Posted by Anne KING
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.

In 1985, Rotary International created PolioPlus – a program to immunize all the world’s children against polio. To date, Rotary has contributed more than US$1 billion and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than two billion children in 122 countries. Over 25 years our club has contributed a significant amount to the Foundation through the organisation of our Annual Paul Harris Fellow Breakfast. This year was no exception.

In the first six months of this year the main function of the Foundation committee in our club was the organisation of the breakfast. This year’s breakfast was attended by just over 280 Rotarians and friends from our district and we raised a record amount of $8,479. The guest speaker was Professor Patrick McGorry AO and his talk was on a 21st Century Approach to Mental Health Care.

The foundation committee has also been active in the Group Study Exchange Program. This is a vocational and cultural exchange between countries. Young professionals between the ages of 25 and 42 participate in a visit to an overseas Rotary district to get to understand how their vocation is different in a different country and at the same time become ambassadors for their own country. This Rotary year our club hosted a team from district 5230 (Orange Country in California) and also sponsored a participant in an exchange back to that district.