A Social Meeting enriched by a short introduction to the White Cane Project, People of Action hand over food donation to Charity begins with Me and a Blast from the Past.....

 From the Pen of our President....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 

So many jokes, cartoons and, dare I say, ‘rubbish’ fills our inboxes and abounds on Social Media. Every once in a while I sit up and take notice of something worth reading. This is one such piece, worth a read, even if you have seen it before. It made me think.

Martina Navratilova was once asked, “How do you maintain your focus, physique and sharp game even at the age of 43?" 

She gave a humble reply, “The ball doesn’t know how old I am. You need to stop yourself from stopping yourself. Every game in life is actually played on a 6-inch ground – the space between your two ears. We don't live in bungalows, duplexes, or flats. We live in our mind which is an unlimited area. Life is great when things are sorted and uncluttered there. Keeping the mind messy with hatred growing on the table, regrets piling up in the corner, expectations boiling in the kitchen, secrets stuffed under the carpet, and worries littered everywhere ruins this real home.  The key factor to performing well in life and in every arena is the ability to control the quality and quantity of your internal dialogue. Performance is potential minus internal interference. Live in peace, not in pieces”.

  Looking forward to ‘seeing’ you all at the AGM on Friday.

Yours,

 

Ann Hope-Bailie

President - Rotary Club of Rosebank

Last Friday....

The Ambassador to the Holy Sea had been invited by Lorenzo to address us last Friday, but sadly due to lockdown restrictions in Italy he was unable to travel to Palestrina for the meeting. 

Melodene spontaneously took this opportunity to persuade Elizabeth Louw, who is the Head of the College of Orientation and Mobility to address us and tell us a little more about the White Cane Project, which our Club had supported in previous years, and wish to add to the 2021 list of deserving Community Services Projects.

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Elizabeth Louw, whose background is in education, writes all the manuals and sets all the exams for the the trainees.

It is a 2 year NQF Level 5 course and you then obtain a SETA accredited Diploma in Orientation and Mobility, and as a practitioner you are then able to go into the community and provide visual impaired children and adults with a long cane, visual skills and daily living skills training at no cost.

You learn to teach people how to use the long cane and the skills of daily living, such as cooking, cleaning and identifying money.

One qualified practitioner can train between 40 and 45 persons per year.

White canes have evolved over the years.

They are imported and cost about R450. They do however last several years.

They are an extension of your senses and give a sight-impaired person mobility and a feeling of independence.

60% of all sight-impaired persons are over the age of 40 and have lost their vision later in life due to glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy, which are the main contributors to blindness

In normal years the Guide Dog Association under which the College for Orientation and Mobility falls would have been able to raise R100 000 in donations, but in 2020 their fundraising initiatives were also sorely affected by the pandemic, and thus they only managed to augment their coffers with a mere R28 000.

Community Service in Action....

After last Friday meeting President Ann, Sybille and Sonja met Stephan Ferreira of Charity Begins with Me at the Norwood Spar to assist him with the collection of food items that he had requested on his wish list for the distribution to the community of various informal settlements in the Durban Deep area near Krugersdorp. 

What made this particularly special is that this was not a mere act of goodwill, but a economic transaction. Stephan has created a recycling swap shop in the community and the residents will receive food items in exchange for recyclable material such as plastic and tins, which in turn is then passed on to the waste collectors who will be able to sell it to the various waste management companies.

It is Stephan's  aim is to instill dignity to these communities so that they learn  not to only rely on hand-outs, but that they have to do something in return for the food they receive.

Who remembers this?

This Friday.....

Please heed our President's call and make every effort to attend the AGM on Friday.

Zoom makes it possible!