Major Success Stories
The club has had some major success in recent years in terms of International Service in encouraging schools and other organisations locally to donate money and humanitarian items of aid for the provision of Aquaboxes. This is a system of water filtration which will cater for a family of four for three months. These boxes are stored elsewhere in the UK and then dispatched worldwide to provide clean drinking water filtration and emergency items to the victims of disasters. These go to people who have been left with absolutely nothing and to whom even a cup of clean drinking water could be the difference between life and death.
Likewise the public by their generous support have enabled the Club to support the Shelterbox charity which again provides emergency aid for victims of disasters worldwide but this time by the provision of tents sleeping bags cooking utensils with small cooker and other basic survival equipment in addition to basic water purification equipment to cater for up to ten people.
Both the above charities are “in house” Rotary charities so administration costs are at an absolute minimum as the majority of the work is done by volunteers. This means that in excess of 90% of all donated money actually goes in humanitarian aid to help disaster victims. The integrity of the Rotary movement is held in high esteem by many people who support us as they know that the humanitarian aid will actually get to the people who are most in need as quickly as possible.
The generous public donations from people in and around Andover have enabled our club to provide emergency shelter for over 1,300 people in various parts of the world in the last few years as well as provide many thousands of litres of clean drinking water. Nationally donations enable over 500,000 people annually to be helped in this way. We are extremely grateful for this support to enable us to help others in need.
