Lester Connock & Vocational Service Awards, Business Meeting, Doreen Maheru's Visit and the First Woman Rotary Club President.

Last Week

On the outside, Lester Connock Awardees Sizakele Hadebe & Shakiera Saallie.
On the inside, Vocational Service Awardees David Heritage & Josephine Mhlongo.
In the Middle, President Lyn Collocott

It was time for our annual Rotary Vocational Service Awards where we recognise people who work hard for the community but would never receive recognition and we also presented certificates to the Lester Connock Awardees who received a bursary each of R20 000 to assist them in their post graduate research at Wits University's Faculty of Nursing.

The Vocational Service Awardees receive a certificate and we make a donation to the charity of their choice.

David Heritage

David spoke to us at Rotary a couple of weeks ago and it was reported in The Ramble so there is no need to repeat the work he does as an ex prisoner in assisting prisoners on parole to ensure they do not re-offend.

Josephine Mhlongo

Josephine was involved in the squint correction project which the club undertook last year. During one of Josephine Mhlongo’s outreach projects visiting Pohopedi Primary to give out uniforms to children in need, she came across Agnes Moremi which lead to Rosebank Rotary Club engaging with Dr Vercueil to correct Agnes’ squint.

She did an Alpha course at the Bryanston Catholic Church and then went out to start the first Alpha course in Soweto. She has facilitated many courses extending /reaching other denominations in Soweto. She has even extended her work to work in prisons.

 In 2016 Josephine worked as a volunteer for six months at Johannesburg Prison Medium B.   She involved herself with the program of caring for ex-offenders. She strongly believes that by visiting those in Prison she can help them as well as visiting ex-offenders after prison to prevent them from re-offending

Josephine is actively involved in church matters and the Catholic Woman’s League since 1994. She was the vice president for 3years and currently is the treasurer. She takes responsibility every year to fundraise and uses this opportunity to empower others.

She supports all activities plus she initiates new programs and projects. She motivates people to get involved and to help themselves and their community.

She took an active part in starting the Sunday school at her church, Holy Rosary.

 She inspired her church to adopt the Wolmaraanstad Catholic Church. Josephine concerns herself with vulnerable children and pensioners in Wolmaraanstad. She attempted to get ZoZo tanks to establish a vegetable garden for the pensioners.

Each year Josephine finds and invites special ‘cases’ to the Christmas parties. With teachers’ help Josephine finds children who have never had a birthday party and who live in extreme poverty. These are the children that Josephine takes to a Christmas party.

 Josephine does not wait for hand outs and donations. Her fund raising events focus on family and community involvement. She will arrange a Sports Day for the community. Members of the community are invited to set up tables selling home crafts to raise funds. Her Mother’s Day tea party fund raiser is another hugely successful event.

Josephine is the person who makes it her business to take care of the children who have disabilities in her church. She used her initiative to help a mentally ill little girl Hadio Lebuso by taking her to the Mother Theresa Home in Yeoville. Her intervention did not stop. Josephine then opened a case of child abuse against the mother. The list of how she helps is endless..... ! One of her best contributions is her reliability and willingness to take responsibility for projects. She will dedicate her time to make sure that the projects are well organized and involve members to uplift their communities themselves.

In December 2006 she inspired a group of ladies from Bryanston, lead by Mrs Florence Banahan and Mrs Bernadette Winderley, to get involved in charity work in Soweto, very far from their comfort zone! They started a program of doing a Christmas party for the disadvantaged pensioners. Josephine said she started with 60 food parcels for the pensioners and annually it has increased. Now her group looks after 650 families. Josephine focuses on child headed families and pensioners from the poorest of the poor such as Protea South informal settlement, Orange Farm, Kliptown, Poortjie informal settlement and Wolmaraanstad in the North West. Josephine encourages involvement from volunteers to assist in the packaging and distribution food parcels to these extremely poor families.

As her sister is a teacher at Pohopedi Primary School in Poortjie, Josephine got involved with this group of children. Through her contacts she gets funding to buy school uniforms and blankets for pupils who come from struggling families. 

As keeping warm in winter is important to her, she was actively involved with an NGO called Knit-a -Square when it first started in 2009 by Ronda Lowrie. She also involves herself in a “Jersey drive” to get jerseys and jackets for pensioners, children, unemployed moms and unemployed men.

She is involved in providing sanitary towels for girls and counsels teenage pupils.

She is passionate about not forgetting the boys who get given a bag with toiletries, a pair of socks and underwear.

Josephine helped a young Wits University student who was unable to get accommodation in the first year of his studies. She assist Ishmael Motsweneng by paying for his accommodation until he managed to get NAFSAS support after which she only provided him with meals.

She helped a young man who was seriously injured in a car accident last June. He was sent home from hospital with wounds in a terrible state. By November he was  critical and unable to walk. Josephine called upon her contacts. getting the wounds dressed properly, rehab care and physio each day to teach him to walk again. Josephine arranged a wheel chair and a commode. Josephine’s insistence on care and treatment saved this young man’s life.

