Discon...See the Separate Page...a Winner and a Nomad Club.

Discon
I have established a Discon Page with a full report from Jean Bernardo plus pictures.  Many thanks, Jean, for submitting this.

Last Week
It was billed as a Business Meeting but turned out to be more of a Discon and Arts Festival discussion.

Costa Qually....but it's the wrong glass.

The Club was awarded a pair of wine goblets at Discon for tying with the largest group who had traveled the greatest distance.  At the subsequent braai the group from Rosebank decided to raffle them at the next meeting for the Rotary Foundation.....and the winner was!

This Week
What can I say about the Induction Dinner on Friday evening when President Lyn Collocott hands over the reins to Jean Bernardo?

• there is no Friday lunchtime meeting at Wanderers
• a big thank you to Lyn from all of us for taking the helm this Rotary Year and making it a success.
• and our best wishes to Jean for the coming year.  We are sure it will be a great success.

We will all have a great time on Friday night.

Spread out across thousands of square miles in the eastern states of Australia, Rotarians fire up laptops, tablets, and smartphones and log on to weekly club meetings from their RVs using a teleconferencing app. Members map routes for the jamborees, service projects, and fundraising they plan to do with their club and with the clubs they’ll visit on their journeys.

Campers roll with Rotary: Every day, about 135,000 recreational vehicles roll down Australia’s highways. For Rotarians who have answered the call of the open road, the vagabond nature of an RV lifestyle can conflict with the duties of traditional clubs. For them, the Rotary E-Club of Australia Nomads, a concept hatched in mid-2014 by members of the Rotary Club of Jindalee in Queensland, builds connections for service and fellowship.

Rotary E-Club of Australia Nomads:  Chartered: 2015 Original membership: 26 Membership: 40  

After the death of his wife in 2011, “I decided to buy a large touring RV,” a 22-footer, says Wayne Kemmis, a past president of two Rotary clubs in New South Wales. As he pondered whether Rotary could fit into his new lifestyle, a notice in Rotary Down Under magazine about a new club caught his eye, and Kemmis signed on as a charter member of the E-Club of Australia Nomads. (The group stresses that members need not be Australian, just driven to service; one member of the Nomads is an American.) “Most members spend a fair amount of time traveling,” notes Kemmis, a retired newspaper manager.

Geoff St Clair, past president of a club in Lockyer Valley, Queensland, had left Rotary to take up the traveling life when the new club came along. “I was a Rotarian for seven years but left for four years until returning with the Nomads in June 2014, when it was a satellite club,” he says. He rejoined Rotary with his wife, Lorelle, a new recruit, because “the club would allow you to continue traveling but still uphold the ideals of Rotary.” For several months each year, the retired educators roam Australia in their 19-foot trailer with their dog, Josie, a Maltese mix.

Wherever the club members may be, a constant is the Wednesday evening session to chart progress on trips and projects. “The theme of our meetings is having fun,” says Kemmis. “Members come online with their glass of wine or other beverage. They wear casual clothing. Two members usually come in their pajamas. There are no dress regulations.” 

St Clair notes the challenges of developing service opportunities for people who may reside hundreds or thousands of miles from one another. Other obstacles are maintaining a sense of togetherness across distance and teaching computer skills to older members, he says.

Twice-annual musters, some lasting a week, kindle conviviality and rev up good deeds: During their most recent social gathering over four days at Bribie Island, Queensland, club members planted more than 400 trees to stabilize dunes. 

The Nomads adapt their fundraising to their lifestyle. Many club members do crafts such as knitting and crocheting on the road, and when the club holds gatherings, they set up a booth and sell items to the public. And every March they hold a crafts exposition with workshops, speakers, and shopping. The proceeds from these efforts benefit various charities, such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Lending manpower to Rotary-sponsored fun runs, concerts, regattas, and festivals across eastern Australia is the peripatetic club’s hallmark. Last September, it assisted the Rotary Club of Carindale with the Brisbane billycart championships. (The event, with engineless carts racing downhill, is similar to soapbox derby's) 

“Clubs appreciate us as we often assist them in their projects,” says St Clair, harking to the club motto, Helping Hands Across the Land.

