Did You Know?  Facts about The Rotary Foundation.
 
 
Although relatively new to our club, Greg has been an active Rotarian for 22 years, including serving as president of the West University Rotary Club in Houston. Greg has participated in a trip to India, to help with administering vaccines for polio prevention. Effective vaccines were developed in the 1950's, and a number of countries have eliminated new cases of polio since the 1960's. 
But other countries around the world were still suffering from polio, and there were an estimated 300,000 new cases per year in the early 1980's. With Rotary's help, an effective global vaccination campaign began in 1988, and dramatically reduced the new number of cases each year. There are only a few new cases reported this year, and those are in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so the campaign has been highly successful.
 
Polio prevention is just one cause the Rotary Foundation supports. The Foundation has has spent over 4 billion dollars on life changing, sustainable projects since its inception.  There are seven main areas of focus:
 
1. Fighting disease around the world.
2. Supporting education all over the world.
3. Building peace.
4. Proving clean water and sanitation.
5.Growing local economies.
6. Saving mothers and children.
7. Protecting the environment.
 
Although the Foundation has a global reach, our club and many others benefit from district grants, which allow funds to be used in our community for local needs.
The Rotary Foundation has consistently achieved a four star rating by Charity Navigator, with only 9% of the money raised going to administrative costs.
 
Rotarians are encouraged to donate to this important and effective foundation. Donations go toward a Paul Harris Fellowship, which is recognition of cumulative giving to the foundation. Many Rotarians commit to a monthly or quarterly gift, which can easily be set up through Rotary Direct.