Josephine  assist families to access grants if they are eligible and she finds proof of birth for many so that they can become eligible for an ID document  Sometimes this info requires Josephine  to visit farms and travel far afield to visit families in order to get the documentation that is necessary.  One is filled with admiration as she runs to and fro often at her own personal cost.

Josephine is driven to improve the lot of others and to empower them to help themselves. This is what Josephine uniquely brings to the table of humanity.

Lester Connock Awards to:

Shakiera Saallie

for her ongoing contribution to the understanding of cross infection within a hospital environment

with a view to ongoing training and the resultant saving of lives.

Sizakele Hadebe

for her ongoing contribution to the nursing of cancer patients within a hospital environment

with a view to ongoing training in the development of a sympathetic understanding of the needs of patients and their families.

This Week

It's back to normality and a Business Meeting.

Cafe Dolci

Doreen Maheru's Visit to audit the Baragwanath Palliative Care Project 

She will be addressing the club at a special lunch at Old Edwardians on Friday 9th March at R120 per head and James Croswell has sent out invitations to all club members and special guests...if you are not yet a member get in touch with him as you wouldn't have received anything.

In addition there will be a dinner to which anybody at Dolci Cafe, Clarence Rd Craighall Park on Tuesday 6th March, 7:00 for 7:30pm.

 The menu is Italian and includes Arancini which no-one guessed in the picture quiz.

We'll choose from the menu so you can spend as much or as little as you like.  Please book with me.

Picture Quiz

Last week's vegetable was Chou Chou.  Only Lyn Collocott got it right.  The Chinese call it Chow Chow and it is terribly boring. See if you recognise this week's breed of dog.

Women in Rotary - How it all began.

Sylvia Whitlock became the first female Rotary president after her right to membership went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The mandate that Rotarians welcome women to their ranks came down 30 years ago. She asked for arms in the air: Who was a Rotarian 30 years ago? A handful went up and she nodded. Someone shouted, “All men.”

Her club, in Duarte, was small. The president looked at the community and saw women in leadership roles, and invited some.

“This didn’t start as a women’s issue, but as a simple attempt to recruit more members into Rotary,” she said.

It was 1976. She had never even heard of Rotary.

Whitlock accepted the invitation and in 1982 she became a member of the club. She was ready to be a part of the good Rotarians do.

At the time, Rotary had more work to do to eradicate polio. (Today, she pointed out, there is just one place polio still endures: Afghanistan.)

The Rotary district governor told the club president it was OK to invite women, but, he said, don’t send their names to Rotary International; just send initials. Whitlock pulled a face of disdain and mentioned this was not in line with our Four-Way Test of the things we think, say and do. The first filter is truth.

So there they were with women in the club, thriving, for years.

Then they got caught and were told they had to ask the women to leave, or the club could be declared “not a real Rotary.” The club held firm and lost its charter.

It went to appeal to the board of directors, but only real Rotary clubs could address that board, which they were decidedly not, what with all those members in skirts.

So it appealed to the Council on Legislation and the ousting was confirmed.

“It was not an issue of whether women could be in, but whether Duarte had violated the bylaws by inviting them, which of course they had,” she said.

The California Superior Court sided for exclusivity too.

But then the California Appellate Court reversed the ruling and said the Duarte club could be both inclusive and officially Rotary.

This was the year she was president-elect of what they had renamed the “ExRotary” club, and she was sent to the annual conference for incoming leaders. She, like the other participants, was reminded in advance to take her jacket and tie, “so I took my jacket and tie and went,” she said.

“I was one woman out of 290 men,” she said. “The most interesting part was during restroom breaks ….” Everyone started laughing and she was cut off. “I never get to finish that line.”

At the event, her club’s incoming governor announced that the fight to remove the rogue Duarte club was not over: “Rotary International will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and I have every reason to believe we will win.” Forthwith Whitlock had a banner made that read “Rotary Club of Duarte, the mouse that roared — equal opportunity for all.” And she heard somebody say, “They’re forcing us to take everyone in, just like a hotel.”

The court was determining whether the group had a First Amendment right to exclude, and it was looking like it did not.

Judge Sandra Day O’Connor didn’t vote, because her husband was a Rotarian, but the judges found for the Duarte club. It was 1987.

The judges’ statement was progressive: “Even if there were a slight encroachment on the rights of Rotarians to associate, that minimal infringement would be justified since it serves the state’s compelling interest in ending sexual discrimination.”

As of that moment, all clubs in the nation had to welcome women. If a club did not, it would lose its charter.

Whitlock was on her way to work as the principal of an elementary school when the news was announced.

“Twenty minutes after the announcement all the media in California descended on the school,” she said.

She went into a room to give interviews, and for hours gave intelligent, researched responses to their questions. Then one reporter asked, “How did you get chosen to be president?”

