Our Weekly Meeting

“Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”

We meet every Friday from 1:00 to 2:00pm at Wanderers Club, Illovo, Johannesburg. You can also join us on Zoom - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86496040522.

Monday 28 November 2016

The AGM, Our Global Grant Project, Rainbows & Smiles and the Importance of Recycling.

The AGM
Wanderers seemed to be bursting at the seams, parking was a problem and we were put in a room upstairs.  Despite these difficulties we managed to achieve a quorum and hold the meeting!  The minutes will be circulated in due course but will only be approved in a year's time.  There was quite a bit of discussion on lunch as there were insufficient sandwich orders for anyone to have any!  We also had a visitor, Nick Bell of the Rotary Club of Holt in Norfolk.  He, myself and David Bradshaw had lunch in the bar afterwards.  We all had lamb chops....and they were fantastic!  You really wouldn't think that they came out of the same kitchen as our lunches.....I should have photographed them.

Baragwanath Palliative Care Project


Donation of syringe drivers from Hatfield Rotary Club and pack of bed linen from Rosebank Rotary Anns.
On Monday 21st November our visitors from the Rotary Club of Hatfield went to Baragwanath to see our joint RI Global Grant  Project in action.  They visited the Renal Unit as well as visiting a patient in his own home.  Thanks to the project he is able to be at home rather than take up a hospital bed.
President Mukesh Patel, Rotary Club of Hatfield, Magdalina Selepe who sewed the sheets, Dr Mpho Ratshikana-Moloko, PP Frank Taylor (Hatfield) and  Project Leader James Croswell Rotary Club of Rosebank, Johannesburg.

LIVING AND DYING IN PAIN: IT DOESN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN”

This year’s World Palliative Care theme is : ‘Living and Dying in Pain: It doesn’t have to happen’
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South Africa has a high number of chronically ill patients either suffering from severe pain or dying a painful death due to the lack of appropriate pain management programmes.  Hatfield Rotary Club has assisted in creating a pain-free journey for many patients at  Chris Hani Baragwanth Hospital through the provision of 73 palliative syringe drivers donated (valued at R1.4 million) which control pain and other distressing symptoms of terminally ill patients. 
These programmed injection devices provide relief by delivering a prescribed quantity of medicine over time to critically ill patients, without the need for constant nursing attention. Rotarian Marianne Soal of Rosebank ensured that the syringe drivers were fully serviced.

This Week
Our speaker is Bonita Suckling of Rainbows & Smiles.
We are a small NPO that was started in 2008 by Bonita Suckling after her own son, Jed Brady Thomas, was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 3. She saw what families go through while in treatment and realised there was a need that she could fulfil since she had lived the journey herself.
Sadly Jed passed away on 11 July 2011 after a brave 3 year fight (he was initially given 6 months). We assist families that are fighting childhood (0 to 16 years) cancer with emotional and financial support. We will pay medical bills, buy food vouchers, pay for petrol money, etc as when cancer strikes usually the mother cannot work any longer as the child requires 24/7 care. We also spoil kids while in treatment and support mom’s after a child has passed. We do also have a programme where we spoil the ‘forgotten’ siblings as when a child has cancer understandably the parents attention is usually focused on the sick child.
The organisation is run by 6 ladies from their homes - only Bonni does this fulltime, the rest of us have fulltime jobs so we squeeze in what we can at night and on the weekends! We have a great Facebook page and we are on Twitter too.

