The Business Meeting, David Heritage & 'Revive', Rotarians & Peace, and the Rotary Foundation

Last Week

It was a Business Meeting and it was interesting to hear how much progress we had in the first six months.  The two learners we are sponsoring at McAuley House School had passed Grade 11 well and are now in Matric.  We have also continued to sponsor a candidate at the SA Guide Dogs for the Blind College of Orientation & Mobility.  This is a very important project as it is effectively training the trainer in the use of white canes and  other aspects of orientation in the rural areas.  What is surprising is that only Limpopo Province actively supports this training....not the richer Provinces.

The new collection system that has been introduced at Spar Norwood thanks to the suggestion of the former Orange Grove members has been an effortless great success.  Instead of collecting food products we are given a voucher for the value of the food that is donated by the public

.  This gives the various charities we collect for a monetary amount that they can use to buy what they require.  This has been very interesting as one particular charity bought toiletries in preference to food which just shows that our basic assumption of needs was totally wrong in the past.

The only disappointing aspect of the collection was the lack of support by the club.  Even though we didn't enjoy doing the turn out  for Makro was adequate.  This takes less time and we don't have to rush up to people and ask for their support, they automatically give so next time please support our Community Service Committee as the results were so good and Spar is more than helpful.

This Week

Our speaker is David Heritage.  I don't know much about him or his organisation, only what David Bradshaw has to say.

"He runs Revive a registered NPO company.They exist to serve and assist parolees and ex-offenders to reintegrate back into their families and communities as part of their journey of rehabilitation and restitution. David himself served I think 12-15 years in prison and has now dedicated his life to serving ex Prisoners."

The Board has approved a Vocational Service Award for him.

Picture Puzzle
Quite a few people tried to guess what last week's photo was, including the District Governor.  Everyone got it wrong!  Arancini was the correct answer but I would have accepted suppli because they look the same.  It's an Italian deep fried rice ball with ragu of meat and tomato inside....suppli has mozzarella instead.  Suppli is a Roman snack whereas arancini are from Sicily.  It's a handy way of using up risotto rice. 

This week it's guess the fish.

On 23 February, Rotarians will celebrate World Peace and Understanding Day – the 113th anniversary of Rotary’s founding.

Peace has been at the core of our organization from its earliest days. We established the Fourth Object of Rotary in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1921. We were in London when the seeds were sown for what became UNESCO after World War II. In Havana in 1940, we adopted a resolution calling for "freedom, justice, truth, sanctity of the pledged word, and respect for human rights," which became the framework for the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

We were active in the formation of the United Nations. In 1945, almost 50 Rotarians served as delegates, consultants, and advisers at the San Francisco Conference when the UN charter was written. Today, almost 73 years later, Rotary maintains the highest consultative status with the United Nations of any nongovernmental organization. A number of our Rotary Peace Fellows work in UN agencies. Rotary’s representatives to the UN also host a Rotary Day every November to celebrate our partnership for peace.

Today we also have a new partnership with the Institute for Economics and Peace, which was founded in Australia by tech entrepreneur Steve Killelea. The institute emphasizes what is called positive peace, based on eight "pillars": a well-functioning government, a sound business environment, equitable distribution of resources, acceptance of the rights of others, good relations with neighbors, free flow of information, high levels of human capital, and low levels of corruption.

Between now and June, we have the opportunity to participate in Rotary President Ian H.S. Riseley’s Presidential Peacebuilding Conferences in six cities across the world. Take a look online at rotary.org/presidential-conferences. We will continue to explore how the eight pillars of peace align with our areas of focus.

We also are joining with the University of Chicago to host Pathways to Peace, a series of talks featuring leading scholars, practitioners, Rotary Peace Fellows, and thinkers in the field of peace and conflict prevention and resolution. Watch the first one, which was held in September, at bit.ly/2j9cSUh.

Together with our partners, we will work to establish ourselves as global thinkers and leaders to advance understanding, goodwill, and international peace.

Let us work together on this journey.

Foundation receives highest rating from Charity Navigator

For the 10th consecutive year, The Rotary Foundation has received the highest rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.

In the most recent ratings, the Foundation earned the maximum of 100 points for demonstrating both strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency.