She shrugged  and said, “What do good Rotarians say? ‘Oh, I don’t know, I must’ve missed a meeting.’ ”

Greta Schuler and her study on Sex Workers, Vocational & Lester Connock Awards and Water- the Scarce Resource

Last Week
Greta Schuler came to talk to us about her study of Sex Workers and the establishment of the Sisonke Sex Workers Movement and Izwi Lethu (The Voice) as a newspaper for sex workers.
Sex working is one of those illegal yet impossible to stop activities like dagga smoking but with the proviso that if there were no customers there would be no sex workers.
It was an interesting talk on the lives and attitudes of sex workers and in a country like ours it is often the only way to put bread on the table.

Sex work – the consensual sale of sex between adults – is an important livelihood activity for some migrants in South Africa.  Currently all aspects of sex work are illegal, resulting in multiple forms of violence against male, female and transgendered people working in the industry.  In this research area, we explore intersections between sex work, migration, health and well-being.

Research projects involve a partnership with Sisonke – the South African National Sex Worker Movement, and involvement in various policy processes.

Using mixed method and inter-disciplinary approaches, including arts-based methods, our research projects explore the lived experiences of migrant sex workers in South Africa.  Research contributes to a range of policy and programmatic interventions, including efforts supporting the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa.

WHAT DOES SISONKE STAND FOR: 

Sisonke’s Vision

Our vision is to see a South Africa where sex work is recognised as work, and where sex workers’ health and human rights are ensured.

Sisonke’s Mission

As Sisonke our aim is to unite sex workers, improve our living and working conditions and fight for equal access to rights.

We know that united we will have a voice.

We do not want to be labelled as criminals.

We want the laws to change.

We want our rights to be respected like any other person in South Africa.

We demand the right to make a living.                  

HOW CAN SISONKE HELP SEX WORKERS?

As a member, you are part of a national movement which looks after your rights.

Sisonke helps you with:

Free advice and information – we partner with SWEAT to offer a 24/7 Counselling and referrals via the Help Line.

Outreach, including providing condoms and safe sex material.

Rights advice and referrals for legal support.

Life skills and training (e.g. computer skills, self-development, financial skills).

We are mobilising to fight for our human rights.

We are building a movement of visible, empowered and politically active sex workers who demand appropriate services, resist exploitation and support each other to challenge criminalisation.

We had a number of visitors.....

DG Jankees Sligcher and President Lyn Collocott are obviously engrossed.

 

Linda Vink, President Elect and Mike Vink Immediate Past President of Johannesburg New Dawn.  Greta Schuler's in-laws.

David Heritage, Welcome James & Henry, Greta Schuler and War in the Ukraine

Last Week

David Heritage came to talk to us about 'Revive', the NPO he has set up to assist prisoners who are just released or out on parole.  He in fact is on parole himself.
It was a very interesting talk and he spoke about his own personal experiences and what led him to do what he does today.  The vast majority of former prisoners re-offend probably owing to lack of support and financial need.  His own story shows that a combination of apartheid regulations and neglect can be so damaging and yet despite everything stacked against him the individual with assistance and care can rise above the past.

 President Lyn inducted two new members.  James Byrne, second from left and Henry Jensen, first on the right.  Other than President Lyn the others are sponsors except for the lady clutching the certificates,, Melodene Stonestreet, Director, Membership.







We also had a visiting Rotarian, Tony Nchgwazila from Mutare, Zimbabwe.







This Week

Our speaker is Greta Schuler.  She came to South Africa from the USA as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Wits and was hosted by Johannesburg New Dawn.  Mike and Linda Vink hosted her and she ended up marrying their son John.....enough said!

Picture Puzzle
You should all be ashamed of yourselves!  How can you not know the Black Galjoen, South Africa's National Fish!  (I wouldn't have recognised it myself.)  Better luck this week.

Vocational Service and Lester Connock Awards 
This will be a joint affair on the 16th February at Wanderers Golf Club with the same menu as last year.  The cost will again be R120 per head and Hugh Rix will be coordinating attendees etc. so wait to hear from him.  Do let him know if there are and special dietary requirements.
The next special lunch for the Baragwanath assessment on the 9th March will also be R120 and will be a three course meal at Old Eds.

Rotary Peace Fellowships
It's that time of year for recommendations.  See the RI website for details.  It would be good if we as a club could suggest someone.

The Tragedy of the Ukraine

In the mountains of Poland, 26 children traumatized by violence get a chance to be kids again at Rotary camp 

Viktoriia Babich, 11, and Khrystyna Treban, 13, fathers killed

Beneath the emotional scars of living in a Ukrainian war zone, Mykyta Berlet flashes the same mischievousness of any other 12-year-old boy headed to camp.  He wants to laugh, play pranks and on the last night of camp “we will cover everyone with toothpaste,” he says excitedly.

