From the Pen of the President...
On August 9, 1956, there was a staged march on the Union Buildings of Pretoria. Over 20,000 women of all races attended the march in order to protest against the Urban Areas Act of 1950 amendments. This law required all South Africans defined as “black” to carry an internal passport that served to maintain segregation, control urbanization, and manage migrant labor during apartheid. The women left 14,000 petitions at the office doors of the prime minister. 100,000 signatures were left outside the prime minister’s door as well as a thirty-minute silent protest. After the silent protest, songs were sung to honour the event, to make sure their voices were heard. The song they sang was composed specifically for the event, titled “Wathint’Abafazi Wathint’imbokodo” which translates to “Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock.”
29.7 million – the number of females in South Africa as of 2019.
40 billion – the number of hours spent by women in sub-Saharan Africa collecting water.
⅔ – of the world’s 796 million illiterate people are women.
1 in 3 – women around the world experience violence.
2.7 billion – the number of women who don’t have the same work opportunities as men.
82 million – the number of women worldwide who don’t have any legal protections against workplace discrimination.
650 million – the number of women who are married before the age of 18 across the world.
Let’s celebrate women – our mothers, grandmothers and friends!!
Ann Hope-Bailie
Club President
Last Friday...
...through the power of technology, our e-member Lorenzo Locatelli-Rossi, who is spending the summer with his family on the Danish Island of Fanø, hopped on to his scooter with his video camera and gave us a virtual tour of his surroundings.
Fanø is a small island off the West coast of Denmark, and is a mere 16 km long and 3 km wide. It has a population of 3000 souls and is a popular weekend and holiday destination as it is only a 12 minute ferry ride from the mainland. Copenhagen is 1 1/2 hours away. Germany is also not far away and many Germans have built holiday homes on the island.
Lorenzo took us down to the harbour just as a ferry was arriving, and pointed out a few of the 60 -70 wind turbines that have been erected just out to sea.
Ferries arrive and depart frequently and the cost is an affordable 5 Euros one-way.
We also had the great pleasure of meeting his lovely daughter Anna Maria.
Lorenzo then took us into the village which boasts an old age home, a cinema, a nine hole golf course, croquet ground and in Lorenzo's opinion the best butcher in Denmark. On the outskirts there is a little forest which is the home to an abundance of rabbits.
It was a wonderful whirlwind tour of this beautiful little island. And we had good weather!
Thank you Lorenzo for sharing it with us and giving us some insights into your second home.
Picnic in the Park.....
Early risers joined Ann in the Wilds for a picnic breakfast and a stroll through the beautifully maintained gardens. It is heartwarming to see that this Johannesburg landmark is once again worth a visit.
RLI Training Program...
This past weekend Sybille attended Part 3 of the RLI Certificate course as well as Part A of the RLI Graduate course.
The course content of Part 3 consisted of:
- Strategic Planning
- Foundation & International Service
- Public Image and Public Relations
- Building a Stronger Club
- Making a Difference
and Part A:
- Motivating Volunteers
- Membership Issues
We were hosted by the Rotary Club of Henley-on Klip/Meyerton who pulled out all the stops to make all the delegates feel welcome and well-fed. Thank you Fiona Brokensha for delicious lunches and the best carrot cake south of the Border.
Trainers Wendy Damoes and Rita Millan made the subject matter relevant and interesting and we all walked away feeling enriched, motivated and empowered.
RLI Training is ongoing and continuous, so please watch this space as more courses are being planned and will be held in the closer Johannesburg area in September.
And more people will be kept warm...
A NGO close to President Ann's heart is Let's Work, run by the tireless Felicity Lawlor, and today they benefited from a delivery of blankets donated by the King Edward VII School
Unfortunately we did not get to meet Felicity as she was running urgent errands, but Sibusiso and Clare gratefully accepted the blankets on her behalf.
If you would like to find out more about Let's Work you may click into this link.
This Friday....
.... let us welcome guest speaker Eric Dabbs.
Eric Dabbs is from
Surrey, England. After an undergraduate degree from Cambridge he completed a
PhD at Harvard Medical School in the U.S. followed by a decade of research at
the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in West Berlin. He then moved
to South Africa where he was Professor of Genetics at Wits before retiring in
2011. A major part of his life since then has been travel: in countries
visited, during this journey through the Baltic States he passed the 100 mark.
And in Closing....
From Lyn Collocott:
The grass is turning green in front of our eyes, loadshedding has been suspended and I'm singing ' Looks like we made it' from Shania Twains famous song. .... ..
It's been a tough couple of years, but think what our Club has achieved: *100 online Quizzes
* A fully hybrid Club
* Blanket drive and Norwood food collections going strong.
And this Rotary year...
*The Careers Day was an outstanding success.
* President Ann hosted a most enjoyable Walk on the Wilds side.
And to come.....
- 28 August - A couple of hours of planting and clean up at the Sensory Garden in Delta Park.
- 14 September - A Rotarian table taking part in the Anns Bridge Drive.
- 17 September - World Clean Up Day....We will be taking care of a beautiful part of the Braamfontein Spruit.
- October is the Youth Leadership Course... Rotarians are always invited to the Sunday braai.
- Also, our fundraising quiz at Parkview Golf course.
- Vocational Awards.....
- Regular skittle evenings..
The list goes on. .
We are a magic Club ....And yes, we have made it.
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