Fit to Eat, PETS, a Business Meeting, Careers Feedback & The Council on Legislation.

Last Week

Cooking for yet another Rotary function

I gave an impromptu talk on 'Fit to Eat - the Development of SA Cuisine' as our guest speaker, Soraya Hendricks, was taken ill.

Henry Jensen brought along two more artists who exhibit at our Art Exhibition, Dini Condy and Nicci Olivier.  They are standing next to their particular work.  Unusually, Nicci is exhibiting a linocut.  I was amazed.  I didn't think lino still existed.
As always, it was a great pleasure having artists visit us.

PETS

The Rosebank Pets Parade

It's an acronym for President Elect Training Session...not a Bunny in sight!  

The main message that came out of this was the importance of every member registering with My Rotary 

 https://www.rotary.org/myrotary/en/home

Just click on this link to register.  It is necessary that we achieve a certain percentage of membership registered for a Presidential Citation this Rotary Year and the percentage is higher next year.  Also the Citation requirements for next Rotary Year include quite a number of things that need to be posted on our Club's page on My Rotary.  Nicole Bilap-Nsegbe is posting many of the things we need to be on our page.

It has taken along time for Rotary to hit the 21st Century electronically where membership communication is concerned.  As a progressive Rotary Club we at Rosebank Johannesburg must be 100% there, so make sure you are registered.

This Week

It's a Business Meeting.  When asked, at PETS, what made a meeting boring I said "A Business Meeting" and some Rotarians definitely avoid going to them.  

The reason is that much time is spent reporting on the Board Meeting and there is no time for any meaningful discussion without any preparation time.  We have to re-think how we do this.

Careers Day Feedback

We still haven't got it.  Though here is something special.  Jane Lagaay on the Logistics Base identified a Grade 12 they were interested in possibly employing and invited her to spend two days at Supergroup.

Here is the letter that Jane received from Palesa Madlhejwane:

Good day,
I hope this finds you well.I would love to thank you for contributing to my growth, because of my experience at Supergroup I had the opportunity to not only be told about systems but I worked with the system and learnt that if you take care of what you work with it will take care of you. 
When I spent the beginning  of my first morning with Mandy the core of what we discussed was the make-or break of Logistics  which is the dependency of systems on each other. It's more of a ripple effect where every element is the beginning of another and the outcome of one.
When I went to the warehouse I saw the element of dependency of this business where a sense of urgency ,is required to keep the operations moving at a normal  pace. 
Today I went to customer services where I worked with Ashley and saw the beginning of the processes of what I did earlier and this is where I did find it a challenge comprehending but my difficulties in customer services helped me easily understand the response with Lendi. It was interesting to see communication being the driving force of this section along with accuracy as if   communication  fails or accuracy there will no be balance in anyway to the expected profit and the one received. 
I did end the day with Corrie who is very confident about his work and acknowledged the uncertainty of business.   He then explained performance based remuneration which stood out for me.  Very often people don't value what you hold dear as much as you will and its plain and simple, in a sense, that you get what you give and only then will you be defined apart from those around you.
Above all I enjoyed  seeing weaknesses that were acknowledged and developed or strengths that were recognised. I also admired the fact that everyone looks after each other as at the end of the day it will not be an individual who suffers but the group. 
I really appreciate you taking your time and resources to further open a door which I did not know could reach that far.
Thank you for the gift and if ever again the opportunity to work again with the team of Supergroup. Thank you for your patience, please do not hesitate  to contact me again if you need me.


Palesa

COUNCIL ON LEGISLATION TO MEET IN CHICAGO 10-15 APRIL

Representatives at the 2013 Council on Legislation hold up green cards to demonstrate a yes vote on a motion.

Photo Credit: Rotary Images

Representatives from Rotary clubs worldwide will gather in Chicago 10-15 April to consider changes to the policies that guide Rotary International and its member clubs.

The Council on Legislation meets every three years and is an essential part of Rotary's governance. The representatives -- one from each Rotary district -- review and vote on proposals that seek to change Rotary's constitutional documents and on resolutions that express an opinion or make a recommendation to the Rotary International Board of Directors.

Get live updates and daily vote totals on My Rotary beginning 11 April.

Many of this year's proposed changes are designed to increase membership by giving clubs greater flexibility in the timing and the nature of their meetings. Other proposals would amend membership requirements.