Mykyta and 25 other Ukrainian youths headed to the resort town of Zakopane in the foothills of southern Poland are naturally focused on fun. But their two-week respite organized by Rotary members has a higher purpose: To help the children heal and cope with the trauma they may encounter when they go home.  

Each camper has a parent or sibling killed or injured in the fighting in Ukraine. Psychologists at camp will guide them along the way during an itinerary that mixes escape and therapy.

Olga Zmiyivska, a member of the Rotary Club of Kharkiv Multinational in Ukraine, has brought children to the camp for two years and has witnessed its impact.

“After the trip, they are more willing to make contact and open their hearts,” she said.

War came into their homes

Mykhailo, 6, and Oleksandr, 8, Kruhlikov, father killed

Thousands have died and millions have been displaced by the fighting between pro-Russia rebels and the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine. 

Mykhailo, 8, and Zakharii Mazunov, 12, father killed

Growing up in the shadow of that nearly four-year conflict, most of the campers don’t remember a life without war. They tell unrealistic stories about battles and keep silent about real horrors. Some are guarded and hypervigilant. Others endure sleepless nights or nightmares. A few withdraw and emotionally shut down.

In Zakopane, nestled in the scenic Tatra Mountains, Rotary members give the children a chance to heal in a peaceful setting. The children sleep in comfortable cabins along a pristine lake flanked by green, rolling hills.

The program, called Vacation 2017 Zakopane: Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids, includes traditional camp activities and field trips along with support from mental health professionals. More than 100 children have attended over the past four years.

This year’s campers visited a mountain village to learn about local traditions, toured historic Krakow, and saw the castles, salt mines and hot springs of southern Poland. The routine activities are simple but powerful.

Yuriy Paschalin and Vlad Tsepun, both 12, became close friends after their fathers were killed by snipers. The field trips helped both boys start to relax and act like typical, curious children.

“This program allows these kids to stay kids and to live children’s emotions,” said psychologist and art therapist Olha Hrytsenko.

“They will observe and absorb another culture, attitude, and language, (and) will be able to compare and make conclusions about what is good and what is bad. It will help them to find themselves.”

Breaking their silence

When asked about their families, the children often talk about their parents, siblings, grandparents, and even their pets. Then the looks in their eyes change. Glints of childish fun disappear, along with any fussing or fidgeting. Instead, there is obvious pain behind their faces. And silence.

Like many children, 11-year-old Dima Tkachuk doesn’t want to talk about his dad’s death. Talking about death makes it all too real.

His father was killed in a military conflict zone; Dima’s mother also serves in the Ukrainian army and has been sent to the same area where Dima’s father was killed.

Dima, though, shared a glimpse of the stress on his family. He explained that since their mother left to join the fighting, his 18-year-old brother has turned to smoking and drinking alcohol.  

“Sometimes he does things that one cannot be proud of,” Dima said.

The psychologists and camp staff know not to pressure the children to open up. Instead they build trust through group games, outdoor activities, art therapy, and individual counseling with psychologists.

Children are more vulnerable to the psychological trauma of war, often causing them to withdraw, experts say. Re-establishing emotional connections is critical to healing. If left untreated, isolated children are more likely to experience domestic violence, addiction, and job loss later in life, research shows.

When a breakthrough does come, therapists listen or just sit quietly as the tears flow.

“It always takes time to survive loss. This time is needed to run the processes that we name ‘grief work,’ ” says Hrytsenko.

“A person will always remember the loss of someone whom he or she loved. The task is not to forget but to find the essence of this loss and to learn how to be happy after this.”

Dreams and beliefs

Psychologist and art therapist Olha Hrytsenko helps children work through their grief at Vacation 2017 Zakopane: Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids.

At the Zakopane camp, Valerie Tkachuk, 12, from Dnipro, Ukraine, was slow to trust others. Her answers were often short and sharp.

Her father was injured in combat while her pregnant mother was home caring for the family. Valerie shrank into herself, stopped communicating with peers, and started sleeping in her father’s sleeping bag on the balcony.

“That year was the most difficult in my life,” Valerie said.

She was asked to close her eyes and remember the most pleasant memory of camp in an effort to make her smile for a photo.

Eyes closed, Valerie started crying and opened up in a way she had not previously at camp.

“I am disturbed about my dad, as he is stressed for mom. And he is forbidden to have any stress, as he can have a heart attack,” Valerie said.

Valerie dreams of following her father’s path and becoming a military officer. 

Many children who grow up with war are drawn to the military. Their vulnerability, feelings of helplessness, and lack of trust make the strong image of a soldier appealing, experts say. 

Dima is set on a career in the army. Sasha Kruglikov, 9, whose father was killed in the conflict, already views himself as a soldier. He likes wrestling and karate and said he wants to defend his country when he grows up.

Creating a place to heal

When the conflict in Ukraine began in early 2014, Rotary members stepped up to help.

“We thought, why not organize vacations for kids whose childhood was affected by war,” says Ryszard Luczyn, a member of the Rotary Club of Zamosc Ordynacki, Poland.