THE ROTARIAN CONVERSATION WITH ANNIE LEONARD

What did you throw away today? Have you thought about it since? Annie Leonard has. Leonard spent more than a decade thinking about your trash and following it around the world. She has toured landfills and testified to the U.S. Congress regarding international waste trafficking. That work, plus a dozen more years studying environmental issues, inspired her to create a series of films about the things we use every day, yet wouldn’t think worthy of a film: our stuff.  
Since The Story of Stuff launched online in 2007, it has been viewed more than 50 million times online and millions more times in classrooms, churches, and conferences. It has been on national TV in at least three countries and translated into dozens of languages. Leonard has been contacted by college students who decided to study environmental issues after seeing The Story of Stuff in high school, and she has heard from newlyweds who included a link to the film on their wedding invitations to explain why they did not want any gifts. “It launched years ago, and still almost every day I get email and Facebook messages from people all over the world,” Leonard says. “The metrics show that it is the most watched online environmental film to date.”
Leonard’s film and book (of the same name) launched a movement that has the public rethinking their consumption. It continues today at storyofstuff.org with a million members – and several more films, including The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Electronics, The Story of Citizens United v. FEC, among others. Leonard is now the executive director of Greenpeace USA – the same organization that sent her around the world to track our trash nearly two decades ago. She spoke with contributing editor Vanessa Glavinskas from her San Francisco office.
THE ROTARIAN: How did you get started in this work?
LEONARD: I grew up in Seattle, which is a very environmentally aware place, and I spent a lot of time camping with my family in national and state parks. I loved being in the forest when I was a kid. At the time, I didn’t know about the critical role that forests play in maintaining our global climate. There was just something about being in the forest that made me feel peaceful and connected. But I went to college in New York City, where there is garbage everywhere. I became mesmerized with the amount of garbage I passed every day as I would walk home from my classes. There would be piles of garbage as high as me. So I started looking in the bags, and I saw that it was almost all paper – paper made from those forests that I loved and wanted to protect. Then I took a trip to the local landfill to see what was happening to this waste, and that experience changed my life. I would suggest Rotary clubs organize a trip to a landfill to see the other side of our consumer society. Most landfills offer public tours. It is a stunning thing to see. I saw food and books, furniture and clothes and stuffed animals. I was totally flabbergasted. I didn’t realize until that moment that we had built our entire economic model on this massive amount of waste.
TR: When did you begin following waste around the world?
LEONARD: First I finished college and went to graduate school, all in New York, and then I got a job at Greenpeace. I started in 1988. This was at a time when a lot of people in the United States were getting concerned about waste and demanding an end to incinerators and landfills. Greenpeace was advocating for a redesign of packaging and processes to reduce waste. But some companies really wanted to keep doing business as usual, so they started putting their waste on ships and sending it around the world and paying, or sometimes lying or tricking or sneaking, to dump it on Third World countries. I spent the next eight years traveling around the world tracking our waste. I saw our trash in places such as South Africa, Haiti, Indonesia, China, and India.
TR: What startled you most about what you saw?
LEONARD: How unnecessary it all is. I think people look at pollution and think, well, pollution is the price of progress. Or, well, I’m not going to stop driving, so what right do I have to say anything? But we could transition our entire economy to safe materials and clean energy within 10 to 20 years, depending upon which plan you look at.
TR: How could we achieve that in 10 to 20 years? What would be the key steps to make it happen?
LEONARD: One of the first steps is to demand government leadership. Right now, because of the way that our elections are financed and some recent Supreme Court decisions, big corporations are allowed enormous influence in our democracy. So one of the things that we have to do is reduce that influence. A second thing we need to do is start transitioning to clean energy. It’s not fair to tell individuals to stop driving, because the way our communities are set up, we have to drive. But what we can say to our government is we want to see every possible effort put into clean energy. Other countries are leaving us in the dust, and I think people don’t realize this. On clean energy, we are rapidly becoming the global laggards.
TR: Much of this is at the government level. Is there anything individuals can do?
LEONARD: Right now we are consuming more things than the planet can replenish each year. We have a voracious demand for cellphones and clothing and disposable silverware. We simply have to slow down the amount of stuff that we use, and there are lots of opportunities to do that in this country for most people. Not everybody; there are still kids who go to bed hungry every night and people who don’t have heat. Some people do need to consume more – but many of us need to consume less. It’s not about being a martyr, but about asking yourself if you could use your old one a bit longer or borrow something from a neighbor instead of buying it new.
TR: We’re approaching the holidays. This is prime time for people to consume things they don’t need. How do you handle the holidays?
LEONARD: There is so much pressure to blindly consume in the holidays, and the truth is no one loves going to a crowded mall and buying something for someone because you feel obligated. In my family, we each pull one name at Thanksgiving, and that is the only person you buy a present for, except for the children. You can buy presents for the little kids. When I buy only one adult present, I have time to think about it and really put my mind to it. We also have a $25 limit.
TR: You talk about the idea of planned obsolescence in The Story of Stuff and items like cellphones. Even if you don’t want a new phone, you have to buy one to get the latest features.
