Be a Flamingo of Change, One mother of a project and a last appeal for our Quiz Fundraiser....

 From our President....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

Christmas decorations in the shops always make me panic – how does it happen that the year end rush is almost here already?

WH Davies wrote “What is life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”. I learnt that poem at school, it is called LEISURE. I would have bet that it was written by Walter de la Mere – lucky it was not a quiz question!! Seriously though – do we take time off to smell the roses? To enjoy the small things? It is becoming an important part of corporate life to make sure employees have a “work life balance”.

It is so easy during this period of unusual “new normal” work hours to work harder and longer than before and not be as productive. Try to run your day - either you run the day, or the day runs you.

Take some time to enjoy the many shades of green after the beautiful rains, smell the roses, and watch for the Jacarandas which will be starting to bloom this month. When I was at university they said that if the Jacarandas were in bloom you should be studying, if the flowers were falling then it was too late to start!! I may have misjudged my timing a bit way back then and spent a lot of time smelling roses!

 “A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.”

 Take some time to find the ‘pleasure’ in LEISURE.

 Ann.

 P.S. do not forget the Quiz!

Last week....

Sarah van Heerden (or Patterson) Rotary Africa's passionate editor titled her talk to us:

Sarah used this analogy to make a point:

• We do things differently
• We look different
• We are not the average Dick and Jane in the room
• And yet we do not celebrate these differences.

She urged us to be the flamingos among the pigeons.

• To lead by example 
• Our stories have the power to inspire action from others
• The intention in story telling is not for personal gain.
• It is how you tell your story that matters
• With passion and purpose, abandoning the clinical and professional tone
• We no longer talk at our audience, we engage and connect with them on an emotional level.

Sarah left us with a lot of food for thought. As Rotarians we are brimful of inspiring stories and if we don't "brag" about them, who will? Our very own Ramble is a platform, and Sarah promises that every story that lands on her desk will be published, albeit with her skillful editing.

 Rotarians, People of Action.....

 

DAY CENTRE AND TRAINING FACILITY

FOR PALLIATIVE CAREGIVERS

AT CHRIS HANI BARAGWANATH ACADEMIC HOSPITAL

Rosebank Rotary Club implemented a health service project with an environmentally friendly, recycled solution.

Rosebank Rotary Club, D9400 and D1260 (UK) clubs, together with Palliative Care leaders at CHBAH Hospital in Soweto ( 3rd largest hospital globally) gave support to the decisions of the 67th World Health Assembly for member Governments and countries to create a health policy to integrate Palliative Care, as part of the continuum of care.

This became the GG1531461 Palliative Care Project named “Bophelo” (Sesotho for “Here is Life”). A holistic, interdisciplinary, patient-centric model of care was established together with spiritual care training. The provision of spiritual, but non-religion-specific, support to terminally ill patients and their families was an important component of the project. The positive results enabled the Centre of Excellence for Palliative Care to advocate for spiritual care inclusion in South Africa’s National Palliative Care Policy.

Spiritual care is now officially part of providing health care interventions in South Africa. Also the very effective model of care, developed in the program, was included in the National Policy as a public sector provision of palliative care.

Yet another important component of the project was to reduce the need for hospitalization by giving comfort and quality end-of-life experience to terminally ill patients in their homes.

 It was established that using available community care volunteers is a cost-effective way of introducing and expanding palliative care to the huge community of Soweto with some 1.25 million inhabitants.

Volunteer Caregivers, called “Grannies”, continue to play a major role in supporting the provision of informal home care visits. They are an important source of support for the terminally ill and their grieving families. As the meeting room, used by the Care Givers was no longer available, they appealed to Rosebank Rotary Club to assist in providing a prefabricated building in the grounds of the hospital, to enable Caregivers to facilitate bereavement and family group meetings to give ongoing compassion, hope, comfort and social care to patients and the families of critically ill family members.

