Committees & Time Problems, Dirndls, Play Pumps, 16 Years of Palliative Care at Baragwanath & Polio, the Last Hurdle.

Last Week
It was a Committee Meeting meeting with feedback to the club.  For some committees it's fine but for Community Service and Youth it isn't really long enough and no doubt they will go back to having meetings after a Rotary Meeting.
The whole point of attempting to keep things within the framework of the meeting is really for those who have to go back to work on a Friday afternoon.

Thursday Evening at Schwabinger Stuben

Even though this is before our normal Friday meeting you'll only get pictures next week...any dirndl pics I wonder.
It's really an 18th century maids dress but now is often a fashion statement and now made of less coarse material.
Incidentally lederhosen is also peasant working clothes but it has been replaced for work by a material invented by a Bavarian who set up shop in San Francisco, Levi Strauss.



Play Pumps
Brian Leech's enthusiasm for Play Pumps is infectious.  We've already put in one this year and now he has found the need for a second one.

Keatlholela is a primary school 45 km east of Kuruman, in the North West. It has 187 learners and 7 educators. Water used to be accessed from a borehole at the school but the pump hasn’t worked for 2 years so water is obtained from the community borehole ONE day a week so the school has to send a donkey cart to fetch the water. The school also relies on rain water which currently is non est. Result, children become dehydrated in the hot weather and the school has to close early and send them all home.   
The advantage of sponsoring this PlayPump is that it is relatively close to the first one that has been installed at Koning PS and the 2 can be visited together in one trip.
As for the Koning PlayPump, the cost of this PlayPump, tank, piping and installation is also R125 000. It would be a great help to the school if it could be installed before the year end so that it will all be in operation in the New Year when the hot weather really sets in.

What fascinates me is Brian's ability to find the communities that really need these pumps where the water is also potable.  It conjurs up an image of him seeking out the driest parts of the country, visiting  them and then saying "What about a pump?"  It fits in very nicely with RI's Areas of Focus.

16 Years of Palliative Care.

James Croswell, Marianne Soal and Mark Franklin represented the club at this event last Friday morning at Chris Hani Baragwanath.  Many thanks for doing so.  Here they are with Dr Mpho Ratshikana-Moloko....I like the convenient staircase!

This Week
It's a social meeting....Mark Franklin is sergeant,.........try and bring some better jokes than his!

ROTARY’S WORLD POLIO DAY EVENT LOOKS AHEAD TO ENDING THE DISEASE FOR GOOD

Dennis Ogbe, Paralympian and polio survivor, tells his personal story of the disease at Rotary’s World Polio Day event on 24 October 2016 at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Photo Credit: Rotary International/Alyce Henson

While the fight to eradicate polio suffered a blow this year when the virus re-emerged in Nigeria, Rotary leaders and top health experts focused Monday on the big picture: the global presence  of the paralyzing disease has never been smaller.

The headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, served as the site of Rotary’s fourth annual World Polio Day event. Some of the biggest names in the polio eradication campaign were there to reflect on the year’s progress and discuss what’s needed to end the disease for good.

More than 200 people attended the special live program, and thousands more worldwide watched online. Jeffrey Kluger, Time magazine’s editor at large, moderated the event.

In a question-and-answer session with Kluger, CDC Director Tom Frieden talked about the latest developments in the effort to eradicate polio.

“We have the fewest number of cases in the fewest number of places in the world right now,” said Frieden. “We continue to make ground against polio, but we’re still recording cases in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.”

The total number of cases worldwide so far this year is 27, compared with 51 for the same period last year.

Unfortunately, Nigeria slipped back onto the list of countries where polio is endemic this year, after cases appeared in the northern state of Borno, which was under the control of Boko Haram militants until recently. The World Health Organization estimates that the virus has been circulating in the region for five years. The country was on the verge of celebrating two years without any polio infections.

But this hasn’t stopped Rotary and its partners, who are working with the Nigerian government, Chad, Cameroun, and parts of the Central African Republic, from executing a sweeping emergency response. Shortly after the outbreak, a robust immunization campaign targeted about 1 million children with both oral and inactivated polio vaccines.

“Because the new cases were only detected due to ongoing surveillance efforts,” said Frieden.  “We shouldn’t be surprised to see more cases, because better surveillance means better detection of all polio cases.”

