Guest Speaker Josephine Sidambe promotes Eco-bricks, Emma's Exchange Journey continues, The Power of Social Media and Sybille attends a meeting of the Rotary Club of Newlands in the Cape....

 From the Pen of the President...

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 

We are called on, presently, to be extra patient – loadshedding, water restrictions, low water levels in our reservoirs. It can be very trying for those living in Johannesburg – but, hey, we have a new mayor!! (yes, another one!!)

Looking on the bright side may not be easy – this is what we need to do – be grateful for all our many Blessings, look around at the beautiful shades of green and prolific gardens. We have fabulous parks to walk in.

I was inspired by the Eco Brick talk – lets go all out and fill those bottles – it really is something easy to get on with.

When I drive around in the city it strikes me that if everyone played a small part, then things could look a lot better – if every household, street group could clean up their own verges and pavements?? It makes me smile to see beautifully cut grass verges with weeds growing in the street!!

That is my beef for the week – have a good one!!

 

Ann

 

Last Friday...

.....We had the privilege of listening to Josephine Sidambe, a founding member and director of the Earthly Touch Foundation, a Non-Profit organization, whose main focus is the collection and repurposing of plastic waste into eco-bricks. At this stage they only have a presence in Gauteng. 

Josephine has worked for over 20 years in supply chain management, construction, project management and facilities management for large companies. 

Together with Diana Musara they are the driving force behind the eco-brick project of Khensani Collection in Diepsloot, where the very first eco-brick classroom was constructed in 2020.

Unfortunately due to loadshedding Josephine was unable to share a short but powerful YouTube clip which tells the story of the building of this classroom.

Josephine is on a constant drive to address and educate school children about how they can reduce and combat plastic pollution by making eco-bricks, thereby reducing their carbon footprint.

So far 10 schools in and around Gauteng are actively involved in making eco-bricks.

The Earthly Touch Foundation also works closely with the Diepsloot community where waste collection is non-existent and encourages particularly women and children to repurpose the tons of plastic waste that is produced daily.

Making a correct eco-brick is quite an art; the non-recyclable plastic waste that goes into the two liter  plastic cooldrink bottles has to be solidly compacted and should weigh a minimum of 500g. 

Community Services chair Sybille, who is herself very passionate about the eco-brick project thanked Josephine for her very insightful presentation and in keeping with environmental sustainability James Croswell presented our guest speaker with a spekboom plant.

Emma's Journey continues...

Emma reports that she has a wonderful host family; dad Steffen and mom Bea Noak, daughter Helene is 16 years old and Isabelle is 11. Her German is coming along very well but making new friends is quite challenging. Learning the periodic tables in German seems very strange to her.

 She loves the ham and coffee but misses the South African "tjops" and steak.

It is bitterly cold and they have had quite a bit of snow, but despite the snow they cycle to school every day.

This is Emma tobogganing.

And after an outing in the snow what is better than to warm up with a mug of "Heisse Schokolade mit Sahne".

She has also started fencing lessons, which she enjoys tremendously and has acquired a fencing glove.

This is a video Emma made to showcase South Africa

Social Media highlights the good work RC Rosebank does...

The Rotary Club of Rosebank supports Charity Begins With Me not only because of Stephan Ferreira’s selfless work, but because of the dignity he is instilling in the Durban Deep community and his endeavors to uplift its people.

This is Stephan Ferreira's Facebook post which is worth sharing:

Charity Begins With Me

opodnrseSt311ic3a3fl0gcmh66t9tflh7i02mt8lfmlfa4ch73u9m91h40c  · 

Every year our amazing friends at Norwood Spar have a trolley where people can buy and drop donated groceries for our other friends at the Rotary Club of Rosebank.

Many charities benefit from this initiative and we were again blessed to be on the receiving end as well.

Thank you to each and every person at Rotary Rosebank, Norwood Spar, and all the customers who made this possible!

A Visit to a Meeting of the Rotary Club of Newlands....

Last Monday evening the Ramble editor Sybille had the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Rotary Club of Newlands. Sybille knows PP Shan Biesman-Simmons, who roped her in to say the Fourway Test.

It was a lively evening made memorable by the visit of several Rotary members from the USA, who had read an article in their monthly Rotary America magazine of an educational project, the LEAP Science and Math Schools, that RC Newlands supports, with the wish to donate a sum of dollars for this worthy cause.

This Friday....

.... Should be very interesting as Ward Councillor Tim Truluck will paint a picture of what his job entails.

Let's give him a warm Rosebank Rotary welcome.