Anna Kaczmarczyk, a member of the Rotary Club of Zamosc Ordynacki, Poland, is the first person to meet the children when they start their trip.

Barbara Pawlisz, of the Rotary Club of Sopot International in Poland, and Łuczyn got support from the Poland-Ukraine Intercountry Committee. Rotary’s Intercountry Committees are networks of Rotary clubs in at least two countries, and they often work together on service projects or to foster peace between the residents of countries in conflict. Rotary clubs in Belarus, Poland and Ukraine participate in the network.

The Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids project started in 2014 with mixed results. The children, ages eight to 17, didn’t always get along. Their war trauma was recent, and communication between the age groups was difficult.

The Rotary members recognized adjustments were necessary, but they were not deterred. 

Since that initial effort, organizers narrowed the age range for campers to six to 12, and the number of Polish Rotary clubs that support the project has more than doubled to 83. 

Rotary District 2231 in Poland raised money to pay the travel and lodging expenses of the children and their caretakers. The project has also drawn support from clubs in Sweden and Slovakia. Ukrainian clubs were involved in selecting participants from all areas of the country. 

“It is always very difficult to find affected children in small towns and villages. So we appealed to all the Ukrainian Rotary clubs to help us,” says Anna Kaczmarczyk, a member of the Rotary Club of Zamosc Ordynacki, Poland. “Now we have children not only from large cities, but also from distant parts of the country.”

Does it work?

The changes in the children are obvious, Rotary members say.

Kaczmarczyk is the first person to meet the children in Lviv, Ukraine, when they start their trip. They may be nervous, which can make them irritable and aggressive.

But after the program, they are relaxed, smiling, filled with a new self-confidence.

“We continue this program because we know how these children react, how they change, how they become more open to the world, and how they look at the world the way it should be for a child,” Kaczmarczyk says. “War takes from them their childhood. And they still have their children’s dreams.”

After the children return home, they send letters and pictures about their camp experiences to program organizers and Rotary members.

Children have drawn portraits, colorful scenes of nature, castles and the kings and queens who live in them, and dragons. Sometimes, they write letters about what they observed. One girl marveled at the clean streets and friendly people.

Whether they are magical stories or practical observations, the children carry warm memories home with them.

Kids who experience violence can be prone to violence themselves; this program shows them a different path.

“After such traumas as car crash, natural disasters, [or] wars, people often go to two extremes: Either they stop being afraid of everything or they start being scared of everything. I think these children will belong to the first category,” psychologist Hrytsenko said.

The Business Meeting, David Heritage & 'Revive', Rotarians & Peace, and the Rotary Foundation

Last Week

It was a Business Meeting and it was interesting to hear how much progress we had in the first six months.  The two learners we are sponsoring at McAuley House School had passed Grade 11 well and are now in Matric.  We have also continued to sponsor a candidate at the SA Guide Dogs for the Blind College of Orientation & Mobility.  This is a very important project as it is effectively training the trainer in the use of white canes and  other aspects of orientation in the rural areas.  What is surprising is that only Limpopo Province actively supports this training....not the richer Provinces.

The new collection system that has been introduced at Spar Norwood thanks to the suggestion of the former Orange Grove members has been an effortless great success.  Instead of collecting food products we are given a voucher for the value of the food that is donated by the public

.  This gives the various charities we collect for a monetary amount that they can use to buy what they require.  This has been very interesting as one particular charity bought toiletries in preference to food which just shows that our basic assumption of needs was totally wrong in the past.

The only disappointing aspect of the collection was the lack of support by the club.  Even though we didn't enjoy doing the turn out  for Makro was adequate.  This takes less time and we don't have to rush up to people and ask for their support, they automatically give so next time please support our Community Service Committee as the results were so good and Spar is more than helpful.

This Week

Our speaker is David Heritage.  I don't know much about him or his organisation, only what David Bradshaw has to say.

"He runs Revive a registered NPO company.They exist to serve and assist parolees and ex-offenders to reintegrate back into their families and communities as part of their journey of rehabilitation and restitution. David himself served I think 12-15 years in prison and has now dedicated his life to serving ex Prisoners."

The Board has approved a Vocational Service Award for him.

Picture Puzzle
Quite a few people tried to guess what last week's photo was, including the District Governor.  Everyone got it wrong!  Arancini was the correct answer but I would have accepted suppli because they look the same.  It's an Italian deep fried rice ball with ragu of meat and tomato inside....suppli has mozzarella instead.  Suppli is a Roman snack whereas arancini are from Sicily.  It's a handy way of using up risotto rice. 

This week it's guess the fish.

On 23 February, Rotarians will celebrate World Peace and Understanding Day – the 113th anniversary of Rotary’s founding.