Given the capacity problems in the public health care system, the Club realized the Palliative Care Dept is likely to continue to rely on end of life care volunteers working in the community for a long time to come.

A decision was made to apply for a District Grant to recycle a sea container obtained from the Bedfordview Rotary Club, who run the Humanitarian Resource Centre.

There was a definite environmental benefit of repurposing and relocating a redundant 12 m steel sea container, whose original purpose was to ship thousands of library and school books, donated by USA Rotary Clubs, as resources for educational and literacy service projects.

For Rotarians concerned with shrinking their carbon footprint, a steel container conversion is a perfect Environmental Project, but the Club soon found themselves confronted by major challenges.

Rotarian Sonja Hood’s spouse Steven Hood, became involved making the project a possibility by contributing to the conversion and transportation of the 3 ton 12m long sea container. The Club is extremely grateful for this intervention.

Once the sanding, painting and fitting of the windows and doors had been completed by a commercial organization the container was moved to PP Kevin Wolhuter’s Kyalami Estate.

 

Here Rotarian Jerry Bernardo and John Hope-Baillie worked tirelessly refurbishing the interior. Jerry installed and painted the partitioning while John installed the numerous electrical fittings.

The collection of the container from Kevin’s home created great excitement, apart from the scurry of distraught rabbit families who had made their burrows under the container.

 It was a major battle to maneuver the crane truck and trailer in and out of Kevin’s driveway.

 Ann Pademore arranged the transport for the delivery to the Palliative Care Centre. But steam lines and electric cables traversing the Baragwanath campus created major restrictions. After several inspections it was decided to lift the container up and over the surrounding buildings.

The delivery to Baragwanath Hospital was outstanding. After a short unforeseen panic, caused by a Doctor who parked in the reserved offloading space, the entire operation took just over 9 “nail biting” minutes.

The robust truck fitted with a telescopic crane, with a reach of 29m, was able to hoist the container skywards, swinging it over hospital buildings, whilst maneuvering overhead electric cables.

 The precarious container was cautiously and accurately lower onto the plinth platforms built by Jerry.

 There was a HUGE sigh of relief, followed by an excited inspection by Dr Mpho Ratshikana-Moloto, Director of Centre of Excellence for Palliative Care, who expressed her sincere gratitude.

 

More fittings and furniture will be supplied by PP Jean Bernardo and Rotarian Sonja Hood. PP John Symons has donated a kitchen and Rotarian James Croswell will assemble and fit desks. Jerry Bernardo will handle plumbing connections for the water and electricity.

 

The Training and Care Day Centre will be completed shortly when the Club will present a Rotary signboard to the Centre. Covid-19 created delays to the hand over date of 10^th October to celebrate World Hospice and Palliative Care Day.

Dr Mpho’s research paper based on the benefits of Spiritual Care was published January 31, 2020 by American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She acknowledged  Rotary Club Rosebank and Rotary Club Hatfield in United Kingdom. Spiritual care provision given to 2,557 palliative care patients indicated the importance of the spiritual dimension in the palliative care of patients regardless of culture, religious tradition or spiritual belief.

 This has been an action-orientated service project that has engaged fully with the community, meeting their needs. Its success is thanks to many working together contributing their own special expertise. Rotary opens opportunities for members to implement sustainable service projects to improve the lives of people in a community. The Care Givers can continue to expand and create more opportunities to foster a culture of peace and compassion within the families and homes they visit.

Rotary work IS about positive peace, goodwill and understanding.

James Croswell,

 Chair International Service.

Rotary Club or Rosebank, Johannesburg, District 9400, South Africa

The Norwood Spar Food Collection goes ahead....

Covid 19 restrictions have made us all think out of the box, and though it was not possible to do our annual food hamper collection at the Norwood Spar in person, Dimi Georgiou graciously will be allowing the Rotary Club of Rosebank to have a trolley at the entrance for the next two months where patrons can donate non-perishable food items.

Save the Date.....