Over the decades, Council representatives have debated virtually every nuance of Rotary policy and membership and attendance rules. The five-day meeting is one of Rotary's primary agents for change, allowing the organization to evaluate and enhance its relevance in a rapidly changing world.

Speech Pathology & Audiology, BOPCP, a Stop Gap Talk, Politics and the Tsunami of 2004

Last Week

Dr Karin Joubert and Dr Victor de Andrade form the Discipline of Speech Pathology & Audiology at Wits gave us an interesting presentation on what the "Discipline" does.  Why Discipline and not Faculty?  It sounds as if they discipline their students...maybe they do.  

It's all about communication difficulties, whether they are for physical or psychological reasons or a combination of the two so they offer a multidisciplinary course resulting in a dual degree in Speech & Hearing Therapy in four years.  I'm sure that if I was starting out on a university career it would be a fascinating course to consider because the opportunities for specialisation are endless and it provides the knowledge to really make a difference to people's lives in a South African context.

In 2014 the Ndlovu Wits Audiology Clinic was established in Limpopo Province.  From small beginnings they have seen 5 500 patients by the end of December 2015 which is an amazing achievement.

As are their plans for the future:

Audiological services

§Ototoxicity monitoring of patients with HIV/AIDS as well as TB

§UNHS: Discussions with DoH expansion of screening services (e.g. Philadelphia hospital and outlying clinics)

§Mobile booth

§School health screening teams

Health promotion

Capacity building

§Develop ear and hearing health module for NNU training

§Cerumen Management training for nurses

§Establish support group for Deaf and hearing impaired individuals and their families

§Explore bursaries for deserving learners from the community to study Audiology (2017)

Research

§Continue with various research projects

§Publication of results

Strategies to ensure the sustainability of the programme

Friday 22nd April Meeting Baragwanath Outreach Palliative Care Project 
President Neville has mentioned the importance of this in his column.  Please do your best to attend and bring along any guests who may be interested.
BOPCP is a landmark project for the club and under James Croswell's leadership we have shown a depth of knowledge, expertise, ability and commitment within our Rotary Club that as members we can take great pride in.
I can say that without prejudice as I have had no involvement with the project other than as an observer.

PETS & RLI Courses. 9th & 16th April
I am delighted that we will have 5 members attending PETS and 5 also attending various sections of the RLI Course the following week.  It's important the club maintains a good profile at trainings because it shows commitment to keeping abreast of the latest trends within District and Rotary International.

This Week

Soraya Hendricks was going to talk about "Stranger Danger" and her children's book that addresses the issue.  I have just heard, whilst writing this, that she has been taken ill and we will need to reschedule her talk.  I have agreed to give a stop gap talk......it will almost certainly be about food.

From the District Governor

I have always been concerned when a politician has been invited to address a Rotary Meeting or when a Paul Harris Fellowship has been presented to a politician as I have always felt that it was contrary to the

principles of Rotary.  The following letter from our District Governor sums it up:

Dear Fellow Rotarian

During this period of intense local and national government politics that is tempting some direct and forthright comment in the media and social pages from us as individuals, I would like to remind Rotarians as to the organisation’s rules regarding Rotary and politics. These rules are important  as to perform the full function of our organisation Rotary must not be aligned to any political persuasion or party. RI specifically requests that Clubs shall not use the Rotary name for the purpose of furthering political campaigns. Any use of Rotary fellowship to gain political advantage is foreign to the spirit of Rotary’ (CoP 33.040.1).

The 2013 MOP, p7 states:

Politics
RI and its member clubs refrain from issuing partisan political statements.
Rotarians are prohibited from adopting statements with a view to exerting any pressure on governments or political authorities. However, it is the duty of Rotarians

1. In their clubs, to keep under review political developments in their own communities and throughout the world insofar as they affect service to their vocations and communities as well as the pursuit of the Rotary objective of world understanding and peace. They are expected to seek reliable information through balanced programs and discussions so that members can reach their own conclusions after a fair, collective examination of the issues.
2. Outside their clubs, to be active as individuals in as many legally constituted groups and organizations as possible to promote, not only in words but through exemplary dedication, awareness of the dignity of all people and the respect of the consequent human rights of the individual. (89-134, RCP 2.100.)

