I travelled to a number of isolated villages inside Chin state, Burma cut off from the outside world, going deep into the jungle. Along the way I saw deep holes (sometimes as much as 2 meters deep) where villagers had dug deep into the ground and resorted to eating a type of tree stem/root “yam” called Tung/Bakô, because the rats had eaten all their other crops. Yet sometimes they could not retrieve the “yam” as large stones blocked the yam, so they would go hungry…

The Kusumpur Pahari Project is a two year revenue programme to fund fees for a range of basic educational and vocational courses for poor children in a slum area of Delhi.

It has a particularly focus on school dropouts, and supporting girls in the community. Steve Smith is looking to pull this £30,000 project together. Watford RC has pledged £3,000 and Steve has pledges from 4 overseas Districts. He is £5,000 short at present and hopes to find that with matching grant support in the next Rotary year.

A briefing paper has already been circulated to all Clubs, but if you would like to support this project, or require further information, do contact Steve Smith on 07976 744665.

The mission of Shelterbox is to deliver immediate relief to victims of natural and other disasters anywhere around the world. These include earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, floods, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and typhoons.

District 1260 has been a great supporter of Shelterbox (www.shelterbox.com ) since its inception and shortly before Christmas I attended a weekend seminar to set up a network of Rotary District co-ordinators.

By the time you get this Newsletter the Rotary Club of Stevenage with the Stevenage Borough Council Health Promotion, Stevenage Leisure Limited, Sport Stevenage will be well under way with organising their Health Awareness Day on 14th February 2009.  This is the third annual Health Action Day at the Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre and will be held from 10.00 am – 4.00 pm.