LEONARD: It’s incredible. The average life of a cellphone right now is about 16 months. My mom had the same telephone my entire life, the same toaster. We know it’s possible to make stuff that lasts. I’ll give you a project idea to share with your members. All those old phones and tablets and computers, they call it e-waste, and it’s the fastest growing and most hazardous part of our municipal garbage stream. All of these phones and laptops have little bits of lead and cadmium and mercury and other toxic chemicals. People don’t know what to do with this stuff, so they often just store it in their garage. Or they put it in the garbage can or they give it to a recycler. The problem is a lot of recyclers send this stuff to Third World countries. The way to make sure that your recycler isn’t doing that is to make sure it is certified by e-Stewards (www.e-stewards.org), a program that follows strict standards of social and environmental responsibility. A great Rotary club project would be to host an e-waste recycling drive in your community and make sure it’s given to a recycler that is e-Steward certified to prevent it from getting in landfills, incinerators, or dumped overseas.
TR: Many people have good intentions. Yet, in reality, one person’s lifestyle change doesn’t solve the problem. How do you respond to that argument?
LEONARD: There’s another benefit to recycling, getting solar power, riding your bike – and that is how good it makes you feel to bring your values and your actions into alignment and demonstrate to other people that there is another way to live. It’s impossible to live eco-perfectly in today’s world. The better thing to do is get friends together and work to make changes so that it’s not so hard to live eco-perfectly. We have to change the context around us so that doing the right thing becomes the cheapest, easiest thing to do.
TR: What’s the most important eco-friendly thing you do in your day-to-day life?
LEONARD: I compost. Composting is important because all that organic material – your food scraps, your yard waste – if that goes into the regular garbage and into the landfill, it creates methane gas. So, composting your table scraps, which you can easily do in your backyard, does help to reduce greenhouse gases. The other thing is to advocate for a municipal composting program in your area. My city has compost pickup along with the garbage and recycling pickup. The city [of San Francisco] picks it up, composts it, and returns it to the soil.
TR: That makes it easy.
LEONARD: You know what gets people to recycle? Having a recycling program in their city. That’s it. It’s not nagging them all the time; it’s making it easy. So you could focus totally on your own individual actions and try to compost perfectly, even when it’s freezing cold. Or you could get a bunch of people together and write to the city and say we want a municipal composting program.
TR: Advocating for change is something Rotarians are very good at and have a lot of practice doing.
LEONARD: Also, Rotarians have a lot of credibility in the community. People know that they are good, upstanding, engaged citizens. So if you can bring that credibility that you have earned through decades of good work, if you can bring that to say we want our city to do more to promote solar energy, or we want our city to do more to combat waste, it would be an incredible asset.
TR: Rotarians support humanitarian projects all over the world. But given the dire ramifications of climate change, are other humanitarian efforts in vain?
LEONARD: I have two thoughts. One is that we all need to work on whatever excites us because we want to enjoy our lives. You have to find the right match between what the world needs and what your passion is. The other thing is that these things are all connected. Clean water and sanitation are absolutely connected to climate. So is basic education and literacy. Even your work in peace and conflict resolution; if you talk to military analysts today, they all say that one of the biggest sources of conflict looking forward is environmental – climate change, drought, wildfires, contaminated water. That forces migration and creates conflicts.
TR: Last year, a group of Rotarians formed an official environmental sustainability action group. Do you have any advice for them?
LEONARD: It’s important to remember to talk to people where they’re at. Often people who are concerned about the environment get so excited – and in our enthusiasm and urgency, we inadvertently push people away. Let me be clear, the data absolutely merit being urgent. But we have to remember that if we want people to join us in this work, we need to be inviting and inclusive. For example, some people will want to organize a protest at city hall, while other people would rather provide the child care for the people doing the protesting. Some people would rather do the scientific research. To build a movement, we have to welcome all kinds of people. Also, make sure it’s not all gloom and doom. It’s often hard with the environment – because so much of the information is so depressing – but many environmentalists have been gloom and doom for a long time, and people don’t want to work with us if we’re always like that.
TR: That’s an interesting point. You’ve worked in this area for decades. How do you stay enthusiastic?
LEONARD: When I go to a new place, I look for people doing something to promote a solution. There are chemists who are redesigning chemicals from the molecular level to design out the hazard. There are architects who are figuring out how to build buildings to be energy generators instead of consumers. Everywhere, there are people working on solutions, and that really feeds my hope that we will figure out how to have a sustainable, healthy, and fair society.
TR: Is there anything else you would like to tell Rotary members?
LEONARD: I know there are a lot of business leaders in Rotary. One of the greatest things they can do is join with other business leaders and CEOs to be a voice for positive change. There’s a great organization called the American Sustainable Business Council. It’s a group of businesses that realize that there is no business on a dead planet and that it’s in their interest to figure out how to run businesses in a healthy way. They’re doing all kinds of work to support the politicians who want to take action, such as Congress members who want to help transition to a clean energy economy. The American Sustainable Business Council provides a forum for businesspeople to learn and then take action together.