The Rotary Code of Policy (Jan 2016)  covers this as follows:
 

• Clubs and Politics

RI and its member clubs must refrain from issuing partisan political statements. Rotarians likewise are prohibited from adopting statements with a view to exerting any corporate pressure on governments or political authorities. (October 2013 Mtg., Bd. Dec. 31)

And

33.040.1. Use of Name for Political Means
Clubs shall not use the Rotary name for the purpose of furthering political campaigns. Any use of Rotary fellowship to gain political advantage is foreign to the spirit of Rotary. (June 1998 Mtg., Bd. Dec. 348).


Please bear this position in mind when submitting articles to newspapers, especially when reporting club activities and speakers at club meetings, taking part in radio and TV interviews and when posting or forwarding material on the social media. Some of the social media material is eloquent and very tempting to share with our ‘friends’. Please ensure that anything that you do share on the social media cannot be linked back to Rotary through your facebook or equivalent profile. Please consider setting up a second profile that has no connection to Rotary from which you can express your opinions freely and without the risk of implied Rotary connections.

Kind regards

David
District Governor
Rotary District 9400

A WAVE OF COMPASSION

Kerstin Jeska-Thorwart (left) talks with a nurse at the Mahamodara Teaching Hospital in Galle, Sri Lanka.

Photo Credit: Rotary International / Alyce Henson

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From the April 2016 issue of The Rotarian

What Kerstin Jeska-Thorwart remembers is the silence. No birds chirping, no dogs barking, no car engines revving. Nothing. “I’ve never heard such a silence before, and never since,” she says. “I knew something must have happened.”

It was 9:35 the morning after Christmas 2004, and in Sri Lanka, it was a Poya Day, a Buddhist public holiday held every full moon. Jeska-Thorwart, a lawyer from Germany, was on vacation in Hikkaduwa, on the island’s southwestern coast. Any other morning of her holiday she and her husband would have been on the beach, but today they stayed back at their vacation home, up a small hill about a half-mile from the water’s edge, to clean and prepare for guests.

After a few minutes, sound returned, as though it had been switched on. Now she heard people running, crying. She went down the main road to see what had happened. She saw people in swimming suits, shoeless, covered in blood.

They told her there was a big wave.

The tsunami, as she later learned, was caused when an earthquake with the estimated force of 23,000 atomic bombs rattled the floor of the Indian Ocean. The seabed rose 10 feet, displacing 7 cubic miles of water. A wall of water, in some places up to 100 feet high, slammed into countries throughout Southeast Asia and as far away as Africa. All told, more than 230,000 people died in 14 countries, and 1.7 million were left homeless. More than half of the dead were in Indonesia, followed by Sri Lanka, where 35,000 people were killed.

Sri Lanka was hit by several waves that day. They knocked out cellphone service, land lines, electricity, television, radio. Jeska-Thorwart, then governor of District 1950 (Germany), opened up the house as a makeshift first aid clinic. Four days later, when the situation had stabilized, she and her husband, the late Carl-Otto Thorwart – himself a member of the Rotary Club of Nürnberg-Sigena – together with some Sri Lankan friends, drove down the coast looking for clues to the extent of the damage. “We had no information about what had happened,” she says. “Was it only Hikkaduwa that was hit, or other towns too?”

The first city they came to was Galle, about 12 miles south. Conquered by the Portuguese in the 16th century and fortified by the Dutch in the 17th, the city had long served as the main port between Europe and the East. The tsunami killed 4,000 people in the city and damaged 12,000 houses. “Every minute that went by,” Jeska-Thorwart says of her Sri Lankan companions, “they were more and more silent. They were completely shocked. They realized their country was destroyed.”

On the edge of the city, directly across the road from the beach, the group arrived at a hospital. It was Mahamodara Teaching Hospital, the primary maternity hospital in the province of 2.5 million people. “It was totally empty,” Jeska-Thorwart recalls. One of the women in the car had delivered four children there, and when she saw the devastation, she cried out: “Where are the babies?”

When the first wave of the tsunami slammed into the hospital, deliveries had been underway. Although the 10-foot wall around the hospital could not stop the wave, it buffered its force, so the water was only 4 feet high by the time it reached the prenatal ward that faced the sea. The power failed, the backup generator failed, the water supply and sewer systems failed. Patients’ mattresses were soaked with foul-smelling water. The 349 patients were evacuated, first to a nearby temple, then to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, a couple of miles inland. By the time the subsequent waves hit Mahamodara, no patients or staff remained on site. One baby had died.

