Boniswe Mdingi, a Business Meeting & Six Interesting Rotary Awardees

Last Week


Boniswe Mdingi spoke to us about contracting polio as a child and what it meant to her both as a child and as an adult.
I couldn't trace her NPO on the internet and it's not affiliated to Disability Pride which is an international organisation but I did see that her Limited Company says it does garden services and a whole lot of other things but there is no website. 
I think that someone, maybe our club, should  look into this and help her register her NGO and assist with the governance etc as I am sure she needs it and it will then open doors for the future.

Left, Wesley Maraire, upper right, Anne Padmore , lower right Oda Maraire

We also had a number of visitors, Wesley & Oda Maraire from Zimbabwe and Anne Padmore   whose company is providing the transport for the container that we are converting for Baragwanath Palliative Care. 
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This Week
It's a Business Meeting and our Fund Raising Quiz for PolioPlus is on Wednesday.  Congratulations to Sybille and her team as it's obviously going to be a great success.

Six humanitarians who are members of the family of Rotary are being honored as People of Action: Connectors Beyond Borders during the 2019 Rotary Day at the United Nations, which focuses this year on the global refugee crisis.

The annual event, being held at the UN’s headquarters in New York, USA, on 9 November this year, celebrates the vision for peace that Rotary and the UN share. Through Rotary’s long history with the UN, its members have helped people affected by war, famine, and disaster.

Today, the number of refugees worldwide is the highest it has been since World War II. The six honorees — five Rotary members and a Rotary Peace Fellow — are all people of action who have found community-based solutions to the refugee crisis.

Bernd Fischer

Club: Rotary Club of Berlin, Germany

Project: Integration of refugee women into German society

Description: Fischer, a retired diplomat, is coordinating Rotary clubs in Europe and the U.S. on a grant project to integrate 240 refugee women into German society by helping them overcome cultural and language differences that hinder their participation in daily life. The project has already trained 100 women with children and has provided mentoring in their own languages, job training and placement assistance, and child care when they need medical and psychological treatment.

Lucienne Heyworth

Rotary connection: Rotary Peace Fellow (Uppsala University, 2015-17)

Project: Education curriculum in times of emergency, focused on the Middle East

Description: Heyworth developed an “education in emergencies” curriculum to provide instructional materials that can be used in makeshift learning spaces to teach people displaced by conflict. Such spaces create critical safe places for entire communities, where families can fill other basic needs like food, hygiene, and health. Heyworth, who was a teacher before she developed her expertise in providing education in areas of conflict, has focused her work in the Middle East.

Ilge Karancak-Splane

Club: Rotary Club of Monterey Cannery Row, California, USA

Project: Education and integration project in Turkey for Syrian refugee children

Description: After visiting several refugee tent camps in Turkey, Karancak-Splane organized Rotary clubs to provide 1,000 pairs of children’s shoes and socks for families in the camps in 2017. Recognizing that the children also lacked access to schools, Karancak-Splane and her Rotary club launched a global grant project to help educate refugee children.

Hasina Rahman

Club: Rotary Club of Dhaka Mavericks, Bangladesh

Project: Nutrition services for Rohingya children in Bangladesh

Description: Rahman, assistant country director of Concern Worldwide, has mobilized Rotary clubs and partner agencies to raise funds for and construct an outpatient therapeutic center that provides lifesaving preventive care and nutrition services for children and pregnant women who have fled to the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar. The center has screened more than 500,000 Rohingya children and helped more than 7,000 severely malnourished children. Staff members and volunteers have learned about feeding infants and young children, and refugee families have received information in their own language about breastfeeding and proper hygiene.

Ace Robin

Club: Rotary Club of Mataram Lombok, Mataram, Indonesia

Project: Disaster relief and housing for people displaced by earthquakes

Description: Robin has led her club’s and community’s efforts to provide assistance to people displaced by a series of earthquakes in the Lombok region of Indonesia during 2018. She served as the contact person for ShelterBox, aiding in the delivery of 915 units of temporary housing near Lombok. She and her fellow club members brought water, food, and other necessities to people who were displaced and distributed teaching materials, uniforms, shoes, and bags for students. Robin remains involved in the long-term recovery efforts.

