Business Meeting, In the Footsteps of Gandhi and International Women's Day

Last Week

It was a business meeting which turned out to be interesting as there are a number of new potential projects and members in the pipeline.







This Week
First a Rotary Family Health Day appeal from David Bradshaw:

A final appeal for helpers this Tuesday,Wednesday or Thursday.

We have had a couple of drop outs for Wednesday at Turffontein and a late request for help from New Dawn.

Please if you can offer 3 or 4 hours please let me know. David@Travelvision.co.za

Our Speaker this week is Alkis Doucakis who returns to speak to us about Gandhi in Johannesburg.  His book "In the Footsteps of Gandhi" was published in 2015.  It is an excellent and well worthwhile book, if you can find a copy because it details Gandhi's relationship with the architect Hermann Kallenbach and the development of the suburbs around Norwood up to Linksfield Ridge. 

We were expecting this to be the subject of his talk last time when he spoke about Linear B and he was asked to come back to talk on this subject.

This coming weekend sees our annual Senior Youth Leadership Course in the Magaliesberg.  Jean Bernardo is appealing for more people to go out on teh Sunday to assist with preparing salads etc for the braai....see her latest email.

What motivates everyday women to do extraordinary things — to positively change the lives of people halfway around the world while inspiring so many people at home?

Three Rotary members answered that question at a celebration of International Women’s Day hosted by the World Bank at its Washington, D.C., headquarters 8 March. 

Speaking to an audience of more than 300, with thousands listening to the live-stream, Razia Jan, Deborah Walters, and Ann Lee Hussey told their personal stories and explained what inspired them to build a girls school in Afghanistan, assist people living in a Guatemala City garbage dump, and lead more than 24 teams to immunise children in Africa and Asia.

Razia Jan  

“I’m so inspired to see the faces of the children, what they’re learning, how to stand up for their rights, to have ambition ... to want to do things that may even be impossible — to have dreams,” said Jan, a member of the Rotary Club of Duxbury, Massachusetts, USA. 

An Afghan native now living in the United States, Jan has worked for decades to build connections between Afghans and Americans while improving the lives of young women and girls in Afghanistan.

Founder and director of the Zabuli Education Center, a school that serves more than 625 girls in Deh’Subz, Afghanistan, Jan said the first class of students graduated in 2015 and a women’s college will open soon. The girls school teaches math, English, science, and technology, along with practical skills to prepare them to achieve economic freedom within a challenging social environment.

Dr Deborah Walters

 Deborah Walters, a neuroscientist and member of the Rotary Club of Unity, Maine, USA, has served as a volunteer for Safe Passage (Camino Seguro), a nonprofit organisation that provides educational and social services to children and families who live in a Guatemala City garbage dump.

Walters, known as the “kayaking grandmother,” traveled from her home in Maine to Guatemala in a small kayak to raise awareness of the plight of the residents.

Ann Lee Hussey, a member of the Rotary Club of Portland Sunrise, Maine, has made the eradication of polio and the alleviation of suffering by polio survivors her life’s work.

Anne Lee Hussey

A polio survivor herself, she’s spent the past 14 years leading teams of Rotary volunteers to developing countries to immunise children during National Immunisation Days.

She often chooses to lead or participate in NIDs in places that don’t often see Westerners: Bangladesh, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and remote areas of Egypt and India. There, the need is greatest, and the publicity and goodwill that the trips foster are critical in communicating the urgency of the need for immunisations.

“These women exemplify what the World Bank is striving to attain every day with the twin goals of ending extreme poverty within a generation and boosting shared prosperity,” said Daniel Sellen, chair of the World Bank Group Staff Association. “They illustrate the power of women to change the world and improve people’s lives through innovative and impactful projects in education, economic development, and health.”