Upon learning that the patients and staff had been moved, Jeska-Thorwart and her companions went to check on them. Only the most urgent cases had been transferred – others were sent home – and the maternity hospital had been squeezed into 70 beds in the male neurology wing and portions of two other wards at Karapitiya. Jeska-Thorwart saw pregnant women sitting outside in the rain. They lay in beds to deliver and moved to the floor to recover. There were not enough toilets; there was nowhere to eat or drink. “It was a horrible situation,” she says. She asked to speak to a doctor.

Her first words to him were: “Don’t worry. We will help you.”

“Excuse me, may I know your name?” asked Malik Goonewardene, the head of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the University of Ruhuna in Galle and a consultant at Mahamodara Teaching Hospital. He eyed Jeska-Thorwart, who was dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, like a tourist.

“I’m from Rotary. I want to help you.”

Goonewardene invited her into a meeting where the Mahamodara doctors were gathered. Jeska-Thorwart explained who she was and asked the doctors to compile a list of everything they needed. (She still has it.)

A few days later, she drove to Colombo, which – because of its location on the island’s western coast – had not been damaged as severely. She asked local Rotarians to email the list to her office in Germany. By the time she returned home on 6 January, her office was jammed with medical equipment, and by 10 January, German Rotarians had shipped the doctors 2 tons of supplies, including scalpels, drapes, arm slings, gloves, three ultrasound scanners, and 1,360 diapers. Less than a month later, they shipped another 7 tons.

And that was only the beginning.

A decade later, Mahamodara Teaching Hospital’s only ward that has not been replaced or refurbished after the tsunami stands empty. Inside, pieces of plaster are falling off the walls. A couple of old bed frames are stacked in a corner, and wires hang from the ceilings. The building dates to the 1800s, when the hospital was built to quarantine South Indian immigrants arriving to work on Sri Lanka’s plantations and vaccinate them against smallpox.

In contrast are the bright and airy new buildings designed by Lakshman Alwis, an architect and a member of the Rotary Club of Colombo. Inside one, lofted ceilings with vents allow the tropical heat to rise, so the building stays comfortable without air conditioning. Large windows illuminate a room filled with beds where women rest, waiting to deliver. Since patients come from all over the province, many arrive before their due date so they don’t have to travel while in labor. The hospital serves the entire socioeconomic spectrum; the wife of its deputy director delivered her baby here.

Within a few weeks of the tsunami, more than 6,000 German Rotarians had donated €1.3 million, and in 2008, The Rotary Foundation supported the project. Other partners included German-headquartered global corporations such as Siemens, Trumpf, and Ejot, as well as a foundation set up by former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who had been vacationing at a coastal resort southeast of Galle when the tsunami hit.

In the past 11 years, this funding has helped renovate or build 10 departments and wards, and provided equipment worth more than €1 million. The Rotary Club of Colombo, which partnered with District 1950 on the Foundation grant, managed much of the construction. Since work started, 160,000 babies have been born and more than 2.5 million women have received gynecological care. In 2014, a year the hospital saw more than 12,000 births, not one mother died – a statistic many Western hospitals would covet. “That speaks volumes about what we have been able to achieve here,” says RI President K.R. Ravindran, a member of the Rotary Club of Colombo.

“When this hospital got damaged and we had to evacuate, it was an absolute calamity. We didn’t know what to do,” says Goonewardene. “Without our donors, including Rotary, who came to our aid from the start, I don’t know how we would have managed.”

The project has included many steps over the years: first, operating rooms and intensive care units for mothers and babies; then the prenatal wards; and, finally, training. Jeska-Thorwart, whom Rotary honored as a Global Woman of Action at the United Nations in November, says they plan to celebrate the completion of the project in January 2017.

Since 2010, a team of doctors, midwives, and nurses has traveled once a year from Sri Lanka to Germany, and another from Germany to Sri Lanka, for training. At the biggest hospital in Nuremberg, where Jeska-Thorwart lives, only a couple of babies are born each day. In contrast, the Mahamodara Teaching Hospital delivers 70 babies daily. Because of the number of births in Sri Lanka, the German doctors get more experience in the neonatal intensive care unit dealing with birth complications. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan doctors get experience on state-of-the-art equipment in Germany.

The neonatal intensive care unit, one of the few air-conditioned buildings at the hospital, is a world of beeps and scrubs and needles. A 19-day-old infant lies in an incubator, connected to a neonatal CPAP machine to support her breathing, donated by Rotary, which equipped the entire unit. The newborn, who arrived two months premature, was transferred here because the hospital has some of the most advanced equipment in the country. “When I started here, I was amazed,” says Selvi Rupasinghe, the chief neonatologist. “Rotary’s contributions have made a tremendous change to neonatal care.”