Discon Feedback, and how Rotary helps Refugees...there are a lot in South Africa!

Last Week
A large club compliment was at Discon, the Annual Rotary Conference in the Kruger National Park and those of us who didn't go had an enjoyable lunch in the Chariots Bar at Wanderers Club.  Nothing to report there as we just had a nice time.
Whilst writing this the Discon contingent are driving back so there is nothing to report on that either.  Let's have some music instead.

This Week

It's a Business Meeting which probably means that it is a report back on Discon and no doubt there will be something about the Arts Festival. It's only a week to go for Jean Bernardo's Induction as President at the Bryanston Country Club so make sure that you have booked!

Diversity in Rotary is important and here is an attempt to educate Rotarians in one aspect of it.

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The statistics are staggering. More than 28,000 people are uprooted from their homes each day as a result of war, oppression, and poverty. That’s nearly 20 people per minute.

The Rotaract Club of Nakivale, Uganda, helps provide refugees with sugar, soap, and clothes. 

 By the end of 2016, an unprecedented 65.6 million people, from West Africa to South Asia, have been forcibly displaced, making it the world’s worst migrant crisis in history. 

The wave of migrants and refugees has overwhelmed the international community, putting a particular strain on neighboring countries and Europe. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees with nearly 3 million. Pakistan is second. Germany is the only high-income country in the top ten host nations, with about 700,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. 

The seven-year war in Syria has been the been the biggest driver of the refugee crisis, with millions fleeing the country since the conflict began in 2011.

A shockingly high percent of the world’s displaced are children. More than half the refugees are under age 18. 

Rotary clubs are doing their part to help alleviate the global refugee crisis with projects that help bring water and health care to refugee camps, funds for families to move to safer countries, and more. Over the last several years, clubs and districts have used roughly $3 million of global grant funds toward refugee-related projects. 

On World Refugee Day, held every year on 20 June, people worldwide salute the strength, courage, and contributions of refugees who abandon their homes in a desperate search for safety. 

Here’s a sample of how Rotary members have changed the lives of thousands of refugees: 

• In Nova Scotia, Canada, the Rotary Club of Amherst brought two families from war-torn Syria to their country, where the refugees are starting a new life. The club galvanized other community groups to help the families assimilate with the town and culture. The Rotary Club of Merritt, British Columbia, also pooled resources to bring a family from Syria to Canada. 

• The Rotaract Club of Nakivale, Uganda, is raising funds to help residents of a huge refugee settlement start their own businesses. The club, based inside the settlement, also provided refugees with sugar, soap, and clothes. 

• Rotary member Pia Skarabis-Querfeld, a physician in Germany, built a network of volunteer doctors to help thousands of refugees that have streamed into Berlin, Germany. In 2015, during the peak of the refugee influx into Germany, her nonprofit, Medizin Hilft, had more than 100 volunteers at its clinic. Her club, the Rotary Club of Berlin-Teirgarten, sponsored a Rotary global grant of $160,000 to fund the project through March 2018. Also in Germany, the Rotary Club of Lemgo-Sternberg, provided resources to train 60 volunteers to teach German to about 600 refugees. 

• Rotary Districts 2452 in Lebanon and 6560 in Indiana, USA, helped provide lifesaving heart surgeries for 32 Lebanese children and 10 Syrian refugee children. The district used a $185,000 global grant to fund the procedures. 

• The Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga, Rwanda, collaborated with members from the Rotary Club of Dortmund, Germany, to provide wells to a refugee camp in Gahara Sector, Rwanda.

• Rotary members in Seoul, Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan, are using an $89,000 global grant to provide ear, nose, and throat diagnostic equipment for the Raphael Clinic in Seoul to treat North Korean refugees. 

Melodene Stonestreet, a Chariot Ride and Rotary at the Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast.

Last Week

Pam Donaldson had to go to a funeral so we still know little about her but Melodene Stonestreet stepped into the breech and told us lots of funny stories about herself as a medical student and subsequently studying physiotherapy.  I don't think she ever did any work at university.
We ha such a good laugh at her study career that we never heard about work or Rotary so I suppose we will have to have Part 2 at some stage.