Vanderlei Lima Santana

Club: Rotary Club of Boa Vista-Caçari, Roraima, Brazil

Project: Humanitarian aid to Venezuelan refugees

Description: Santana has led efforts to welcome and care for thousands of Venezuelan refugees arriving in northern Brazil because of desperate economic conditions in their country. Santana’s club has been working with the government and nonprofit organizations to coordinate the distribution of meals and vaccines to more than a thousand refugees who are living in streets or makeshift shelters in a plaza near the local bus station. They also provide professional development assistance and help the refugees find places to sleep.

Last Week Audiologist Varsha Sewerspad. This Week we focus on Disability in general and Polio in particular

Last Week


Audiologist Varsha Sewpersad spoke to us about hearing loss, hearing aids...even how to get wax out of our ears.  It provoked a lot of questions because her approach isn't merely empirical.  The gist of her address was that you listen with your brains not your ears because they just send messages to the brain. If your hearing deteriorates and you do nothing about it then your brain doesn't function in the way that it should because you become less able to communicate and less social.  This can mean that you could more likely be subject to such diseases as Alzheimers.

Here's another wheelchair donated by us to a refugee who is suffering from cancer and is unable to use his crutches anymore.  Behind the chair is Juanito De Dios, Chairman of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Kensington, Johannesburg.  Soon we'll be sending three wheelchairs to Linda Twala of Phutaditjaba in Alexandra.  Linda has been very helpful by sending the youth, known as Leopards, to collections at Spar Norwood...and often they are better collectors than we are!

President Jean mentioned Sybille on top of Mount Kinabalu.....she's the one on the right.

 This Week

Boniswe Mdingi,who had Polio as a child, will be talking to us about polio and Disability Pride.  This is quite a big organisation in the USA and I have a feeling that she is trying to get it off the ground here as I as find no trace of it locally.

Disability Pride is the idea that people with disabilities should be proud of their disabled identity The movement for disability pride has its roots in the pride awareness events of other minority communities, such as Black pride and LGBT pride. The United States' first Disability Pride Parade was held in Boston, MA in 1990. Disability pride parades have since spread to many locations across the U.S., including San Francisco,

 Philadelphia, Detroit, and Silicon Valley/Santa Clara County, and internationally, such as Norway, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. The Chicago Disability Pride Parade describes the goals in its mission statement:

To change the way people think about and define “disability”;

To break down and end the internalized shame among people with Disabilities; and
To promote the belief in society that Disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity in which people living with Disabilities can take pride.

Our new strategy to end polio

John Sever, International PolioPlus Committee Vice Chair

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI’s) previous strategic plan was from 2013 to 2018. We achieved many important things: Wild poliovirus type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015; wild poliovirus type 3 was last seen in 2012, giving us high confidence that it’s no longer circulating; no wild poliovirus has been detected outside Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2016. But the clear factor in creating the new Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023 is that we have not yet achieved complete eradication.

The new plan has three goals. The first goal is eradication. Second, integration — collaboration with other public health actors beyond the GPEI to strengthen health systems to help achieve and sustain eradication. Then, certification and containment — we have to prove through surveillance that we have interrupted the transmission of the poliovirus, and we have to be able to show that the virus in laboratories either has been destroyed or is appropriately contained.

The GPEI’s five-year budget to execute this is $4.2 billion. Why does it cost so much?