Monday 21 November 2016

Welcome Philip Frankel, the Hatfields, Human Trafficking, our AGM and Rotary Foundation Centenary Celebrations...and More!

Another New Member



We all welcomed Philip Frankel to our club last week.  You may remember that he spoke to us a few weeks ago on his latest book on 'Human Trafficking in Southern Africa since 1994'.  Here he is being 'pinned' whilst his sponsor, Neville Howes, looks on.

We have now reached our target for the end of June 2017 of 40 members.  Our thanks to all those who have been instrumental in bringing new people into the club.  Let's see how many more we can bring in during the next 6 months






The Hatfields
Marianne Soal (Rosebank) President Mukesh Patel (Hatfield), PJS, James Croswell (Rosebank Project Chairman), Neville Howes (Rosebank), Frank Taylor (Hatfield) and Sujata Patel (Hatfield).  Absent: Mark Franklin (Rosebank). 

What a pleasure it has been to have hosted President Mukesh Patel, his wife Sujata and PP Frank Taylor of the Rotary Club of Hatfield, England.  Many thanks to Shirley Eustace for hosting and Melodene Stonestreet for organising an enjoyable "Bring & Share' Lunch on Saturday.  It was a most enjoyable occasion.
Whilst I am writing this they are visiting the Palliative Care Project at Baragwanath Renal Unit and visiting a patient who has been able to return home thanks to the success of the project and the syringe drivers that Frank Taylor has sourced in the UK and the Rotary Foundation Global Grant where we are partners.
Here are the Rotarians involved in the project with the exception of Mark Franklin who ran out of the door quickly before the photo was taken.  Mark has been responsible for all the financial aspects of the project, much of which has been very difficult and time consuming.

Human Trafficking - Rotary Club of Bedfordview
Bedfordview have sponsored the production of a video on Human Trafficking which they will be showing at their meeting on the evening of Tuesday 29th November.
Jean & I will be going so just let me know if anyone would like to join us.
I will certainly mention Philip and his book on the subject.  There may be a way we can cooperate as clubs.

This Week
It's our AGM and I have written about it in my capacity as President.....look left!

Rotary Foundation Centenary Celebrations
The District is planing a major donors evening which will not really involve us as it is aimed at donors rather than Rotarians.  The Region is planning a party...not a fund raiser.  I am on the committee for that and it meets for the first time this Tuesday.

The Board decided that we should have our own function which would take the form of a Paul Harris Dinner.  This would have the advantage of taking some presentations away from the Induction Dinner where the formal side is too long.  We are waiting for the Region's date before we set ours.