Outside the unit, a woman holds a sleepy toddler in her arms. The child’s eyes are closed and her head droops as her mother, a dance teacher, smiles and hugs her daughter tight. The child, now 21 months old, was born premature, weighing only 2 pounds. She spent a month in the neonatal intensive care unit and today loves to dance, like many girls her age. “Without all of this equipment, she would not have been able to survive,” says Sumith Manathunga, the hospital’s deputy director.

English isn’t the mother’s first language, but she does know four words: “Thank you very much.”

Dinner, Play Pumps, Speech Pathology & Audiology, and Clean Water for Ghana

Dinner at District 6 Restaurant

Thirteen of us had a great social evening at District 6 in Emmarentia last night.  It really was a fun evening and a good turn out, especially when you think so many people are still on holiday!

Play Pump

Many thanks to Brian Leech for sending this to The Ramble.

In 2011 Rotary Club of Rosebank Johannesburg, in conjunction with the following New York Rotary Clubs, Lake Mahopac, Carmel , Brewster, Patterson and Putnam Valley donated a PlayPump to Siyavuya Primary School in the Eastern Cape.

 

We have just done a maintenance trip to the school and replaced rods, forcehead rubbers, repaired the tap, replaced bobbin rubs, bolts, nuts and washers and patched the soil crete. 

All working well.  Thought you might like to see the pictures and know your donation is still being used.

Warm regards

Sandra 

Play Pumps 

Last Meeting

Last Friday was Good Friday so there was no meeting and I trust you all had wonderful Easter Weekend. The week before was a Business Meeting.

This Week

Wits Speech Pathology & Audiology Students on World Hearing Day 2016

 Two supporters of our Careers Day, Dr Karin Joubert & Dr Victor de Andrade of the Wits Dept of  Speech Pathology & Audiology, are our speakers this week. 

Approximately 12% of all South Africans are likely to present with a speech, language or hearing disorder. Communication disorders are experienced by people at any age in the lifetime.

The assessment and management of communication disorders may include the client, the family, other professionals and the community. Communication disorders range from mild to severe disabilities.

Speech-language therapy addresses speech and language problems, including articulation, voice, fluency, expressive and receptive language problems, as well as feeding and swallowing problems.

Audiologists test hearing using behavioural and electrophysiological measures. They manage hearing loss with hearing aids, cochlear implants and rehabilitation. They are also active in Deafness issues and education work. Audiologists also work with associated problems such as balance disorders and central auditory processing problems.

Speech Pathologists and Audiologists are involved in various aspects of communication sciences and disorders including

• Prevention
• Identification
• Assessment
• Treatment
• Counseling
• Education
• Consultation
• Research

Concerned with the urgent need for ear-and hearing care follow-up services after a hearing aid mission in 2012 at the Ndlovu Care Group clinic, Dr Karin Joubert, senior lecturer of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology Department of the University of Witwatersrand, was invited to assess the situation at Elandsdoorn. Not long afterwards, in January 2014, The Ndlovu Wits Audiology Clinic became a reality when funding was granted for the implementation of the audiology project.

The Ndlovu Wits Audiology clinic uses its comprehensive resources and expertise to reduce the negative impact of hearing impairment on the health lifestyle and communicative abilities of hearing impaired individuals and their families through the:

·  prevention of the onset of ear and hearing problems with regular community education programmes on ear an hearing health;

·  early identification and management of ear and hearing problems by offering neonatal hearing screening services (at five clinics in the Elandsdoorn vicinity), school screening, ototoxicity monitoring of HIV/AIDS and TB patients of the NCG clinics as well as diagnostic assessments.

GRANT BRINGS CLEAN WATER TO THOUSANDS IN GHANA

Investing in clean water could save 2.5 million lives a year. We can't afford not to protect the world's water supply. Take action with Rotary to create access to clean water.

Worldwide, more than 748 million people live without access to clean water and at least 3,000 children die each day from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe water. Rotary is working to change that. For example, members used a Rotary grant to drill more than 20 clean-water wells and to repair another 30 in villages across Ghana. The project also included education about and treatment of Buruli ulcer, a debilitating infection that if untreated can lead to disability and death. Nearly 70,000 people will benefit from this initiative.