We say farewell to James Byrne RIP, Rotary Exchange Student Emma's first few days and see who the Club 100 December and January winners were.....

 From the Pen of the President.....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 

It was a reflective meeting on Friday – sad to learn details about someone when they have already passed.

I found this poem really got me thinking, because EVERY life is a life well lived when you really get down and think about it, besides, who are we to judge??

 

A life well lived is a precious gift, Of hope and strength and grace,

from someone who has made our world a brighter, better place.

 

It’s filled with moments, sweet and sad, with smiles and sometimes tears,

With friendships formed and good times shared, and laughter through the years.

 

A life well lived is a legacy, of joy and pride and pleasure,

A living, lasting memory our grateful heart’s will treasure.

 

The message I wanted to convey during the first part of the meeting:

1. As a Club we should be looking at succession planning
2. New Members should be taking up roles and learning the ropes
3. Training is becoming something our Club is measured on – all members are required to do some Rotary training.

That’s me for this week!!

Have a goodie and let’s get some projects going.

Ann

 

 

Last Friday...

....we celebrated the life of James Byrne, who was called to Higher Service on the 4th of January of this year. He had not been well for a while but our almoner David Bradshaw had spoken to him the day before he passed away and we trust that he knew that his Rotary family had kept him in their prayers.

After the general club matters had been concluded Roger Wedlake, who knew James the longest,was called upon to begin the memorial proceedings. In his hand he held a little stick, explaining that according to Jewish lore when Sitting Shiva  after the passing of a loved one, a Talking Stick was passed around as a communication tool used to foster an atmosphere of active listening and respect. Only the bearer of the Talking Stick has the right to speak and those present must listen quietly to what is being said. The Talking Stick is then passed on to other speakers in turn.

Roger met James in 1969 in Shannon, Ireland shortly after they had both finished university. They were both scientists working for De Beers, manufacturing synthetic diamonds.

In Roger's words: James was an interesting character. He was very intelligent and held very strong points of view. His memory was exceptional. Roger remarked that if he were to have to phone a friend on the popular TV show Who wants to be a Millionaire, James would be his man. For all his cleverness he however lacked common sense and never managed to monetize his intelligence. Although he was a scientist he tried his hand at being a financial advisor but that did not end well.

James loved the Great Outdoors and in his younger years headed up a camping club in South Africa.  He also found the time to do charitable work and was an active Round Table member before becoming a founding member of the Rotary Club of Parktown Excalibur where he met fellow members Pierre Rossouw, Jan Jalloh, Peter James-Smith and Costa Qually, who were present on Friday to honour James' memory. 

In his final years James' eyesight deteriorated quite badly which meant that he was no longer able to drive, but Roger would pick him up for the Friday meetings and the members of the Rotary Club of Rosebank represented his last friends.

Roger  passed on the Talking Stick to James Croswell, who commented on James' broad Irish accent which he never lost, even after many years in South Africa.

Then it was one of James' brothers turn to avail himself of the Talking Stick. He spoke on behalf the Byrne family who had flown across the Pond from Ireland to be part of his farewell and to attend to James' final affairs. In his family he had been lovingly referred to as JJ.  It was very evident how grateful his blood family was to his Rotary family for their friendship. They had made a collective decision that all James' remaining worldly possessions would go to Charity.

Peter James-Smith regaled us with his memories of spending many happy weekends with James and his wife Mary at a various game farms - a friend for life.

Costa jokingly added that Mary had her good-natured husband under her thumb, and that he always had a tall tale to tell, provided that you understood his accent.

James' caregiver was the person that would have been with him in his final days and when the Talking Stick was given to her she added what a kindhearted and gentle soul he had been and how saddened she is by his passing.

The proceedings closed with Roger's invitation to retire to the Wanderer's bar, with the quip that you cannot drink all day if you don't start in the morning.

Rotary Exchange Student Emma's first few days.....

It goes without saying that Michelle is in touch with her daughter via WhatsApp on a constant basis, and the Ramble editor has tasked her to forward all the photos and report backs to her so that we can share Emma's journey with her Rotary family.

Emma has settled in well at 
her school and her classmates
raised funds for a school hoodie

A visit to the picturesque town of Görlitz, which is 55 km away 
from Weißwasser, on the Polish border.

From there Emma hopped across into Poland itself. It had snowed recently and there was still sufficient snow left for her to build her first snowman, however small. She then indulged in a hot chocolate and some delicious German torte.

An observation when going to a proper German restaurant was that everything gets doused with cheese.