Despite our depleted numbers owing to the Arts Festival we had three visitors.
Visiting Rotarians Shatu Garba and Rosinnah Dlamini from the Rotary Club of Greenwich in England as well as Zimbabwean Simbah Mutasa who is working in Johannesburg.

Simbah Mutasa

Rtns Rosinnah Dlamini & Shatu Garba

Our thanks to all who did such sterling work at the Rotary Arts Festival.  It's all over now and despite everyone pulling their weight most of the burden rested upon the shoulders of Jean Bernardo and Joan Sainsbury.  As helpers we haven't had to cope with the frustrations, disappointments and physical tiredness resulting from the huge number of hours that they have put in.  We mustn't forget the artists who provided workshops and the Rotary Anns who coordinated the food for the launch and stepped into the breach where necessary.  Finally the members of the Arts Festival Committee without whom many things that are unseen would just not have happened.

This Week
A mighty contingent from our club is off to Discon in the Kruger National Park.  God speed and don't be eaten by anything larger than a mosquito...and look out for them too.

Those of us who are left holding the fort will have a social meeting in Chariots at Wanderers.  It will be at the usual time and we will eat off the menu.  These social meetings are a pleasant interlude so do come along.  Also keep a lookout for anyone trying to visit us.....I will mention it to reception when I arrive.

Make sure that you have booked with Les Short for the Induction Dinner at Bryanston Country Club on the 29th June!  Then there will be a whole new Rotary Year before us with Jean Bernardo at the helm.

ROTARIANS KEEP THE VILLAGE MOVING

Rotarians from District 9640 and beyond capitalised on the XXI Commonwealth Games to build Rotary’s public profile and raise over $200,000 through taking up housekeeping services at the Games Village. 
A total of 180 housekeeping attendants were mustered from the Rotary clubs of CurrumbinCoolangatta-Tweed, Gold Coast, Parkwood, Runaway Bay, Surfers Sunrise, Summerland Sunrise, Warwick Sunrise, Toowoomba North and Sunnybank Hills. Volunteers from several charity and church groups also came on board, to form 22 teams comprised of five members in each.
 Church groups from the Pacific Islander communities of Brisbane and the Gold Coast provided a large number of the volunteers. All were required to undertake rigorous accreditation and training beforehand, as many had no prior experience whatsoever in the hospitality sector. 
Finding people available was a challenge in itself, as many were committed elsewhere or scheduled to be away from the Coast. However, all was achieved within less than three months from the opportunity presenting itself to the opening ceremony, due to the determination and hard work of those involved in recruiting, management and administration. PDG John Wigley and Bill Dagg, who had assisted with a similar effort at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, flew up to support the effort. 
Recent Gold Coast City Councillor Margaret Grummitt acted as District 9640 Commonwealth Games Coordinator. When the Games launched, Rotarians were hard at work behind the scenes for a gruelling, but rewarding effort.
 “I stripped bed linen the first couple of days,” Darrell Brown said. “Other days I made beds non-stop, or made up linen packs. Day 10, I was a toilet and bathroom cleaner. Everyone would do their housekeeping shifts and go back to their normal jobs, working late into the night. We pulled together with great camaraderie. The atmosphere in the village was electric – it really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” 
At the end of the Games, Paul Lovett, CEO of Incognitus, the housekeeping company that oversaw operations, presented a cheque for $222,720 to assistant governor David Baguley, who coordinated the volunteer workforce. 
“Paul praised the team and commented that we were the best housekeepers he had ever had,” Darrell said.
 The hard-earned funds will be split between a variety of worthy causes, including, but not limited to: • Providing crisis care and support to families of patients in intensive care at Gold Coast University Hospital; 
• The Rotary Club of Surfers Sunrise’s project making wheelchairs for children in undeveloped countries out of discarded bicycles; 
• Australian Rotary Health PhD Scholarships in mental illness; 
• The Rotary-backed Malaria Vaccine Project, developed at the Gold Coast’s Griffith University. 