Peace has been at the core of our organization from its earliest days. We established the Fourth Object of Rotary in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1921. We were in London when the seeds were sown for what became UNESCO after World War II. In Havana in 1940, we adopted a resolution calling for "freedom, justice, truth, sanctity of the pledged word, and respect for human rights," which became the framework for the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

We were active in the formation of the United Nations. In 1945, almost 50 Rotarians served as delegates, consultants, and advisers at the San Francisco Conference when the UN charter was written. Today, almost 73 years later, Rotary maintains the highest consultative status with the United Nations of any nongovernmental organization. A number of our Rotary Peace Fellows work in UN agencies. Rotary’s representatives to the UN also host a Rotary Day every November to celebrate our partnership for peace.

Today we also have a new partnership with the Institute for Economics and Peace, which was founded in Australia by tech entrepreneur Steve Killelea. The institute emphasizes what is called positive peace, based on eight "pillars": a well-functioning government, a sound business environment, equitable distribution of resources, acceptance of the rights of others, good relations with neighbors, free flow of information, high levels of human capital, and low levels of corruption.

Between now and June, we have the opportunity to participate in Rotary President Ian H.S. Riseley’s Presidential Peacebuilding Conferences in six cities across the world. Take a look online at rotary.org/presidential-conferences. We will continue to explore how the eight pillars of peace align with our areas of focus.

We also are joining with the University of Chicago to host Pathways to Peace, a series of talks featuring leading scholars, practitioners, Rotary Peace Fellows, and thinkers in the field of peace and conflict prevention and resolution. Watch the first one, which was held in September, at bit.ly/2j9cSUh.

Together with our partners, we will work to establish ourselves as global thinkers and leaders to advance understanding, goodwill, and international peace.

Let us work together on this journey.

Foundation receives highest rating from Charity Navigator

For the 10th consecutive year, The Rotary Foundation has received the highest rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.

In the most recent ratings, the Foundation earned the maximum of 100 points for demonstrating both strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency.

In a letter to the Foundation, Charity Navigator notes that "only 1 percent of the charities we evaluate have received at least 10 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that The Rotary Foundation outperforms other charities in America. This exceptional designation from Charity Navigator sets The Rotary Foundation apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness."

The rating reflects Charity Navigator's assessment of how the Foundation uses donations, sustains its programs and services, and practices good governance and openness.

What did you say? a Business Meeting & a Bit of Axe Throwing.

Last Week

Varsha Sewpersad spoke to us on 'Hearing Health' and everything that can affect your hearing.  In the case of many people 'Age Related Hearing Loss' is an issue that they prefer to ignore but she warned that hearing loss and the resulting lack of brain activity is often a contributory factor for the onset of dementia.  If you don't use it, it atrophies! 
She said that everyone over 65 should have their hearing tested once a year.  Interesting as we don't think twice about regular visits to the optician but would never think about our hearing.

This Week
It's a business meeting.  We are more than half way through the year and this is President Lyn's gallop to the finishing line so we must make sure she ends her year in style.

Vocational and Lester Connock Awards 16th February
We hope to be able to organise a lunch at the Wanderers Golf Club like last year.  The idea is also to include the LC Awards if the recipients are available.

Visit of Doreen Muheru  Friday 9th March
This lunch we will also try and organise at the Wanderers Golf Club.

Well, Here's an Idea for a Fund Raising Event!

Aprille Weron, right, and her friend Brooke Williams raised funds with an axe-throwing tournament.

Aprille Weron grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia; it was, she recalls, “a very privileged life.” That’s why, when she heard about Philadelphia’s New Day Center – a Salvation Army-sponsored drop-in center that helps women and girls being trafficked for sex – she was shocked to learn that many of the people who come to the center are from that same area.

We think that trafficking is something that’s far away,” says Weron, a member of the Rotary Club of King of Prussia, Pa. “But some of these girls went to the same schools that you and your friends went to.”

Weron and her friend Brooke Williams, a member of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia Happy Hour, decided to help raise funds for the center through an unusual activity: axe throwing. Held on 14 October, the Salvation Army’s Axe of Kindness 2017 Axe Throwing Tournament saw more than 40 community members – including Weron and Williams, who competed as The Rotaraxers – hurling 1.5-pound hatchets at a target.

“We threw a lot of axes that day,” Weron says. As with darts, the goal in axe throwing is to get as close as possible to the bull’s-eye. But the real goal, of course, was to raise funds for the New Day Center – which the event did, to the tune of $6,800.

Not only that, but the “Did you say axe throwing?” factor got others interested in the cause, Williams says: “Doing events like this is a fun way to raise money, but it also is a great way to advertise what we’re doing. It’s a little more attention-getting.”

The proof? When the Philadelphia Happy Hour club heard about the event, members decided to organize a second axe-throwing fundraiser for the New Day Center in December, with the aid of the Rotary clubs of Conshohocken-Plymouth-Whitemarsh and Philadelphia.

Thank You, Mark, Varsha Sewpersad and RI President Elect Barry Rassin and the next Rotary Year.