Next week, next episode....

This Friday....

... we are excited for Josephine Sitambe from the Earthly Earthly Touch Foundation who is passionate about  EcoBricks to address our club.  It promises to be an enlightening presentation.

Earthly Touch Foundation

Earthly Touch Foundation (ETF) is a Non-Profit organisation whose main focus is to contribute to the reduction of global warming through collection of plastic waste and repurposing it into eco-bricks which are then used for construction, making of furniture, and in agriculture. The organisation was registered in 2020 operating out of Gauteng with the main focus in training and education of communities on the impact of plastic pollution and how they can participate in saving their own environment from the impact of plastic pollution. ETF is BBBEE level 1 with its activities aimed at benefiting previously disadvantaged communities through training, skills development and job creation jobs within their own environment.

 

Upcycling is the new buzz word and our Rotary Exchange Student Emma spreads her wings...

From the Pen of the President.....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

The heat over the past week has been amazing – everywhere in the world it seems that climate conditions are extreme. This scenario is what prompted environmental programs and the recycling of waste. We were presented with a unique way of upcycling waste at Friday's meeting. I think the aim is to not use anything which cannot be reused or repurposed and have another life!!

There are thousands of projects on the go and organizations to consult in this regard. You can recycle your waste and be a responsible citizen, do not expect to have someone do it for you. You can also assist with reducing waste and even make money from waste and do a ‘spring clean’ and donate your unused goods, past their prime clothes or out of date paraphernalia. There are no acceptable excuses – GET TO IT!! 

This week we will be celebrating the life of Rotarian James Byrne (Friday) and also Past Ann President Carol Lawrence (Thursday) – this is the circle of life!!

May their souls rest in peace.

Ann

Last Friday....

.... was a Friday the 13th. There are various theories as to the origins of the common superstition why this day is considered unlucky. Roger Wedlake shared one of them with us: On Friday the 13th 1307 Phillip the IV of France rounded up representatives of the very influential Knights Templar, a monastic military order, accusing them of trumped up crimes. They were brutally tortured and eventually burned at the stake. Thus began the infamous Inquisition.

One of our guests on Friday was former Rotarian Derrick Lange who was asked to tell us a little bit about himself. Now, well into his 70s he relayed the account that at the age of 50 he pushed a wheelbarrow for 660 km from the Zimbabwe border to Johannesburg with the aim of raising awareness for cancer. He did this under the Rotary banner and managed to raise R107 000, which was a sizeable amount of money over 20 years ago.

Unfortunately the only photo we have of Derrick is one that I took of my laptop screen. Due to loadshedding constraints the photo is a little grainy.

We were privileged to welcome Mark Fruhauf and his wife Winnie McHenry from the Upcycle Foundation to address our Club and tell us a little bit more about the concept of upcycling.

They were introduced by Rita Millan from RC Northcliff, who met Winnie 20 years ago and  is passionate about wanting to share the extraordinary work that Mark, Winnie and her team have accomplished.

The Upcycle Foundation had its beginnings in 2006. Winnie was a design and development consultant and applies her god-given creativity and ability to think out of the box to use literally anything that you and I might discard or throw away and repurpose it and breathe new life into it.

Mark was at pains to point out that there is a vast difference between recycling and upcycling. Recycling is the destruction of waste in order to create something new, whereas with upcycling you reengineer  waste and create something new from  it's current state, thereby increasing its value.

Mark uses the example of a vinyl record, where the record sleeve might be recycled with the input of energy, water and chemicals; the record itself would more than likely end up in landfill. Why not upcycle the record sleeve and make a gift bag, and turn the record itself into a wall clock?

In 2009 Upcycle had a breakthrough when Investec ordered 5000 branded drinking glasses as corporate gifts.

This was the first test of upcycling as a mass production model.

Upcycle also has a memorandum of understanding with several large companies whereby they will take on their advertising material, clothing or gifting that has been misbranded or is out of date and de-brand the items. They remove the identity and then on-sell them, thereby raising funds to  enable to do more. training.

A good example are the 60 backpacks that we as  Club  purchased from Upcycle towards the end of last year to donate to Charity Begins With Me for one of their school projects.

James Croswell thanked Mark and Winnie for their very insightful presentation with a home grown spekboom plant.

Again, apologies for the poor quality of the photo.

Our Rotary Exchange Student Emma finally spreads her Wings...

The build-up to Emma's departure to Germany has been nothing short of frenetic and last Wednesday she finally boarded a flight to Amsterdam and from there flew on to Dresden where she was met by her host family.

