overseas before going to music college. She is currently doing voluntary work with our District Alumni Association on the Books4Home project.

PDG Richard Green

On behalf of Wolves Play Café I would like to say a huge thank you to the James Beattie Charitable Trust and The Rotary Club of City of Wolverhampton for your generous donation of £557.20 for the Play at Home Activity Packs Project.

The funds have enabled us to carefully develop and resource 20 Play At Home Packs which will be distributed by working with Low Hill Nursery School. They will support families with young children in the area by providing quality resources, books and activities to support playing and development of little ones at home at this challenging time. The funding also has provided the opportunity for the organisation to be able to reproduce the packs in the future to further support families and enable investment in Wolves Play Café’s accessible play opportunities across the city.

We have shared the project via social media and will be posting a short blog about the project including photos and testimonials on our website as well.
Thank you again for your contribution to supporting young children and caregivers in our city.
Kind regards,

Lisa Stallard
Co-Founder and Chair

Lisa Stallard, Co-Founder

e: info@wolvesplaycafe.org

w: www.wolvesplaycafe.org

fb: Wolves Play Cafe

tw: @wolvesplaycafe

News from the Foundation/International Committee.

At the end of the Rotary year, we had a small sum left in our budget spending allocation. The committee decided to add to our investments in the Lend With Care scheme, managed on our behalf by Richard Walton. This provides small sums on a revolving

loan basis for people in Third World Countries to set up and run their own minor businesses.

Currently we have 112 loans in action, with no bad debts. This has enabled us to help 313 individual or groups of entrepeneurs, leading to the support of 1077 family members and the creation of 188 jobs.

A typical recipient amongst several in the latest set of loans is 57 year old Blanca Oliva Chamba, shown in the photogra

ph who lives in Loja, Southern Ecuador. She was taught farming by her father and now grows lettuce, cabbage, coriander, onions, lemons and parsnip, earning her living by selling the produce locally. She has already repaid one loan in full and wishes to expand her business.

Richard Green