Every year, we have to vaccinate more than 450 million children in up to 50 countries to prevent the spread of polio from the endemic areas. In addition to the children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, we are immunizing children all over Africa and Asia. So we have to have a lot of people out there to help immunize, and that costs money. We have to have the vaccine, and that costs money. And we have to maintain and pay for sizable quantities of vaccine in case of an outbreak, and that costs money. Then we have to investigate about 100,000 cases of paralysis each year to rule out polio. We have to continue surveillance — looking for cases of polio to be sure we are not missing cases in certain areas. We need to test sewage samples in 34 countries to ensure that the poliovirus is not circulating undetected. And all of those things cost money. It’s a significant expense every year to maintain that level of performance.

What strategies are in this plan?

One key element is establishing a regional hub for Afghanistan and Pakistan to consolidate our efforts and increase technical support. We’re also focusing on mobile and hard-to-reach children — children who are crossing borders, riding on trains, and coming out of areas where our access has been restricted. We are developing rapid-response teams and surge capacity so if the virus is detected, our response can be swift and intense. We’re working with other actors such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to help strengthen immunization systems. And we’re delivering additional services such as clean water, nutrition, health, and sanitation, because often the local people say we’re always coming back to immunize against polio, but what about their other problems?

What can Rotarians do to ensure that the plan is successful?

The No. 1 thing is to continue to support the program. We have a $3.27 billion funding gap. We will need Rotarians to make direct donations as well as to advocate with their governments and other groups for their support so that we can continue to do all of the immunizations and surveillance we’ve been talking about. Rotarians in countries where active polio eradication efforts are underway need to continue helping with these efforts and immunizing children. They need to keep advocating with their governments to continue to support polio eradication.

A Springbok/Italy Meeting, Rotary Family Health Days, a Couple of Vegetables, Hearing Loss & Coping with it, and an Innovative Approach to Membership

Last Week
Our speaker cancelled at the last minute.  It seems that when ever I say quite a lot about our future speaker they always seem to cancel at the last minute.  Maybe I should say nothing about this week's speaker.

Some members of the club were delighted because it meant that the meeting could be suspended until the second half was completed.





And we had a visitor, Michael Mtenga.

What he thought of us I don't really know.  I have a feeling that he might think we are a sports club that disguises itself as a Rotary Club...



Rotary Family Health Days
We were able to help Kyalami and also Morningside at their venues.  I don't have any pictures of Morningside but here's Kyalami with David Bradshaw and President Jean on the right.

Jean waxed lyrical about spring onions and spinach/Swiss chard...don't forget you can eat the stalks separately, just braise them in chicken stock.

This Week
  Varsha Sewpersad returns to talk to us about Hearing Loss- a Practical Hands-on Training.

Varsha Sewpersad is the senior audiologist and practice owner at Speak Today, Hear Forever. Having worked within hospitals, specialised preschools, remedial schools, medico-legal teams and private practices in South Africa and Dubai. She specializes in hearing evaluation, hearing loss, tinnitus, auditory processing disorders and hearing rehabilitation. Varsha has gained extensive and valuable experience within the fields of speech therapy and audiology working from young children to geriatrics. With a great passion and desire to improve the quality of lives of individuals with hearing and/or communication 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. She has been awarded membership of the Golden Key International Honour Society and is part of an international guild for auditory processing disorders specialists.  Varsha is fervent in creating awareness on hearing loss and she therefore recommends that any person over the age of 50 should visit an audiologist annually as part of their overall health care plan as research shows that untreated hearing loss in individuals over the age of 60 have a 36% chance of developing Dementia/ Alzheimer’s disease.

'We hear with our brains and not our ears'

Rotary Club of Wiarton, Ontario

Chartered: 1938

Original membership: 18

Membership: 33

Club members at a Canada-themed trivia night.

Building bonds: In Wiarton, gateway to the bucolic Bruce Peninsula between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron in Ontario, a dedicated Rotary club shoulders an outsize responsibility. With fewer than three dozen members, the Rotary Club of Wiarton has installed playground equipment, benches, and a wooden boardwalk, all while supporting a robust Rotary Youth Exchange program, polio eradication, and projects in Africa and Mexico. It also stages several major annual events. How? By summoning the exponential force of friendship.