Terry Cannon, from the District Youth Exchange Committee, AG Jean Bernardo and President Ann were there to bid her Bon Voyage and God Speed. 

We have no doubt that Emma will be a worthy ambassador for Rotary and for South Africa.

May she soar!! 

Please click into the short video Emma compiled before heading out.

This Friday....

.....we will have our first Business Meeting for 2023. Please join the meeting to find out what plans the Rotary Club of Rosebank has in store for the balance of the Rotary Year.

 From the Pen of the President....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 

Hot off the Press!! Announced today!! 2023-24 presidential theme, Create Hope in the World. Looking forward to that – but let’s spend the next 6 month’s Imagining Rotary!!

January is Vocational Service month – Vocational Service focuses on:

- Adherence to and promotion of the highest ethical standards in all occupations, including fair treatment of employers, employees, associates, competitors, and the public.

- The recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, not just those that are pursued by Rotarians.

- The contribution of your vocational talents to solving the problems of society and meeting the needs of the community.

 

Our Exchange Student Emma leaves for Germany this week and we wish her safe travels, wonderful experiences and happy times. We look forward to hearing from her.

 

We got the sad news of James Byrne’s passing this week and we will be honouring his memory at our meeting on 20^th January.

 

Hope 2023 is a great year for all of you – let’s get back to work and get our projects back on track.

Have a good week and do not give up on those resolutions too soon!!

 

   Ann Hope-Bailie

Last Friday....

... was the first club meeting for 2023, and as a number of members are still not back from their well-deserved breaks it was a very relaxed social meeting where those members attending where given the opportunity to share what they had gotten up to during the Rotary break.

The Ramble editor-at-large attended the meeting via Zoom from Stanford in the Cape. Sybille has relocated to the Cape, and will in future be participating remotely. 

It was quite interesting to take part from a distance, particularly because it was a social meeting without a fixed agenda where everyone was just shooting the breeze and most of the time it was fairly easy to follow the conversations in the room.

Sybille gave a brief account of her 13 day, 2000 km  road trip that she undertook with her niece, which took her to Gaberone in Botswana to Kimberley, then Aliwal North, visiting with friend on her beautifully green farm in the Karoo, finally down to the sea at St. Francis Bay, on to Barrydale via the Outeniqua Pass, Oudtshoorn and Route 62 and arriving in Stanford at her nephew's lodge in time for Christmas.

On the other side of the world Lorenzo spent a cold and snowy Christmas in Denmark. A few days before Christmas both his daughters contracted Covid and had to isolate, so it was the first time in many years that Lorenzo spent Christmas alone with his wife.

Mike and Louise Honnet recently returned from a trip Down Under to visit their children in Brisbane, who they had not seen in three years. He reports that the Brisbane CBD is very compact alongside a river (or creek as it is called in Australia) but that the rest of the city is very spread out; most houses are built of wood on stilts because of occasional floods and also for airflow as it gets hot and humid there. They spent a few days at he lovely beach resort of Noosa which is a 2 hour drive north of Brisbane.

Mike was amazed at the weird and wonderful birdlife all around them, like the kookaburra.

President Ann and John spent Christmas with her children in the Cape and spent 4 luxurious days at the Frog Mountain Getaway in Swellendam, and her highlight there was a woodfired hot tub.

Pam Donaldson went fly fishing  in KZN with her brother but remarked that they had torrential rains and temperatures that did not go much above 12 degrees.

Lyn Collocott  had much better weather in Kenton-on-Sea and told us that the Rotary Club there had managed to raise R500 000 for the NSRI with a very successful fundraising event.

Les Short was only a hop, skip and a jump from there in Cannon Rocks and also commented on sunny skies.

Tutty and his wife went bundu-bashing through the Eastern Cape to accompany their grandson who was taking part in a rowing competition on the Cowie River.

Two members who had clearly not gone away were Charmaine Leesman and Anne Padmore. They both work in Pretoria and are only ever able to attend meetings online, so it was a huge pleasure to have them attend Friday's meeting in person. For their efforts they were rewarded with cup cakes that Ann had brought to celebrate her birthday.

This Friday....

...we welcome guest speaker Mark Fruhauf, CEO of Upcycle Foundation.

The Upcycle Foundation focuses on the upliftment of the youth and the impoverished. Through their programs they help turn the people they engage with into entrepreneurs, who help us clean up our planet by working with "waste" generated by business an individuals alike.

At Upcycle they believe in the inherent value of all humans and things.