Polio eradication efforts continue to make progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, cases dropped from 13 in 2015 to eight so far this year. In Pakistan, they decreased from 38 to 15.

Frieden cited innovative tactics for reaching children in Pakistan who were often missed in the past. These include placing permanent vaccination sites at entry points to the country, provinces, and large cities. Rotary has funded the purchase of cell phones for vaccination teams, so they can send data to health centers immediately.

“The virus is cornered, we just have to make sure never to let it out again,” Frieden added.

CELEBRITIES JOIN ROTARY’S GATHERING

Dennis Ogbe, a polio survivor and Paralympian athlete, told his personal story of survival. Ogbe contracted polio at age three at a clinic near his home in rural Nigeria while being treated for malaria.

Ogbe competed in the Paralympics in Sydney in 2000 and London in 2012. But he says the toughest challenge he’s faced is helping to rid the world of polio.

Shira Lazar, host of the show “What’s Trending,” gave a social media update during the live streamed event in which she announced that more than 3,000 World Polio Day events were happening around the world. In Pakistan, a huge End Polio Now message was illuminated at the Kot Diji Fort in the Khairpur district.

Video addresses came from Maryn McKenna, author and journalist, and new polio ambassador Jenna Bush Hager, chair of UNICEF’s Next Generation, a journalist, and an author. Hager’s father-in-law is a polio survivor.

Rotary, with support from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, also debuted a virtual reality presentation that transported attendees to the streets of India and Kenya, where they interacted with polio survivors and heard their stories.

“This is very good technology to put people in places where polio has affected so many,” says Reza Hossaini, director of polio eradication for UNICEF. “It’s important we see the places and people we are helping with our polio eradication programs.”

Earlier in the day, Frieden and Rotary International President John F. Germ announced major contributions to polio eradication. The Canadian government committed $10 million, and Michael Bloomberg, businessman, philanthropist, and former mayor of New York City, donated $25 million.

Rotary has contributed more than $1.6 billion to polio eradication since taking on the virus in 1979.

“We started this more than 30 years ago,” said Germ. “We’ve stuck with it all this time. And soon, we’re going to finish it.”

Paul Botes, Rotary Family Health Day, Roger Else gets stuck in, Committees and Haiti.

Last Week

As I surmised, Graham Pugin wasn't in a fit state to come and talk to us having been shot in the mouth with a rubber bullet but we had almost a gala lunch with Joan Sainsbury bringing Petra Oelofse and Paul Botes and his wife.

Mark Franklin, as chairman of the Arts Festival Committee, presented him with a certificate for the most paintings sold at the Rotary Arts Festival.

Friday was also one of the Rotary Family Health Days which meant that some of our members weren't present as they were 'tending the sick'.  Melodene and Ken Stonestreet gave us a run down on what they had been doing in conjunction with Morningside Club in Diepsloot the day before which was well organised and a tremendous turn out of people.  Melodene felt that two people's lives were saved because they had been checked at the clinic and were immediately packed off to hospital.  That in itself made it worthwhile.
In contrast Mark Franklin had a disappointing time in Ivory Park with Kyalami Club.  He didn't feel it was advertised properly as they had very few people turn up compared to last year.

In our club one of the requirements for membership is for a prospective member to help on a Rotary Project.



Roger Else wasted no time in doing his community service.  He kindly dedicated his Saturday
morning to helping Lebohang Sithole and Jan Tshikhuthula, co-founders of the newly established EditionVary Print Studio, at the Parkhurst Recreational Centre.  

Two things needed doing:

•  The delivery of a much needed metal cupboard for keeping valuable printing paper and other supplies under lock and key.  
• And the fixing of the entrance door to the studio for the added security of the Printing Press so generously donated to Edition Vary by the Club as part of its support to the arts community by developing a business development, training and educational project. 

This Week.
It's our Committee Meeting week.  I printed out a number of large labels to put on the tables relating to the committee.  Most of them vanished.  If you feel you need one, committee chairmen, just bring one along.  If you feel it is unnecessary, don't bother.

Rotary Careers Morning.
We have set the date for Saturday 25th February, 2017.  Last year we had 325 Grade 12's and this year we are anticipating a lot more and we have already added a number of extra vocations such as Printing and Physiotherapy.  Because we are anticipating greater numbers there will be food stalls and a number of 10 minute talks that learners can attend when they wish to.  Logistically it requires more careful planning because of numbers and we have already started.

