The Rotary Club of Arbury 

ROTARY SHOE BOX SCHEME

The Rotary Shoebox Scheme started in 1994 when boxes of gifts were sent at Christmas to children  in the city of Lasi, Romania.

Since then the scheme has grown throughout Britain and Ireland and tens of thousands of boxes have since been sent to children and families in many countries in Eastern Europe.

Arbury Rotary Club has supported this scheme for a number of years with boxes filled by Club members, friends and children from local schools.  The picture below shows John Mills, the Chairman of our International/Foundation Committee receiving 90 boxes from a local school for distribution before Christmas 2007.

The Arbury Club supports the Rotary Emergency Box and Aqua-Box  schemes and local schools are also invited to help with this work.

ROTARY YOUTH EXCHANGE

In recent years Arbury Rotary Club has been involved with young people via Rotary Youth Exchanges, Group Study Exchange teams and Ambassadorial Scholars.

The picture below shows three members of the recent Group Study Exchange team from  Mexico enjoying themselves at the Rotary district 1060 conference at Harrogate just before their return home.

The Arbury Club supports the Rotary Aqua-Box scheme and the Shoe-Box scheme and local schools are invited to help with this work. The full boxes are used overseas in very poor countries and in emergencies

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL POLIO PLUS CAMPAIGN

After 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all.

It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions. Any contribution will help Rotary raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere remain at risk. The stakes are that high.

The Rotary Club of Arbury in conjunction with Rotary Clubs throughout the world are working hard to make this dream come true.