A NEW campaign to help the Aids orphans of Africa was launched today by Rotary International of Britain and Ireland.

It is being supported by Jersey Rotarians, who have already planned a host of fund-raising activities to get the RIBI to its target of £1 million for orphans in Rwanda and South Africa.

Following the success of their long-running campaign to eradicate polio, which raised more than £5 million in Britain and Ireland between 2003 and 2004, the RIBI have teamed up with Homes and Hope for Children for a new campaign inspired by Gordon McInally, the president of RIBI, who visited Rwanda and South Africa last year and was spurred into action by what he saw.

The new campaign is called Rotary Africa Hope and aims in particular to help child-led families and Aids orphans in the two southern African nations.

The new campaign coincides with the visit to the Island of the Rotarian International president-elect, Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar, next Tuesday.

That evening he will be attending a reception at Government House in order to encourage support for RIBI’s new campaign.