In a letter to the Foundation, Charity Navigator notes that "only 1 percent of the charities we evaluate have received at least 10 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that The Rotary Foundation outperforms other charities in America. This exceptional designation from Charity Navigator sets The Rotary Foundation apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness."

The rating reflects Charity Navigator's assessment of how the Foundation uses donations, sustains its programs and services, and practices good governance and openness.

What did you say? a Business Meeting & a Bit of Axe Throwing.

Last Week

Varsha Sewpersad spoke to us on 'Hearing Health' and everything that can affect your hearing.  In the case of many people 'Age Related Hearing Loss' is an issue that they prefer to ignore but she warned that hearing loss and the resulting lack of brain activity is often a contributory factor for the onset of dementia.  If you don't use it, it atrophies! 
She said that everyone over 65 should have their hearing tested once a year.  Interesting as we don't think twice about regular visits to the optician but would never think about our hearing.

This Week
It's a business meeting.  We are more than half way through the year and this is President Lyn's gallop to the finishing line so we must make sure she ends her year in style.

Vocational and Lester Connock Awards 16th February
We hope to be able to organise a lunch at the Wanderers Golf Club like last year.  The idea is also to include the LC Awards if the recipients are available.

Visit of Doreen Muheru  Friday 9th March
This lunch we will also try and organise at the Wanderers Golf Club.

Well, Here's an Idea for a Fund Raising Event!

Aprille Weron, right, and her friend Brooke Williams raised funds with an axe-throwing tournament.

Aprille Weron grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia; it was, she recalls, “a very privileged life.” That’s why, when she heard about Philadelphia’s New Day Center – a Salvation Army-sponsored drop-in center that helps women and girls being trafficked for sex – she was shocked to learn that many of the people who come to the center are from that same area.

We think that trafficking is something that’s far away,” says Weron, a member of the Rotary Club of King of Prussia, Pa. “But some of these girls went to the same schools that you and your friends went to.”

Weron and her friend Brooke Williams, a member of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia Happy Hour, decided to help raise funds for the center through an unusual activity: axe throwing. Held on 14 October, the Salvation Army’s Axe of Kindness 2017 Axe Throwing Tournament saw more than 40 community members – including Weron and Williams, who competed as The Rotaraxers – hurling 1.5-pound hatchets at a target.

“We threw a lot of axes that day,” Weron says. As with darts, the goal in axe throwing is to get as close as possible to the bull’s-eye. But the real goal, of course, was to raise funds for the New Day Center – which the event did, to the tune of $6,800.

Not only that, but the “Did you say axe throwing?” factor got others interested in the cause, Williams says: “Doing events like this is a fun way to raise money, but it also is a great way to advertise what we’re doing. It’s a little more attention-getting.”

The proof? When the Philadelphia Happy Hour club heard about the event, members decided to organize a second axe-throwing fundraiser for the New Day Center in December, with the aid of the Rotary clubs of Conshohocken-Plymouth-Whitemarsh and Philadelphia.

Thank You, Mark, Varsha Sewpersad and RI President Elect Barry Rassin and the next Rotary Year.

Last Week
Isn't it annoying when a speaker cancels at the last minute especially when it has been organised well in advance.  Maybe it's a bit like some people who accept invitations when in fact they really mean "Yes, we would love to come unless something better turns up".

No Dalene Naude so Mark Franklin stepped into the breach and gave us a very interesting talk about a book he was reading entitled Affluence without Abundance - the Disappearing World of the Bushmen by Dr James Suzman.  It was a fascinating talk

Suzman was the first social anthropologist to work in Namibia's eastern Omaheke among "Southern Ju/'hoansi" where he exposed the brutal marginalisation of San that had lost their lands to white cattle ranchers and pastoralist Herero.

In 1998 Suzman was appointed to lead the landmark study, The Regional Assessment of the Status of the San in Southern Africa. Based on an ACP/EU resolution.

Suzman later led an assessment by the Minority Rights Group International to assess how Namibia's ethnic minorities had fared in the first ten years of Namibian Independence. The subsequent report was published in 2002. Emerging during period of political upheaval in Namibia, it led to calls for the better protection of ethnic minorities in Namibia.  The Namibian Government rejected the report's findings and the President, Sam Nujoma, accused Suzman of amplifying "ethnic tensions".