Don't forget to book with me for Schwabinger Stuben next week, Thursday, 27th!

ROTARY AND SHELTERBOX ON THE GROUND IN HAITI

Staff from ShelterBox and the United Nation’s World Food Programme help unload a delivery of ShelterBox supplies at Les Cayes harbor in Haiti, where tents are likely to be used to help health professionals screen and treat cholera victims.

Photo Credit: Alexis Masciarelli

Even as parts of Haiti were still recovering from a catastrophic 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew tore through the impoverished island country 4 October, leaving hundreds dead and many more homeless.

The Category 4 storm affected an estimated 330,000 people in Haiti, including 6,400 who were moved to temporary shelters. Extensive damage to main bridges and other transportation networks have left some areas cut off and vulnerable. Torrential rains have resulted in flooding and landslides. And contaminated water supplies threaten to lead to a surge in cholera cases and other waterborne illnesses.

A ShelterBox response team of volunteers from Canada, England, New Zealand, and the United States traveled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, last week to assess the damage and decide how best to help people. ShelterBox, an independent charity, is Rotary's project partner for disaster relief.

Working with Rotary members, government authorities, and other relief agencies, ShelterBox is focusing on the cholera outbreak in the southern region of the island and emergency shelter. A shipment of ShelterBox supplies arrived in Les Cayes, in the south of Haiti, on Wednesday, which likely will be used to help health professionals screen and treat cholera victims.

"We hope to provide ShelterKits along with other crucial supplies like solar lights, mosquito nets, water purification units, and water carriers. All of which will help in the fight against cholera," says Chris Warham, chief executive of ShelterBox.

With wind speeds reaching 155 miles per hour, Hurricane Matthew is considered the worst storm to make landfall in Haiti in more than 50 years.

STORM'S PATH HITS UNITED STATES AND CANADA

The destructive path of the hurricane cut through communities in Florida, Georgia, and South and North Carolina, USA, and as far northeast as Nova Scotia, Canada, causing flooding, severe damage, injury, and death. Rotary members are working together to provide emergency supplies and help families find shelter.

"Rivers are still rising and expected to crest on Sunday," says Rusine Mitchell Sinclair, governor of District 7710 in North Carolina. "We'll work with our neighboring districts to provide relief once the flooding has peaked and we can get in to assess what's needed."

Human Trafficking, Youth Leadership Course, Fr Graham Pugin and Students Today, Schwabinger Stuben, Foundation Seminar and Polio raises its ugly head again in Nigeria.

Last Week

Philip Frankel gave us a rapid overview of Human Trafficking, not only in South Africa but also worldwide.  I think we were all startled by the huge numbers of people and the money involved.  40 000 sex workers in Johannesburg alone but not all have been trafficked.
Strangely his book isn't available in out local bookshops so you'll have to buy it from Amazon.

The Rotary Club of Rosebank Johannesburg Senior Youth Leadership Course

Gerry Bernardo slaved away at the braai.

The Weekend also saw the Rotary Youth Leadership Course run by Jean Bernardo and her team for 65 Grade 11's from a huge number of different schools, some public, some private, some township, some suburban.  The Course has been run by our Rotary Club for many years before RYLA was even thought about.

I spent quite a lot of time chatting to the various participants....I managed to at least say hello to everyone.  They all had a wonderful time, learnt a lot and met many new people of their own age.

Other Rotarians helped.

A number mentioned how difficult they discovered leadership actually is and all had really fruitful discussions amongst themselves, sometimes until the small hours.  I was told that this was the best thing of all.  The Course facilitated that and provided the space for it.

We as a Club owe a great debt of gratitude to Jean & Jerry Bernardo, Ann & John Hope-Bailie and Neville Howes for putting it all together and running it.....not just for this year but over a number of years.

There aren't any photographs of the Anns because they were busy preparing salads, buttering rolls and things like that.  I am sure we will have more photographs next week from Jean and Ann.

This Week
Our speaker should be Fr Graham Pugin SJ, a Jesuit.
He is an English scholar, national chaplain to Christian Life Communities and chaplain to the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg as well as being parish priest at Holy Trinity, Braamfontein. 

