This month of November is Rotary International Foundation month, and the following is to advise Members of some of the work which Foundation does and why we donate to them.  The mission of Rotary  Foundation is to enable we Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the various programs whereby  we attempt to improve the health of the world, various programs which  Rotary Foundation supports various worldwide educational programs, and the attempted alleviation of poverty. Rotary Foundation through the subscriptions and donations we make. both as a Club and individuals, contribute to all of the programs above, and then our donations are also passed back to District on a 50% payback basis three years after our initial payment arrives at Foundation. From that Clubs can apply for District  Grants from the Foundation monies to assist re finance for our own local projects. Obviously District has limited funds to allocate for these Grants, but we wouldn’t even get to that stage of application for a Grant UNLESS we as a Club etc donate on a regular basis. An example of this method of gaining a District Grant occurred for our Club this Rotary Year when we successfully gained small grant monies for three Club projects such as River of Stories, a Memorial Stone and Seat to be fixed at browns Lagoon, and the recent Art Festival. For our international project  in Tanzania we also received a small grant to proceed with the improvements we wish to progress at Kitenden School in Tanzania. If we hadn’t donated in earlier years such Grants would not have been available to us, the Club. We all know how successful RF is in their program of End Polio Now, and beside the additional sponsorship of Bill Gates, the program was initially started  by RF, and was operating quite a few years before they gained the most welcome  additional financial support of Mr. Gates. None of this would be possible unless we as a Club and you as Individuals made donations to the Foundation. We as a Club have an annual RF collection whereby we seek to ask Members to donate $100 to the cause, and that the donation can be spread over three or four months should the Member so wish. The Club Board hope that you will make a donation in future months to the Foundation program.  Pete Lee … Club Director, Rotary Foundation