In 2001, Suzman was awarded the Smuts Commonwealth Fellowship in African Studies at Cambridge University.

Suzman later established a program to establish opportunities for Hai//om San to benefit from tourism revenues in Etosha National Park.  Suzman was also involved in the dispute that arose as a result of the illegal relocation of Gwi and Gana San from Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Suzman was highly critical of the Botswana Government's actions and, later, Survival International's campaign which he claimed undermined ongoing negotiations between the Botswana Government and a coalition of organisations supporting the evicted San.  Survival International, in turn, criticised Suzman and members of the negotiating team lead by Ditshwanelo, The Botswana Centre for Human Rights of complicity with the Botswana Government.

In 2007, Suzman joined De Beers where as Global Head of Public Affairs he developed De Beers award-winning sustainability functions.  He resigned in 2013.

In 2013 Suzman and Jimmy Wales teamed up with Lily Cole to launch Impossible.com at the Cambridge Union.  In the same year he was invited to deliver the 2nd Protimos Lecture at the Parliament Chamber of London's Inner Temple.

This Week

Our speaker is Varsha Sewpersad.  Varsha Sewpersad is the senior audiologist and practice owner at Speak Today, Hear Forever Practice (STHF), who prides herself in implementing research proven practices within all services offered by STHF. 

Having worked within hospitals, specialised preschools, remedial schools, medico-legal teams and private practices in South Africa  and Dubai, Varsha has gained extensive and valuable experience within the fields of speech therapy and audiology.

With a great passion and desire to improve the quality of lives of individuals with speech, language and/or hearing difficulties, Varsha qualified with her Honours Degree in the Bachelor of Communication Pathology at the University of Pretoria and further went on to obtain her Master's Degree in Audiology at the University of Witwaterstrand. Varsha is a published author and enjoys conducting research to increase her knowledge in the field.

Careers Morning Saturday 10th March

I have sent out reminder emails to all those who participated last year and already confirmations are coming in.  I also sent a notice to all club members.  Mark Potterton and I will be meeting this week to finalise participating schools and tertiary institutions.  Watch this space.

Thanks to The Ramble we are ahead of any local publications when it comes to the latest news from Rotary International.  Our incoming DG Charles Deiner is there in San Diego.  See below:

2018-19 RI President Barry Rassin wants Rotary members to Be the Inspiration

Rotary International President-elect Barry Rassin laid out his vision for the future of the organization on Sunday, calling on leaders to work for a sustainable future and to inspire Rotarians and the community at large.

Rassin, a member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, unveiled the 2018-19 presidential theme, Be the Inspiration, to incoming district governors at Rotary’s International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA. “I want you to inspire in your clubs, your Rotarians, that desire for something greater. The drive to do more, to be more, to create something that will live beyond each of us.”

Rassin stressed the power of Rotary’s new vision statement, “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” This describes the Rotary that leaders must help build, he said.

To achieve this vision, the president-elect said, Rotarians must take care of the organization: “We are a membership organization first. And if we want to be able to serve, if we want to succeed in our goals — we have to take care of our members first.”

Rassin asked the incoming district governors to “inspire the club presidents, and the Rotarians in your districts, to want to change. To want to do more. To want to reach their own potential. It’s your job to motivate them — and help them find their own way forward.”

Progress on polio

Rassin noted that one source of inspiration has been Rotary’s work to eradicate polio. He described the incredible progress made over the past three decades. In 1988, an estimated 350,000 people were paralyzed by the wild poliovirus; just 20 cases were reported in 2017 as of 27 December. “We are at an incredibly exciting time for polio eradication,” he said, “a point at which each new case of polio could very well be the last.”

He emphasized that even when that last case of polio is recorded, the work won’t be finished. “Polio won’t be over, until the certifying commission says it’s over—when not one poliovirus has been found, in a river, in a sewer, or in a paralyzed child, for at least three years,” he said. “Until then, we have to keep doing everything we’re doing now.” He urged continued dedication to immunization and disease surveillance programs.

Sustaining the environment

Rotary has focused heavily on sustainability in its humanitarian work in recent years. Now, Rassin said, Rotarians must acknowledge some hard realities about pollution, environmental degradation, and climate change. He noted that 80 percent of his own country is within one meter of sea level. With sea levels projected to rise two meters by 2100, he said, “my country is going to be gone in 50 years, along with most of the islands in the Caribbean and coastal cities and low-lying areas all over the world.”