Last Week
Isn't it annoying when a speaker cancels at the last minute especially when it has been organised well in advance.  Maybe it's a bit like some people who accept invitations when in fact they really mean "Yes, we would love to come unless something better turns up".

No Dalene Naude so Mark Franklin stepped into the breach and gave us a very interesting talk about a book he was reading entitled Affluence without Abundance - the Disappearing World of the Bushmen by Dr James Suzman.  It was a fascinating talk

Suzman was the first social anthropologist to work in Namibia's eastern Omaheke among "Southern Ju/'hoansi" where he exposed the brutal marginalisation of San that had lost their lands to white cattle ranchers and pastoralist Herero.

In 1998 Suzman was appointed to lead the landmark study, The Regional Assessment of the Status of the San in Southern Africa. Based on an ACP/EU resolution.

Suzman later led an assessment by the Minority Rights Group International to assess how Namibia's ethnic minorities had fared in the first ten years of Namibian Independence. The subsequent report was published in 2002. Emerging during period of political upheaval in Namibia, it led to calls for the better protection of ethnic minorities in Namibia.  The Namibian Government rejected the report's findings and the President, Sam Nujoma, accused Suzman of amplifying "ethnic tensions".

In 2001, Suzman was awarded the Smuts Commonwealth Fellowship in African Studies at Cambridge University.

Suzman later established a program to establish opportunities for Hai//om San to benefit from tourism revenues in Etosha National Park.  Suzman was also involved in the dispute that arose as a result of the illegal relocation of Gwi and Gana San from Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Suzman was highly critical of the Botswana Government's actions and, later, Survival International's campaign which he claimed undermined ongoing negotiations between the Botswana Government and a coalition of organisations supporting the evicted San.  Survival International, in turn, criticised Suzman and members of the negotiating team lead by Ditshwanelo, The Botswana Centre for Human Rights of complicity with the Botswana Government.

In 2007, Suzman joined De Beers where as Global Head of Public Affairs he developed De Beers award-winning sustainability functions.  He resigned in 2013.

In 2013 Suzman and Jimmy Wales teamed up with Lily Cole to launch Impossible.com at the Cambridge Union.  In the same year he was invited to deliver the 2nd Protimos Lecture at the Parliament Chamber of London's Inner Temple.

This Week

Our speaker is Varsha Sewpersad.  Varsha Sewpersad is the senior audiologist and practice owner at Speak Today, Hear Forever Practice (STHF), who prides herself in implementing research proven practices within all services offered by STHF. 

Having worked within hospitals, specialised preschools, remedial schools, medico-legal teams and private practices in South Africa  and Dubai, Varsha has gained extensive and valuable experience within the fields of speech therapy and audiology.

With a great passion and desire to improve the quality of lives of individuals with speech, language and/or hearing difficulties, Varsha qualified with her Honours Degree in the Bachelor of Communication Pathology at the University of Pretoria and further went on to obtain her Master's Degree in Audiology at the University of Witwaterstrand. Varsha is a published author and enjoys conducting research to increase her knowledge in the field.

Careers Morning Saturday 10th March

I have sent out reminder emails to all those who participated last year and already confirmations are coming in.  I also sent a notice to all club members.  Mark Potterton and I will be meeting this week to finalise participating schools and tertiary institutions.  Watch this space.

Thanks to The Ramble we are ahead of any local publications when it comes to the latest news from Rotary International.  Our incoming DG Charles Deiner is there in San Diego.  See below:

2018-19 RI President Barry Rassin wants Rotary members to Be the Inspiration

Rotary International President-elect Barry Rassin laid out his vision for the future of the organization on Sunday, calling on leaders to work for a sustainable future and to inspire Rotarians and the community at large.

Rassin, a member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, unveiled the 2018-19 presidential theme, Be the Inspiration, to incoming district governors at Rotary’s International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA. “I want you to inspire in your clubs, your Rotarians, that desire for something greater. The drive to do more, to be more, to create something that will live beyond each of us.”

Rassin stressed the power of Rotary’s new vision statement, “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” This describes the Rotary that leaders must help build, he said.

To achieve this vision, the president-elect said, Rotarians must take care of the organization: “We are a membership organization first. And if we want to be able to serve, if we want to succeed in our goals — we have to take care of our members first.”

Rassin asked the incoming district governors to “inspire the club presidents, and the Rotarians in your districts, to want to change. To want to do more. To want to reach their own potential. It’s your job to motivate them — and help them find their own way forward.”

Progress on polio

Rassin noted that one source of inspiration has been Rotary’s work to eradicate polio. He described the incredible progress made over the past three decades. In 1988, an estimated 350,000 people were paralyzed by the wild poliovirus; just 20 cases were reported in 2017 as of 27 December. “We are at an incredibly exciting time for polio eradication,” he said, “a point at which each new case of polio could very well be the last.”