He joined the Jesuits after being one of the early conscientious objectors in 1979.
He studied in London and studied and taught English Philology at Oxford.   
He was going to talk to us about his involvement with students and the problems they face at the moment, at least I think he was.....but it might not be possible looking at this video which was taken in the churchyard at Holy Trinity on Monday.  The Church is on the Wits campus in Bertha Street.

Dinner @ Schwabinger Stuben Thursday 27th October.
I have sent out a notice about this and we have had some response already...don't forget to let me know!  If there are a lot of us I will negotiate a set price.

Foundation Seminar 19th November
I know it's a long way away.  I have already had one person who wants to go.  The Club always pays for members to attend courses as it's important that we keep up to date with changes  in Rotary and know what is happening at Rotary International.  Foundation is particularly important in its Centenary Year, especially as we hope to apply for another grant.

Our Treasurer, Kevin Wolhuter's mother died last week and the funeral is on Tuesday 11th October at 11 a.m at the Christian Community Church corner Dover and Pine streets FERNDALE.  Our condolences, prayers and best wishes to him and his family.

NIGERIA’S TOP HEALTH OFFICIAL VISITS ROTARY TO DISCUSS COUNTRY’S RESPONSE TO POLIO OUTBREAK

Nigeria’s health minister, Isaac Adewole, said on Friday that his government is determined to rid the country of polio again. New cases recently landed Nigeria back on the list of countries where the disease is endemic.

Adewole met with Rotary leaders at Rotary International World Headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA, to discuss Nigeria’s recent efforts to stem the outbreak.

All three of the country’s cases were detected in the northern state of Borno, which was under the control of Boko Haram militants until recently. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the virus has been circulating in the region for five years.

“The new cases devastated us. Even one case is unacceptable. It’s very unfortunate we are in this position, but we are recalibrating our efforts to end this disease,” Adewole said. “We consider this situation a national emergency.”

Shortly after the outbreak, the minister sent an emergency response team to Borno for an immediate and robust vaccination campaign targeting about 1 million children. More than 850,000 were immunized in the first five days of the campaign, according to Adewole. To reinforce the effort, the country is using both oral and inactivated polio vaccines.

Moreover, Nigeria established a task force to tackle other issues in Borno, including lack of clean water, sanitation, health, nutrition, and psychosocial disorder stemming from Boko Haram’s occupation. “Rebuilding Borno is a national priority,” he added.

Nigeria, with the help of Rotary and its polio partners, has already begun additional large-scale immunizations aimed at reaching 60 million children by December. Rotary released $8.5 million to support the response in high-risk areas and parts of the Lake Chad Basin.

Nearby countries including Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, and Niger are also coordinating vaccinations to protect their polio-free status.

Together, the five countries are conducting what Adewole called a “ringed fence” immunization. Inoculations take place along the countries’ borders.

“We can’t do this alone. Working with the other countries is crucial to the overall polio eradication in Africa,” he added.

In 2015, after Nigeria passed more than a year without any cases detected, WHO announced that it was polio-free and removed it from the list of countries where polio is endemic. Adewole admitted that the country stopped focusing on polio after the achievement. “We started the celebration too early. But these cases have awakened us, and we are now redoubling our efforts so this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

Adewole added that it will take sustained effort to be removed from the list again, including domestic and international financing, the commitment of thousands of health workers, and strategies that reach missed children. The government has allocated $300 million for the emergency response.

“Polio eradication is about national pride and honour,” he says. “We will not let our citizens or the world down.”

Human Trafficking and Boko Haram Refugees

Last Week
It was a Fellowship Meeting and there were a lot of jokes.  I think that the President should abstain from telling jokes completely.  Mark Franklin gave his apologies and we missed his endless supply.

This Week
It's good to have one of our prospective members talk to us before he has been inducted!  Philip Frankel is the former head of the department of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and is now a policy and development consultant specializing in organisational transformation. He has worked extensively with local, regional and central government in South Africa, including the presidential office under Mandela and his successor.  His latest book is "Long Walk to Nowhere - Human Trafficking in Post Mandela South Africa".....and that's what he is going to talk to us about.

Human trafficking is a global crime affecting countless victims around the world. Yet its actual scope remains a mystery. The methodologies used to arrive at estimates about its nature and extent have been widely criticised as  lacking in scientific rigour.