Hugh Rix, Our Artists, Business, Dinner and the Importance of Mentoring.

Last Week



Hugh Rix gave us a fascinating talk on the three aspects of his life.  Growing up as a child in a remote part of Lesotho, working for Rio Tinto, a British mining house under pressure to withdraw from South Africa and running Woodside Sanctuary, a home for the "Profoundly Intellectually Disabled".

Henry Jenner, Karyn Wiggill & Eileen Bass

Henry Jenner introduced us to two more artists who participate in our Rotary Art Festival, Eileen Bass and Karyn Wiggill.  They are bothe miniaturists and Eileen is also a botanical artist and she has many awards for her work both here and overseas.  It was a great pleasure having them at our meeting last week.

This Week
It's a Business Meeting, so please make an effort to attend.

Social Dinner

This will be at District 6 Restaurant in Emmarentia on Wednesday 30th March, at 7.15 for 7.30.
Please book with Peter James-Smith by Wednesday 23rd.  Guests are welcome.

SUCCESSFUL WOMEN MENTOR YOUTH THROUGH ROTARY

Clara Montanez attends a reception in 2013 for the Champions of Change honorees at the White House in Washington D.C.

Photo Credit: Rotary Images

When Clara Montanez was a student, she never heard the word mentoring. The idea of having a role model help you pursue your ambitions was unfamiliar to her.

"You basically chose your career based on personal interest and hoped you could find a job," says Montanez, senior director of investment for Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. "I went the route of getting married and having children first, and started my career later in life. I had no model for how to do that."

That changed for Montanez the day a friend invited her to join Rotary.

"Frankly, I was dragged into Rotary. I didn't see a connection at first," says Montanez, who's been a member of the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., since 2003. "But then I met several women, including Doris Margolis, who took me under her wing and started mentoring me on how to get more involved. I began seeing the value in having someone I could count on as a mentor, and I have become more of a leader in our club, in my community, and at work."

Rotary's mentoring opportunities motivated Montanez, Rotary's alternate representative to the Organization of American States, to help organize an event for International Women's Day, 8 March. The event, to be held at the World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, will feature Deepa Willingham and Marion Bunch, both previously honored as Rotary Women of Action. Rotary International Director Jennifer Jones will moderate the event, which will be streamed on World Bank Live.

Montanez says Rotary has given her a platform to mentor young women as they balance career and family, as well as manage the challenge of repaying student loans. According to a recent study by the American Association of University Women, the student loan debt burden weighs more heavily on women because of the persistent gap in pay between women and men.

"I think Rotary has given me access to young people, like Rotaractors, and they are ready to accept guidance because Rotary is a safe place to reach out and get advice," says Montanez.

Similarly, Jackie Huie, a member of the Rotary Club of St. Joseph & Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA, recognizes Rotary's mentoring power. In 2007, Huie's club created a program that matches high school juniors and seniors with a mentor in the field they'd like to enter. The program started with 40 students at one high school and has now expanded into schools across the area.

"I got a letter from a girl who came from a poor background, and through the program, she got a chance to meet with an attorney in town," says Huie, president of JohnsonRauhoff, a multimedia company that fosters creative thinking for artists. "It inspired her and gave her confidence to go to school and study law. She got accepted into four law schools and is on her way to becoming an attorney."

Besides the investment in young people's futures, mentoring brings clubs important community recognition. For example, Huie's club has 150 members, a large number for a club that doesn't hold membership drives, she says.

"Everyone in southwest Michigan knows about Rotary," says Huie. "We had a student who wanted to be a CEO for a large corporation. After we arranged for him to meet with the CEO of Whirlpool, his father was so impressed with the whole program that he joined Rotary."

Many of the program's early participants went on to form an Interact club, and there are now more than 200 Interact members at four area schools. Forty of them will travel to the Dominican Republic this summer to install water filters and take part in a medical mission.

"It's important for Rotary to make an investment in young people," says Huie. "My own daughter is in Interact because of my membership in Rotary. I think her world is broader, and she looks at the world differently. We all do, because of what we've learned through Rotary."

Promoting Discon, The Artists, Hugh Rix, Careers Day, the Rotary Ann's Bridge Drive and Creating Peace in Myanmar.

Last Week

 David Bradshaw talked about Discon and the importance of many Rotarians as possible attending.
He was backed up by a number of other members.

