COWDENBEATH Rotary Club was praised on Thursday for its contribution to the Rotary Foundation charity movement.

The Rotary Foundation programme is funded by every rotary club in the world, who pay a levy per member and such is the work that has been done in recent years, the debilitating disease polio is close to being eradicated.

At Thursday’s meeting, District 1010 Foundation convener, Brian Johnson, explained how the contribution clubs make to the charity leads to a massive impact on people’s lives across the world.

“Foundation is a financial mechanism which is geared to helping community causes all across many countries,” said Brian. “Probably the biggest known impact of Foundation has been on tackling the polio issue which had seen millions of people crippled by the terrible disease.

“It is about 30 years ago that the End Polio Now campaign began, and such has been the progress that by 2023 only 12 cases had occurred that year, thanks to the immunisation programme the campaign has sponsored throughout the world.

“The work will continue until it is eradicated, but hopefully that will not be far away.”

Brian also pointed out Basic Education and Literacy, Community Economic Development, Disease Prevention and Treatment, Peace Building and Conflict Prevention, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, and Protecting the Environment were key elements of the Foundation programme.

“The work in these fields is making a huge difference to communities worldwide, but it could not be achieved without the work done to raise funding by clubs like Cowdenbeath," said Brian. “It is so important this continues, for millions of people have had their lives changed by Foundation projects.”

Cowdenbeath president John Gilfillan said that hearing the work done through Foundation was reassuring for the club members, and he was sure that the club would do its best to keep up its support for its work.