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Rotary Foundation Awards Matching Grant for donation of School Bus to Forest Town School for disabled children.
The Rotary Clubs of Sandton, Wil in Switzerland and Gelsenkirchen-Beur in Germany, have, together with a matching grant from the Rotary Foundation, raised R 752 000 to purchase a 47-seater bus for use by Forest Town School.
Forest Town, which recently celebrated its 60th birthday, is a special school in Johannesburg that caters for the needs of handicapped children. It operates 7 buses which collect children for school on a daily basis. The buses are between 18 and 20 years old and have each clocked up enormous mileages. They travel up to 290 km each day, and are becoming increasingly difficult to keep on the roads, a function of their age and mileage.
Erich Springer, who initiated the project, has also persuaded a number of others, including the bus supplier, Busmark 2000, to assist in making this project possible.
The bus will be modified with a wheelchair lift, special seating and seatbelts, to accommodate the special needs of the children.
Erich raised R339 000 through a number of sources, including a club raffle, money given for his 70th birthday and donations from a number of organisations and friends, including the Sandton Anns club. This was supplemented by R150 000 from overseas Rotary clubs and districts, and R263 000 from Rotary Foundation.
"This project demonstrates the power of Rotary through its worldwide links, and the value to Sandton club and the local community of working with overseas clubs to apply for matching grants. We have been successful with a number of projects matching grants to the value of about R1.5 million over the past few years", says Dudley Schnetler
Rotary International is an organisation of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. There are approximately 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide, in more than 160 countries. Further information at www.rotary.org
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Forest Town Bus Project
FOREST TOWN BUS HANDOVER - 2009 March