ROTARY FOUNDATION NAMED WORLD'S OUTSTANDING FOUNDATION FOR 2016

Photo Credit: Rotary International/Alyce Henson
The  has recognized The Rotary Foundation with its annual Award for Outstanding Foundation.
The award honors organizations that show philanthropic commitment and leadership through financial support, innovation, encouragement of others, and involvement in public affairs. Some of the boldest names in American giving — Kellogg, Komen, and MacArthur, among others —are past honorees.
“We are honored to receive this recognition from the AFP, which gives us even more reason to celebrate during our Foundation’s centennial year,” says Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Kalyan Banerjee. “The continued strong support of Rotary members will help us keep our promise of a polio-free world for all children and enable the Foundation to carry out its mission of advancing world understanding, goodwill, and peace. We look forward to another 100 years of Rotary members taking action to make communities better around the world.”
The announcement came on 15 November, known to industry professionals since the 1980s as National Philanthropy Day. The award will be presented in early 2017 at the AFP’s annual conference in San Francisco.
Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair-elect Paul Netzel is set to accept the award on Rotary’s behalf, and Eric Schmelling, director of fund development at Rotary, will speak at the conference. The event is expected to draw more than 3,400 senior-level fundraising professionals from 33 countries.
“While almost everyone is familiar with Rotary, not everyone may realize just how much of an impact Rotary and The Rotary Foundation have had on countless people and communities across the globe,” says Jason Lee, AFP president and CEO. “On behalf of the entire charitable sector and people around the world, all of us at AFP are honored to be able to recognize The Rotary Foundation as our 2016 Outstanding Foundation.”
AFP’s committee of judges cited Rotary’s comprehensive campaign to eradicate polio as a major driver of the selection. They also mentioned that Rotary applies a methodical, purposeful approach to support a wide variety of causes, from providing clean water to educating the next generation of peace professionals.

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Khulisa, Hatfield, Facebook, PlayPumps & Annemarie Mostert at the UN.

Last Week 
Lesley Anne van Selm, the founder of Khulisa Social Solutions spoke to us about her organisation.  She seems to have achieved a lot but the main emphasis of her talk was asking for mentors for individuals and, of course, money, which is not really a good approach for any Rotary Club.

She didn't bring a laptop so she was unable to show her presentation.  You may remember that we were told that speakers must use their own laptops as there is always a chance of a virus if a memory stick is used on another laptop.

This Week
It's the Rotary Club of Hatfield people. President Mukesh Patel and his wife Sujata as well as Frank Taylor who has a long association with our club through Brian Leech.  Our meeting will be very informal and there will be no long speeches.  The intention is for our guests to circulate, or for us to circulate so that everyone has a chance to chat to them.
Saturday sees a Bring & Share lunch at Shirley Eustace's home starting at about 12,30.  Please try and come.  I know it clashes with the Foundation Seminar and a couple of other things but we do need to entertain our guests.  The idea of the lunch is that anyone can call in, for no matter how short a period, as we are a not waiting for anything to come off the braai!  Don't forget that you will need to bring liquid refreshment.  Please contact Melodene Stonestreet to confirm your attendance.

The Hatfield people will be visiting our joint Global Grant Project at Baragwanath on Monday.

Our Facebook Page
You will see that Jean Bernardo has posted an interesting piece on our Centurion College Interact Club.  The point about Facebook is that it is instant and you have an immediate response.  It is a very powerful medium.  The problem with it is that you have to keep it up.  It requires no effort so please do add something or ask me to add it on your behalf.

PlayPumps
The Board approved the installation of a second PlayPump at Keatlholela Primary School in the Northern Cape which is currently being installed. This is the second pump that we have installed this year.

The PlayPump was invented in South Africa by Ronnie Stuiver, a borehole driller and engineer, who exhibited it at an agricultural fair in 1989.  Trevor Field, an agricultural executive, saw the device at the fair and licensed it from Stuiver.  Fields installed the first two systems in KwaZulu-Natal in 1994, and began receiving media attention in 1999, when Nelson Mandela attended the opening of a school which had a PlayPump. 

There was tremendous enthusiasm for PlayPumps on an international level but it is only in South Africa that they have been really successful owing to continuing maintenance and an understanding of their limitations.  Elsewhere in Africa water has not been properly tested prior to the drilling of a borehole, lack of maintenance and corrupt practices have given PlayPumps a bad name but here they are encouraged by the Department of Water Affairs and they are properly maintained.