Because Discon is literally down the road this year we expect that more members will be there to raise the Rosebank Banner.

Joan Sainsbury brought three artists who exhibit at our Rotary Arts Festival, Henry Jensen, Robert Domijan and Petra Oelofse as well as examples of their work.
Robert Domijan is featured on the "Rotary Artists - behind the Canvas" page (Top left of The Ramble, just click on the link).  The Artists' Page is updated every week with a different artist so please remember to have a look at it.

Raffle sheets were handed out to all Rotarians and the three prizes are the paintings at the bottom right of the collage.

This Week


Hugh Rix will be chatting about himself and his career.

Here he's receiving a parcel of Easter Eggs for Woodside Sanctuary that he ran for many years.







Careers Day
We really improved on Careers Day this year with more vocations than before, five different tertiary institutions which included all the local universities and about 330 Grade 12's.
The registration system worked well and the Soweto buses also arrived in reasonable time despite one breaking down!
Everyone I spoke to on the bases really felt it was worthwhile and though I was initially worried when some bases were empty first time round but eventually they all had a reasonable number of interested learners.  I think it took time for the learners to realise that they could speak to anyone.  Some of them were very organised, went to the base they were interested in and then to the tertiary institution to ask about their requirements.
There were some gaps which we will have to fill next year with vocations that were requested.  There were also useful suggestions from people on bases as to what we should aim at in the future and additional bases we should consider.
I can't thank everyone enough for their help, assistance and input.  As soon as we have had the follow-up meeting I will let you know the feedback from the Grade 12's.

My thanks to Jean Bernardo for taking pictures of all the bases that were in the school hall so you will have an idea of some of the vocations that were featured.

Rosebank Rotary Anns
The Rotary Anns are once again holding their annual Bridge Drive on Wednesday 18th May at St Michael's Church, Bryanston.
We appeal to the Rotarians to help us with a few prizes:  bottles of wine and boxes of chocolates are always welcome, or if you are visiting your favourite restaurant, please ask them for a meal voucher.  Most restaurants are only too happy to oblige.  Please make sure that the voucher does not expire before the date of the event - they usually make them valid for 6 months from that day.
Prizes can be given to Les Short at any Friday lunch.

Rotary Peace Fellowships
The Board is currently investigating the possibility of recommending someone for a Rotary Peace Fellowship. This will give you an idea of what it is all about.

Creating peace in Myanmar

Posted on March 3, 2016

Rachel Hall Beecroft with local youth on a field visit to Hpa-An, Karen State.

By Rachel Hall Beecroft, Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia

I looked around me at the faces of these change makers and felt overwhelmed by happiness, power, and positivity. These everyday people were coming together for a shared cause — peace. They were giving up aspects of their life to become something greater than themselves alone. They were contributing, they were committing, and most importantly, they were changing the world around them.

As a Rotary Peace Fellow studying for my master’s degree in Brisbane, Australia, I spent eight weeks creating the change I want to see in this world through my Applied Field Experience (AFE). The AFE is an opportunity to get out of the classroom and into the field, applying my new skills and new knowledge to real world situations.

They were giving up aspects of their life to become something greater than themselves.

I found myself in Myanmar (a country in Southeast Asia formerly known as Burma) working for a civilian peacekeeping organization. Myanmar has an incredibly tumultuous past between more than sixty years of civil war and decades of rule by an oppressive military dictatorship.

A poster describes the villagers’ desire to live in peace.

The organization works for peace in war-torn countries using two principles: nonviolence and civilian action. In Myanmar, they train civilians from targeted areas to act as civilian protection monitors and civilian ceasefire monitors. These villagers are trained in nonviolent techniques, relationship building, confidence building, and on what actions they, as community members, can take to ensure fellow civilians are protected from violence and that local ceasefire agreements are respected.

These civilians told of their actions to create peace and end violence — about how they held awareness raising trainings at churches, schools, and community centers to teach their fellow villagers about nonviolence, peace, and the power they communally had to create change. They met with local stakeholders including government officials, military commanders, and guerilla leaders to inform them that they would be taking steps to protect civilians in that area and any incidents perpetrated by any of the warring sides would be monitored, documented, and conveyed to the relevant authorities.

As I looked around the room, I saw regular people whose lives had been transformed by their contribution to the peace process. I saw people who had previously lived in an environment of oppression and fear, and who now had the courage to stand up to create change in their own communities.

Learn more about the Rotary Peace Centers program