James Croswell, Rotary Arts Festival, Pam Donaldson and Voz Box..We could use it in South Africa.

Last Week
A surprising number of Rotarians present despite some being on duty at the Rotary Arts Festival.
James Croswell gave us an interesting talk about himself.  He really made me think of the luck of youth probably because we were innocent of the consequences or just took more risks.
His visit to Morocco on the spur of the moments on a South African passport sans visa really took the cake and how he managed to get out of the country "Thanks to a girl I met at Club Med..." who chatted up the official at the airport in Marrakesh so that he could just pick up his passport and jump on the plane is typical.

Thank James for such an interesting talk.  You have also done some amazing civil engineering projects but we forgot those!

We also had a couple of visitors who had attended the Arts Festival and decided to come and see what we got up to.  Alice Yang and Mike Maclachlan.

We look forward to seeing them again.








The Rotary Arts Festival Official Opening had taken place the evening before at Rosebank Mall and I have just under 150 photos of the event, many of them pictures of pictures.
I will sift through them in due course and send them to the individuals I recognise!

Because the exhibition is spread over two floors and quite spread out it was difficult to see how many were there.

President Lyn Collocott addresses us at the opening

Jean Bernardo and Joan Sainsbury.  The two Rotarians who have worked very hard at putting the exhibition together.  Jean as chairman of the Arts Festival Committee and Joan organising the artists.
The late change of venue was a huge problem for them and they miraculously pulled it off.

Thembi Ndlovu busy processing a sale

This Week
Pam Donaldson will be the next in our Rotarian chat series.
She is very elusive and I couldn't find a photograph of her anywhere so you will have to put up with Korky the Cat limbering up for the World Cup instead. instead.

We will rectify the omission this Friday.

As a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Ecuador seven years ago, Mary Elizabeth McCulloch volunteered at an orphanage that was home to both adults and children with disabilities. 

She noticed that those who had trouble speaking – mainly because of cerebral palsy – were seated alone by the windows, and for the most part no one communicated with them. 

Today, at age 26, McCulloch is founder and CEO of ProjectVive, a social enterprise company that has developed a low-cost device called the Voz Box, which allows people who have difficulty speaking to express themselves. The product launches this year in the United States and Ecuador.

Q: What did your experience in the orphanage inspire you to do?

A: After I returned to the United States and started at Penn State (graduating in 2016 with a degree in biomedical engineering), I began working on a low-cost speech generation device that would work in low-income and resource-constrained settings. I worked on it all through college, on evenings and weekends. Along the way, people joined my team, ProjectVive, to develop the Voz Box.

Q: How does the technology work? 

A: Our technology is for people with low motor control, who can’t tap a finger on an iPad or keyboard. We have different interfaces: a glove that works when someone flexes a finger; a watch that senses motion so the wearer can raise their arm to click; or glasses that detect blinking. These work with an application called CoughDrop AAC, which has grids of letters, words, and icons the user “points to” with the interface devices. Our devices can also control other applications, so the user can go to YouTube or Facebook, chat with friends, or look for jobs. 

Q: Who will this technology help?

A: Worldwide, there are 4.6 million people who can’t speak because of ALS or cerebral palsy. Too many people think that if they can’t contribute, it’s because they have nothing to contribute. But these disabilities aren’t reflections of cognitive ability or potential. We are empowering people with disabilities by giving them a voice and the ability to live out their life goals. 

Q: What would the world look like if people with disabilities had a bigger role? 

A: There are a lot of big societal problems facing the world today, and this is an untapped population of global problem solvers. Research shows that someone who has experienced adversity is more apt to make decisions to help others, to have empathy and sympathy. They are natural problem solvers. 

Q: When will the product be available?

A: The launches are in May in the United States and in June in Ecuador. We won’t be exporting from the United States; we are helping local people make and maintain the devices, and training users’ family members and caretakers to take care of them. And we’ll make sure the devices are in the users’ indigenous language, as well as Spanish and English. We are looking for our next pilot countries to launch ProjectVive and give more people with disabilities a voice.