Rotary @ the UN.....Annemarie Mostert of the Rotary E-Club of Southern Africa

ROTARY-UN CELEBRATION MIXES BUSINESS WITH DIPLOMACY

The Rotary Responsible Business honorees are, from left: Jean-Paul Faure, Stephanie Woollard, Mercantil Banco Universal representative Luis Calvo Blesa, Larry Wright, Annemarie Mostert, Suresh Goklaney, and Coca-Cola Pakistan representative Fahad Qadir. (Not pictured: Juan Silva Beauperthuy.)
Photo Credit: Monika Lozinska/Rotary International
Outside the United Nations building in midtown Manhattan stands an imposing sculpture of a man wielding a sword in one hand and raising a hammer with the other. It reflects a shared goal that Rotary and the United Nations celebrated at the organizations' annual meeting on Saturday, 12 November: to use our strengths and tools to build a more peaceful and just world.
The theme of this year's Rotary Day at the United Nations, "Responsible Business, Resilient Societies," emphasizes Rotary's role as a global network of business leaders using the tools of their trades to build stronger, more prosperous communities.
In his introductory remarks, Rotary International President John F. Germ drew the crowd's attention to the statue, "Let Us Beat Our Swords Into Ploughshares," as he set the tone for the day, which included breakout sessions and keynote addresses on aspects of responsible business, or the philosophy that for-profit enterprise can contribute to positive social and economic development.
"Here is where the UN and Rotary International are working side by side, equipping communities with the tools they need, and empowering them with the will to use those tools far and wide," he said.
Per Saxegaard, founder and chairman of the Oslo-based Business for Peace Foundation, gave a keynote address on the complex relationship between business and broader society, marked by both tension and opportunity. Despite the perception that profit alone motivates enterprise, he says, commercial success and social progress are closely intertwined.
"Societal needs define markets," he said. "I have met many entrepreneurs in my career, and they all have one thing in common: They see a problem, and they say 'I can fix that, and I can do it cheaper and better.' That is the engine of innovation in business. We need that energy to solve the problems at hand," such as hunger or illiteracy. He pointed to the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN's ambitious roadmap for eliminating poverty by 2030 and highlighted the opportunity for businesses to help achieve them.
Other speakers included UN Under Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Kim Won-soo and UNICEF polio chief Reza Houssaini, who provided an update on the polio eradication campaign.
John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International, introduced eight Rotary Responsible Business honorees, six individuals and two corporate partners whose inclusive business practices are bringing employment, mentoring, education, and innovation to their communities.
The individuals honored were:
• Juan Silva Beauperthuy, Rotary Club of Chacao, Venezuela: For 25 years, Beauperthuy has helped keep disadvantaged youths on the right track through Queremos Graduarnos, an education program focused on mentoring and skill development, with support from his engineering firm. Today, the program serves more than 700 students in 18 schools.
• Jean-Paul Faure, Rotary Club of Cagnes-Grimaldi, France: To encourage young professionals and provide promising new businesses with training and funding, Faure launched a business contest called Le Trophée du Rotary. Now in its seventh year, the program has drawn support from a major bank and has kept past participants involved as mentors.
• Suresh Goklaney, Rotary Club of Bombay, India: Goklaney, executive vice chair of a large manufacturer of UV water purification systems, has led efforts to provide clean water in rural villages and impoverished urban areas throughout India. The project has also established centers where local women can sell clean water to generate income.
• Annemarie Mostert, Rotary Club of Southern Africa, South Africa: Mostert formed Sesego Cares, a Johannesburg-based nonprofit, in 2005 to offer education and job training, and to teach entrepreneurship and leadership development to women and children. She also worked with TOMS Shoes to provide 1.3 million pairs of its shoes to the country's poor.
• Stephanie Woollard, Rotary Club of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: After meeting seven illiterate craftspeople during a visit to Nepal, Woollard founded Seven Women to help Nepalese women make products to sell abroad. The program, which has trained and employed more than 1,000 women in the past decade, also teaches basic bookkeeping and computer skills.
• Larry Wright, Rotary Club of Taylor, Michigan, USA: A master gardener, Wright started his landscaping business with a bank loan in the 1970's. In 2013, he led an effort to adapt a microfinance model that had succeeded abroad to offer microloans, business classes, and mentorship to entrepreneurs in Detroit.
The business partners honored were:
• Coca-Cola Pakistan has supported the Rotary Pakistan National PolioPlus Charitable Trust since 2010 to promote polio prevention and awareness, particularly through publicity and projects to provide clean water, in one of the few countries where polio remains endemic.
• Mercantil Banco Universal supports a project that has trained 6,000 students in 40 universities across Venezuela in social responsibility and leadership, with the goal of encouraging students to use their academic knowledge to respond to the challenges of under-served communities.
In the afternoon, Rotary member Devin Thorpe spoke about the intersection of profit and purpose. Infusing a corporate program with a sense of social purpose pays off, he says, because it breeds loyalty and satisfaction among both customers and employees.
"When a purpose program is profitable, there is no limit to the good that can come from it," he said. "Corporations are made up of people. We in this room bear the responsibility to shape corporate behavior, it is up to each one of us."
Watch video coverage of the event on .