He emphasized that even when that last case of polio is recorded, the work won’t be finished. “Polio won’t be over, until the certifying commission says it’s over—when not one poliovirus has been found, in a river, in a sewer, or in a paralyzed child, for at least three years,” he said. “Until then, we have to keep doing everything we’re doing now.” He urged continued dedication to immunization and disease surveillance programs.

Sustaining the environment

Rotary has focused heavily on sustainability in its humanitarian work in recent years. Now, Rassin said, Rotarians must acknowledge some hard realities about pollution, environmental degradation, and climate change. He noted that 80 percent of his own country is within one meter of sea level. With sea levels projected to rise two meters by 2100, he said, “my country is going to be gone in 50 years, along with most of the islands in the Caribbean and coastal cities and low-lying areas all over the world.”

Rassin urged leaders to look at all of Rotary’s service as part of a larger global system. He said that this means the incoming district governors must be an inspiration not only to clubs, but also to their communities. “We want the good we do to last. We want to make the world a better place. Not just here, not just for us, but everywhere, for everyone, for generations.”

Happy New Year, Social Meetings, Hope Project and Sea Mercy

Welcome  back  to our Official Meetings

We did have unofficial meetings on the Fridays in the Wanderers Club but they were just for those who wanted to go or who could go.  Here's the turn out for for Friday 5th January.

This Week
Our speaker is Dalene Naude, Director of the Hope Project.

The Hope Project is a registered NPC (2016/137082/08) that assists minority families who have fallen on hard times and/or who live in squatter camps/informal settlements. There are currently over 500 minority camps in S.A. We focus mainly on helping each family to empower themselves through skills development where possible and assist in finding work for the unemployed.   Our purpose is to uplift, assist with job procurement, help supplement meals, clothe the kids and ensure they go to school.

We provide the tools they need to plant vegetable gardens and improve living conditions, and to build self sustainable communities. We basically assist them to start over again. We aim to give hope to the hopeless, dignity to the elderly, and a purpose to adults that have lost everything, including their self worth and dignity.   In a country where minorities form 8% of the population, it’s astounding that more than 1 million are living in crippling poverty as a result of governments Employment Equity Act, which effectively excludes them from obtaining employment, and the ability to provide for their families. They are often exploited for personal gain by the landowners who allow them to squat on their land, at a price.

Yachts bring aid to remote South Pacific islands

Richard and Stephanie Hackett began chartering sailboats and yachts to travel the South Pacific more than 20 years ago. Seeing the problems of getting health care to remote islands, Richard Hackett, past president of the Rotary Club of Fern Ridge (Veneta), Ore., came up with the idea of charter sailboats helping to provide health care and disaster relief. Sea Mercy, the nonprofit he and his wife founded, started with one volunteer vessel in 2013 and now has more than 100 yachts on call, with initiatives to address health care, disaster response, education and training, and economic development.

Q: How do you get the vessels and the volunteers for Sea Mercy’s programs?

A: The people with the vessels are either private owners or the captains who represent private owners. Most are people who have chased the dream of sailing the South Pacific or sailing around the world. For the medical personnel, it’s a working vacation: Doctors, nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists, dentists, and optometrists come out and join us. Even some medical students want to participate. It’s a two-week period. We travel to anywhere from five to nine remote islands. We set up a clinic onshore, and they treat patients throughout the day or over a two-day period. When we’re all done, we start sailing to the next remote island.

The clinic on Batiki was overflowing with kids waiting to see our medical team! Thank you Sea Mercy medical volunteers for serving the remote islands! 

Q: How did disaster relief fit into the original model?

A: We thought once every five years we would be responding to, perhaps, a cyclone. Cyclone Ian hit Tonga in 2014, and we sent two vessels. We were the only vessels that could reach these remote islands; big merchant ships can’t get in, because of the narrow entrances and shallow lagoons. Then Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu in 2015, so we sent eight vessels to Vanuatu. We realized we had to get in front of this and created our first response league. We contacted owners of small yachts and the superyachts, and built a network just in case something else happens. When Cyclone Winston hit Fiji in 2016, we had 60 vessels that responded. We were the first on the scene and the last ones to leave.

Q: How did this expand into economic development?

A: It started with diabetes. The rate of diabetes in the South Pacific is one of the highest in the world. A lot of the health issues are either directly or indirectly a result of diabetes. The [Western] diet that we have introduced to them has changed their whole culture. On the remote islands they don’t have access to the drugs to treat it. And the farmers are moving away, and they’re sending money home. Instead of working and farming and fishing, people are buying sugar and processed flour and rice and noodles. In our health clinics, we realized, we’re treating the symptoms but not the underlying causes. So we are shifting to more of an economic development, agriculturally based program. We’re budgeting it, gearing up, meeting with the leadership, and getting the approval. It’s been a really amazing journey, but we’re very excited about seeing the impact it’s going to have on these remote islands. 

Sea Mercy has more than 100 yachts on call, ready to deliver health care and aid.