Rassin urged leaders to look at all of Rotary’s service as part of a larger global system. He said that this means the incoming district governors must be an inspiration not only to clubs, but also to their communities. “We want the good we do to last. We want to make the world a better place. Not just here, not just for us, but everywhere, for everyone, for generations.”

Happy New Year, Social Meetings, Hope Project and Sea Mercy

Welcome  back  to our Official Meetings

We did have unofficial meetings on the Fridays in the Wanderers Club but they were just for those who wanted to go or who could go.  Here's the turn out for for Friday 5th January.

This Week
Our speaker is Dalene Naude, Director of the Hope Project.

The Hope Project is a registered NPC (2016/137082/08) that assists minority families who have fallen on hard times and/or who live in squatter camps/informal settlements. There are currently over 500 minority camps in S.A. We focus mainly on helping each family to empower themselves through skills development where possible and assist in finding work for the unemployed.   Our purpose is to uplift, assist with job procurement, help supplement meals, clothe the kids and ensure they go to school.

We provide the tools they need to plant vegetable gardens and improve living conditions, and to build self sustainable communities. We basically assist them to start over again. We aim to give hope to the hopeless, dignity to the elderly, and a purpose to adults that have lost everything, including their self worth and dignity.   In a country where minorities form 8% of the population, it’s astounding that more than 1 million are living in crippling poverty as a result of governments Employment Equity Act, which effectively excludes them from obtaining employment, and the ability to provide for their families. They are often exploited for personal gain by the landowners who allow them to squat on their land, at a price.

Yachts bring aid to remote South Pacific islands

Richard and Stephanie Hackett began chartering sailboats and yachts to travel the South Pacific more than 20 years ago. Seeing the problems of getting health care to remote islands, Richard Hackett, past president of the Rotary Club of Fern Ridge (Veneta), Ore., came up with the idea of charter sailboats helping to provide health care and disaster relief. Sea Mercy, the nonprofit he and his wife founded, started with one volunteer vessel in 2013 and now has more than 100 yachts on call, with initiatives to address health care, disaster response, education and training, and economic development.

Q: How do you get the vessels and the volunteers for Sea Mercy’s programs?

A: The people with the vessels are either private owners or the captains who represent private owners. Most are people who have chased the dream of sailing the South Pacific or sailing around the world. For the medical personnel, it’s a working vacation: Doctors, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, dentists, and optometrists come out and join us. Even some medical students want to participate. It’s a two-week period. We travel to anywhere from five to nine remote islands. We set up a clinic onshore, and they treat patients throughout the day or over a two-day period. When we’re all done, we start sailing to the next remote island.

The clinic on Batiki was overflowing with kids waiting to see our medical team! Thank you Sea Mercy medical volunteers for serving the remote islands! 

Q: How did disaster relief fit into the original model?

A: We thought once every five years we would be responding to, perhaps, a cyclone. Cyclone Ian hit Tonga in 2014, and we sent two vessels. We were the only vessels that could reach these remote islands; big merchant ships can’t get in, because of the narrow entrances and shallow lagoons. Then Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu in 2015, so we sent eight vessels to Vanuatu. We realized we had to get in front of this and created our first response league. We contacted owners of small yachts and the superyachts, and built a network just in case something else happens. When Cyclone Winston hit Fiji in 2016, we had 60 vessels that responded. We were the first on the scene and the last ones to leave.

Q: How did this expand into economic development?

A: It started with diabetes. The rate of diabetes in the South Pacific is one of the highest in the world. A lot of the health issues are either directly or indirectly a result of diabetes. The [Western] diet that we have introduced to them has changed their whole culture. On the remote islands they don’t have access to the drugs to treat it. And the farmers are moving away, and they’re sending money home. Instead of working and farming and fishing, people are buying sugar and processed flour and rice and noodles. In our health clinics, we realized, we’re treating the symptoms but not the underlying causes. So we are shifting to more of an economic development, agriculturally based program. We’re budgeting it, gearing up, meeting with the leadership, and getting the approval. It’s been a really amazing journey, but we’re very excited about seeing the impact it’s going to have on these remote islands. 

Sea Mercy has more than 100 yachts on call, ready to deliver health care and aid.