Monday 7 November 2016

Welcome to Our New Rotarians, Khulisa Social Solutions, Entertaining Hatfield Rotarians and Polio Again.

Last Week
Damian Lahoud gave us an impassioned talk about Rotaract as the source of future Rotarians.  He is obviously a great evangelist for Rotaract.
James Croswell (Sponsor) and Jeannette Horner

We also welcomed Jeannette Horner into the club....last week we welcomed three other new members but I was unable to download the pictures......so a belated welcome to Patrick Ache, Roger Else and Cuthbert Gumbochuma.

Patrick Ache, Roger Else & Cuthbert Gumbochuma surround a tiny Club President
This Week
Our guest speaker is Lesley Anne van Selm, the founder of Khulisa Social Solutions.

Khulisa has adopted a systemic approach to community development. It recognises that the typical approaches of governments and NGOs compartmentalise problems and deliver programmes which tend to address single issues in a non-cooperative and unsustainable manner. In response Khulisa has developed an approach which aims to address the challenges faced by communities in a more holistic and comprehensive manner. It aims to identify the systemic challenges in the society and community, and to overcome fragmentation of policy, systems and delivery through the mobilisation of local capacity. This approach requires that Khulisa develop a thorough understanding of the policy and operational challenges in service delivery, as well as understanding the socio economic, safety and developmental challenges experienced by people living in the community. Based on this understanding, Khulisa works collaboratively with multiple stakeholders to identify key projects which would have the highest impact in the system and which would demonstrate social change.
When turning to the requirements for building safer communities, the NDP call for the development of an effective strategy that takes into account the interrelated factors contributing to lack of safety and crime. These include the underlying root causes, such as poverty, inequality, unemployment and various motivations to commit crime; lack of social cohesion, inadequate care of children and a failure to accept and internalise ‘good’ societal norms; and the need to address the factors which create a vulnerability to victimisation – such as situational crime prevention measures.
For more information go to their website

The Hatfield Visit
Hatfield House
Frank Taylor, Mukesh Patel, the President of the Rotary Club of Hatfield and his wife Sujata will be visiting the Baragwanath Project next week.  They will be sharing lunch with us on the 18th and on Saturday the 19th Shirley Eustace has agreed to allow the Club to have a social event to chat to them properly.
We will meet at her house, 10, Wexford Ave, Westcliffe, and, rather than have a braai we will have a selection of salads,cold meats etc........a Bring & Share Lunch.  I have asked Melodene Stonestreet to coordinate this.  Lyn Collocott will be sending out a notice so that we know how many are coming.  Shirley has plenty of tables and chairs so we have no need to bring anything except our share and ourselves.

The Makro Project 3rd/4th December
John Symons has already sent out a roster for this.  I am sure that we will have little difficulty filling it for one weekend with shorter shifts required than in the past.

Rotary Careers Morning
As you will see we have changed the date to 4th March, 2017....Mark Potterton remembered it was half term!


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  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.”

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Rotaract, Interact, Visit by the Rotary Club of Hatfield and Shelterbox ready for Mosul Refugees.

Last Week
It was a social meeting followed by the Board Meeting.  The Board asked me to speak to Silversale about the usual lunch chaos.  I have done so but without any satisfactory result.
The alternative is to have platters of sandwiches on the tables but this would need everyone paying a set amount whether they eat or not otherwise it will be far too difficult to control as we never know how many people are going to order food.
I do recommend that you get your drinks from the bar before the meeting. Our waiter's primary responsibility is the Pizza Deck and that takes priority so if it's busy up there we will come a poor second.




