The Rotary Community Corp of Alexandra gets showcased, Clem Sunter enthralled and the Rotary Anns made some children very happy with their knitting.....

 From the Pen of our President....

District has plans to establish a Rotary office/centre adjacent to the Humanitarian centre. Concept drawings are impressive and I will send copies of these to members this coming week. The Humanitarian centre will resume full operations once the worst of the current Covid wave is over. Books can still be collected provided you arrange this with Jeremy Phillips of the Bedfordview club in advance. The Humanitarian centre is not a district function - it is a Bedfordview project with sizeable funding provided by Jeremy.

Members are encouraged to do one or more online training courses. There are a number to choose from and will benefit you.

Many thanks to Sonja for organising the Clem Sunter event.  Positive comments were received from several of those who participated.

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

Last Friday.....

Our speaker  was Charles Mphephu who is the Chairperson of the Rotary Community Corps of Alexandra and an active community leader in Alexandra who speaks 8 different languages. He has diplomas in Business Management and Project Management. He is currently employed as a Project Coordinator with the Health Department of the City of Johannesburg. In this role he supervises and monitors field workers and reports to the Regional HIV and AIDS Operational Manager. He arranges in-service training and establishes community action groups in consultation with his ward Councillor to deal with issues of development and programmes involved in the support of people living with HIV and AIDS, especially children and child headed families. Charles works closely with the Men’s’ Forum of Alexandra who volunteer their time to combat Gender Based Violence. As a Rotarian he is currently working with the Institute of Applied Alchemy and the Rotary Satellite Club of Sandton Central to develop additional projects in this field. He was instrumental in setting up the Rotary Community Corps of Alexandra. DG Stella had the pleasure of recognizing Charles as Paul Harris Fellow. What is equally important, from a Rotary perspective, is that Rotary is being recognised and promoted in Alexandra.  

An RCC is an entity of Rotary International who work in partnership with Rotary Clubs to improve their communities through service projects. They can be leveraged in every stage of a project, from conducting community assessments to project planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation as they assist the needy members of the Alexandra Community. They hold one thing in common – they each are committed to their community’s long-term development and self-sufficiency and being leaders displaying Rotary values.

As a special expression of appreciation club members offered donations to enable the Community Corp members to carry out an array of programs. James, together with his son donated 6 000 fortified instant chicken soup flavoured meals with 24 added vitamins and 9 chelated minerals. For the RCC’s upcoming project at the Banakekeleni Orphanage, Costa donated 800 soup meals and Pam donated 7 kgs of fortified vitamin enriched peanut butter for a sandwich to add to the winter soup.

Supporting a Rotary Community Corps is a great way of empowering young leaders to solve their community’s problems and enhancing Rotary’s reach and impact.

(Thank you James Croswell for penning this article)

Also.....

We had our first official Zoom Raid last Friday with the following Sandton Central members attending our meeting:

David Grant, Charles Mphephu, Grace Dube, Allan Carter and Beata Gelderbloem and guest Michelle Strydom, who is interested in becoming a Rotarian.

Welcome!!

Clem Sunter's Presentation a resounding success...

A very big thank you has to go to Sonja Hood for organizing another successful well attended fundraiser. We are so grateful that Clem Sunter agreed to donate his precious time to share some thought provoking insights of his world view.

Terry Winship once again made sure that everything ran smoothly and thanks to her we have a recording of his presentation that we would like to share with you.

https://youtu.be/5qU-sw2d3X0

The next "Save the Date" that we would like you to pen into your diaries is our annual Quiz Fundraiser taking place on Wednesday the 20th October at the Parkview Golf Club.

An appeal goes out to all members to please help us with raffle prizes.

Winter Woollies warm little hearts....

It is always heartwarming when one sees that one's labour of love makes a difference in a child's life. This past long weekend Sybille spent some time in the District of Giyani in Limpopo where she met with renowned Dr. Coenie Louw, CEO of Gateway Health Institute and she had the opportunity of gifting a few children with beanies, jerseys and scarves that the Rosebank Rotary Anns had lovingly knitted. Pictures were taken with the permission of the mothers.

This Friday....

Apart from it being Membership Month at Rotary, it's Woman's Month as well in August and so it is only fitting that Anne Padmore will be sharing her story with us.