It's a Business Meeting.
Last Week
Gordon Froud spoke about curating the South African collection for the Beijing Biennial. It was a fascinating talk because he not only discussed the artworks but also the restrictions that the Chinese insisted on as well as many entertaining personal anecdotes.He was able to visit other parts of Beijing as well and gave us interesting insights into China's capital.
He'll be back in the New Year to talk to us about the conference on Alice in Wonderland that he attended in Cambridge. He has about 3 000 photos of that and he has promised not to show us all of them!
Cancellation of the DG's Regional Dinner
This was scheduled for the 20th November with all 12 clubs in the region. DG David Grant has sensibly decided that this is too large an event to have any meaningful contact with club members and instead he will be attending a number of lunches including one of our normal Friday meetings at which we will also host the e-Club. Whether they will be present personally or virtually, I'm not sure. The date is Friday 27th November and more details will follow in due course. Fortunately the e-Club will only require a virtual lunch.
The Joburg Zoo at Night, 5th November
Lori Bramwell-Jones, who is organising this, has been without a landline or ADSL line for the last three weeks so she has been unable to receive emails.
The only way you can contact her is on her cell phone....see the Club Directory.
From Jean Bernardo
The Youth committee held another successful Senior Youth Leadership Course
from the 09 - 11th October 2015 for 62 participants from a diverse group of
schools in Johannesburg.
The participants meet at Bryanston High School where they are asked to sit
in a circle and introduce the person next to them. (This helps to break the
ice)
Richard then tells them about Rotary, the course and the 4-way test and Ann
then proceeds to divide the participants into 6 teams.
When they hear the good news " that they each receive R40 for the weekend"
to provide for all their meals they are stunned! This does mean that a team
has between R400 to R440 per team for food for the weekend as most teams
have 10 members per group.
They are even more shocked when we inform them that they have to provide for
2 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 2 dinners with the Saturday evening dinner being
a banquet which comprises of a starter, main and dessert!
They are also required to cater for specific dietary needs a team member may
have. We provided them with the basics such as tea, coffee, milk, sugar, oil, salt & pepper and juice for the weekend.
The teams then choose a team name and war cry if they wish and they
introduce their team to the rest of the course participants. They decide on
their menu for the weekend and after a snack and juice we take them across
the road to Checkers at the Bryanston Shopping Centre to do their shopping.
They get lunch prepared by the Anns and leave for Magalies Retreat by bus.
Tyron Sharnock is our course presenter and he as usual did a great job.
On the Sunday, the Rotarians go out to the venue and prepare a braai with
chicken, boerewors, rolls, potato salad and a green salad.
The bus then returns to Bryanston High School on the Sunday afternoon.
I wish to thank President Neville who goes out for the weekend as our
resident doctor to attend to any injuries.
Thank you Ann for sending out invitations, indemnities and making sure we
can have a successful course, Les for arranging Bryanston HS and Richard and
Noleen for being the chaperones for the weekend
.
On behalf of the committee I wish to thank the following members of the club
for their assistance on Friday and at the braai on Sunday:
Rotary Anns Margie Austin, Jean Colombo, June Virtue and Liz Short
Rotarians Jerry, Nicole, Merle, Pam and Jack, and John Hope-Bailie.
My committee - you are stars! Thank you.
LAUNCH PADS
On the third-largest island in Fiji, 17-year-old Asenaca Sepa dreams of becoming a nurse. Her classmate, Laisenia Kidia, wants to study marine biology. The teens are students at Bucalevu Secondary School on Taveuni Island. Its rich soil and abundant flora have earned it the nickname "the garden island." Waterfalls and breathtaking sunsets make Taveuni a travel destination, yet besides encounters with tourists, the islanders live in relative isolation. The government is the main employer; most other jobs involve unskilled agricultural labor. Only about 30 percent of students graduate from high school. About 10 percent go to university. Poverty and poor infrastructure limit access to advanced technology.
This lack of technology in schools worried members of the Rotary Club of Taveuni Island, who want to ensure students find employment or go on to college, says club member Geoffrey Amos. "We want them to go into the market with computer skills."
Working with Auckland University of Technology and the Rotary clubs of Newmarket, Botany East Tamaki, and Ellerslie Sunrise, New Zealand, Taveuni Island Rotarians launched a project to provide 70 computer tablets to Bucalevu Secondary School and nearby Niusawa Methodist High School. They received matching funds from districts 9920 and 9970, and partial funding from a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant. (Matching Grants have since been phased out; learn more about Foundation grants.
Rotary scholar alumna Kelsi Cox, a Canadian who studied in New Zealand, led a team that trained teachers and students how to use the tablets. "These small things hold a world of information, and can take these young people to places far beyond the classroom," she says.
The teens took to the devices immediately. "It's like having 100 textbooks," Sepa says. During the training, the group used a science app to study cell structure. "After looking at the pictures today, and at all the cells and definitions, I get a clear picture of what a cell really is," she notes. Kidia adds that what he's learning on the tablet will help prepare him for university.
The devices are preloaded with an array of educational apps, as well as tools for students to record songs and take videos, allowing them to document their lives and culture outside the classroom.
"It's what they need to empower their community so they can create positive changes for the future," Cox says. Those changes are already occurring: Amos reports that on 2014 achievement tests, students had higher pass rates than before. They also showed improved computer skills, which will help them continue their education or find jobs.
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