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.”