In South Africa, claims by anti-trafficking campaigners and NGOs include that 30,000 children are trafficked into the country annually as part of the sex trade. The same figure has been used by the Department of Home Affairs to justify recently introduced visa regulations aimed at combating child trafficking.

But this number has been discredited as “exaggerated and unsubstantiated”.

Human trafficking has become a focus of attention in the country following the introduction of the onerous and controversial visa requirements. In addition, a new act aimed at preventing trafficking is expected to be operational in the next few weeks. It defines trafficking to include the recruitment, transportation, sale or harbour of people by means of force, deceit, the abuse of vulnerability and the abuse of power for exploitation.

A statistical dilemma

But the absence of reliable statistics means that there is no clarity on just how big the problem is.

Inflated guesstimates continue to be used by those trying to stop the crime. But they create a credibility dilemma, detract from a constructive conversation and frustrate efforts to understand the multi-layered realities of the problem.

Notwithstanding the lack of reliable numbers, the problem is prevalent in South Africa. The number of cases being reported suggests it is on the increase. The situation may in fact be far more chronic and severe than we know.

It is well documented that South Africa is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking.

Philip's ongoing research draws on the experiences of role-players in counter-human trafficking. These include all the responding agencies including civil society, survivors and ex-perpetrators.

Preliminary themes highlight multiple accounts of undocumented cases, direct and indirect complicity by political elites and bureaucratic officials, the paucity of border controls, corruption and a culture of impunity.

This toxic concoction makes human trafficking an attractive business with high returns and low risk. For example, trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation is the most documented type of trafficking, locally and internationally. Yet none of the international syndicates dominating the sex trade have ever been successfully prosecuted in South Africa.

New Englanders, Nigeria clubs aid Boko Haram refugees

By Marty Peak Helman, District 7780 Foundation Chair

Children in a refugee camp in eastern Nigeria.

The American University of Nigeria (AUN) was co-founded by Rotarian Felix Obadan in 2000, and 12 years later, when Felix was governor of Rotary’s District 9125, which covers a large portion of Nigeria, he chartered the Rotary Club of Yola-AUN on campus. Their strong influence on campus makes it not surprising that many University professors and senior staff are Rotary members, and that the University prides itself on its work toward peace, entrepreneurship, and economic development as well as its strong academics.

The University’s mission is to graduate students prepared to take on the challenges in Nigeria and throughout West Africa – challenges of climate change, development, and peace building. And peace is not an abstract concept at the university. After all, it is located in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, in the region where Boko Haram is most powerful. In fact, those few dozen Chibok schoolgirls who escaped from being kidnapped by Boko Haram are now safely living at the University, where they are receiving social services and education.

Boko Haram has brought me to the American University of Nigeria as well. I am here as part of a team from Rotary’s District 7780 in New England to meet with the two Rotary clubs in Yola, and to visit Rotary projects including a camp for internally displaced families in flight from Boko Haram. It is our intention to see what we can do in terms of a global grant to help them.

Putting together a global grant will not be easy. The needs of the people living at the camp are immediate, and it is hard to think in terms of long-term sustainability. Food, for example, is a continuing problem. The men are agricultural workers and are eager to get back to working the soil, but even if they could rent land near to the camp, it’s hard for them to think ahead to next year’s crop. One non-governmental organization gave the men seed for planting, we are told, but because their children are hungry, the seed was promptly cooked and eaten.

The families at the camps – who are there because they have fled their villages for their lives – are living testimony of the need for us, their neighbors, to strive for peace.

Meanwhile, while they wait for political change, the women weave craft items to sell out of the plastic bags that litter the sides of the road, and the children – many of whom have been out of school for several years while their families have been on the run – attend a government school near the camp.

Still, I find myself very optimistic about being able to craft a global grant to help these families. After all, the Yola clubs know the camps intimately, and have both the contacts and the resources to understand what will work best. Our Districts – 9125 in Nigeria and 7780 in New England – have worked together for over a decade, with National Immunization Days, a Group Study Exchange, and both matching and global grants to our credit.

This is what Rotary is all about – developing relationships that span the globe and make possible long-term humanitarian change. And the families at the camps – who are there because they have fled their villages for their lives – are living testimony of the need for us, their neighbors, to strive for peace.