This Week


Our speaker is Damian Lahoud, the District Rotaract Chairman.  He is Continuous Improvement Manager for McCormick South Africa and was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Sweden where he studied applied ethics.  He has done a very good job promoting Rotaract in the District.

Rosebank used to have a Rotaract Club many years ago, Roger Else is living proof!





Highlands North Boys' High Interact Club
Cesare handing out Interact Badges
We have been very lucky to inherit the Club from Orange Grove and Cesare Vidulich has maintained the liaison with ourselves.  Without his enthusiasm the Club wouldn't be there. Two teachers are the ones who make sure everything happens and we are greatly indebted to Mimi van Deventer and Mr V Pillay for their support and the weekly supervision of the Club.

The Club is very active,  They had a blood drive last week and were very successful with their blanket drive at Norwood Mall and blankets as well as food are distributed at Ithumaleng Old Age Home on a regular basis.  They would like to start a vegetable garden at the school but the drought has postponed this initiative.





Rummage for Food with Mimi van Deventer & Mr Pillay
Visit by Frank Taylor & President Mukesh Patel and his wife Sujata from the Rotary Club of Hatfield, England.
They arrive on Wednesday 16th November and I will be collecting them from the airport and entertaining them for the evening
On Friday the 18th they will attend our normal Club Meeting and we have cancelled the Business Meeting so that we can devote the time to hearing from them etc.
Saturday 19th we will have a social event so that the whole club can spend time with them....and each other, wives, partners....all rabbit's friends and relations.  What that will be and where hasn't been discussed yet.

Schwabinger Stuben


I forgot the pictures from Schwabinger Stuben last week
A Starter


A Light Main Course










SHELTERBOX PREPARES FOR MOSUL REFUGEES

ShelterBox and its partner, ACTED, a French nongovernmental aid agency, have been preparing for weeks to get aid supplies ready so they can respond quickly as the battle unfolds in Mosul.
Photo Credit: Rotary International
The battle to take control of Mosul back from the Islamic State group continues.  The city is the group's last major stronghold in Iraq. But humanitarian aid agencies have known about the military offensive, giving them an unusual opportunity to prepare for the crisis.
"It is rare for the world to get early warning of a vast human catastrophe," says Chris Warham, chief executive of ShelterBox. "The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued a paper in July saying this would likely be the biggest humanitarian crisis of the year — and we better get prepared."
ShelterBox, Rotary's project partner for disaster relief, and ACTED, a French nongovernmental aid agency, have teams in the city of Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, 53 miles (85 km) east of Mosul. They have been working since July to get aid supplies ready so they can respond quickly as the battle unfolds.
"By tomorrow, 650 of the 3,000 tents that have been deployed to Irbil will arrive," says Warham. He estimates that, without the early notice, it would have taken ShelterBox at least two and a half weeks to gather these supplies.
Tens of thousands of people have already been displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas since March. The current round of fighting could last weeks or even months and is certain to raise that number, although it's unknown just how many people remain in Mosul and in which direction they might flee.
"Our aim is to get aid to displaced families as quickly as possible," says Rachel Harvey, operations coordinator at ShelterBox, who is in Irbil. "Giving people shelter and essential items such as a solar lamp, blankets, and a water carrier will allow them a degree of dignity and security to rest and recover."
Existing camps are already near or over capacity, so other possible sites are being readied. But Warham predicts that demand will almost certainly outpace supply, which could force many families to seek shelter outside managed camps in an inhospitable landscape during a season given to storms and below-freezing overnight temperatures.
ACTED and ShelterBox have partnered many times around the world. Most recently they worked together to help people in Haiti, where the deadly force of Hurricane Matthew caused a surge in cholera cases and left thousands homeless.
The Islamic State has controlled Mosul, the oil-rich capital of Nineveh province, since June 2014. Before the invasion, the city was Iraq's second-largest and one of its most diverse.
Follow ShelterBox on  and  for the latest updates.