Club innovation: To involve more people in club meetings and events, the members came up with a creative solution. Wiarton’s Friends initiative, inaugurated in 2016, appeals to people who share Rotary’s values but cannot commit to full membership, allowing them to attend as many as 10 club meetings a year while helping at fundraisers and other projects. The goal of the program, which has nine participants, is to provide a path toward regular membership.

During an event for club presidents-elect at the 2018 Rotary International Convention in Toronto, Mike McMillan, then incoming president of the Wiarton club, stepped up to the microphone to raise the issue of how Rotary could expand its base. “We are in an area of generally blue-collar industries: tourism, retail, a national park,” McMillan recalls saying. “I asked, ‘How do we attract nonprofessionals, or rather professionals of a different sort?’ ” Other presidents-elect from all over the world told him that they faced a similar predicament. McMillan already had one possible solution.

Two years earlier, the Wiarton club had launched the Friends program to engage people in the community with limited time and money. “So many young people, in particular, can’t commit to a full-time membership,” says McMillan. “Particularly in an area like ours, to pay $80 a month for meals is beyond their budgets if they have young kids. It’s important to come up with other ways to keep people involved. Our community is small and not particularly wealthy.”

One go-to volunteer, Jimi Avon, a retired musician who spends winters in Mexico, draws energy from the drive of the Rotarians. “I’m ready to be at all these events. For me, it’s a positive thing,” Avon says of his status as a Friend. “At the level I’m at, I’m happy and I don’t have quite the responsibility.” Also among the Friends are a hospice manager, a woman who operates a landscaping business and garden shop with her Rotarian husband, and four retirees.

And for one Friend, the program has been a pathway back to membership. Richard Bouillon had left the club in 1996 because of demands of business and family life. He tested the waters again as a Friend. “I’m not sure if I should be called an ‘old new member’ or a ‘new old member.’ I spent a year as a Friend before rejoining the club in 2018,” Bouillon says. Now he is fully committed, having worked the Village Fair and traveled to Honduras to help build a school through a Rotary-sponsored project. But it might not have happened without a gentle reintroduction. “The Friends program was one of the things that brought me back,” he says.

The Youth Leadership Course, the Spar Collection, the Quiz, Vocational Service Awards, Medication by WiFi & WoW!

Last Week

I was again not at the meeting but neither was President Jean as she was at our Youth Leadership course in the Magaliesberg.  Unfortunately I was unable to attend the Sunday braai because of another function....I'm not much of a reporter of Rotary Events!

You can see that the various teams had to shop and then cook dinner.  Sadly the the adults only had one small take-away to share between 6.....

The Spar Collection
I don't know what we succeeded in collecting yet but our shift, which was the first one on a Saturday morning, is always slow in starting but we certainly collected more than the previous month......It's just come in from Sybille who had the with to photograph the final tally... R7 626,15.

The Quiz

We have a big advertisement for it every week in The Ramble.  Don't forget.  It's not long to go and we have to get as many people there as possible. 

Rotary Vocational Service Awards

So far we have had only one recommendation. 

This Week

Dr Agatha Banga is going to talk about "Medication by WiFi".  ?????

Banga is a pediatric surgeon who works at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. Her day starts in the hospital wards at 5:00 am where she visits her patients and leaves instructions for the day. She then does a handover meeting with consultants, registrars and medical offices to discuss the progress of patients overnight, theatre cases, and any emergency cases.

Banga is usually in theatre by 8:00 am almost every single day. On the days she is not operating, she attends to over 100 patients at the clinic. The Zimabawean native splits her time treating patients at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, and until recently, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital. 

“Surgery is not anything like Grey’s Anatomy, it’s more like a rollercoaster ride. You need to be more attentive, like essential things you need to do for patients such as take blood and do drips. Those are the things that ensure that your patients are ready for theatre and that your patients will do well after theatre,” Banga said.

Much like the Grey’s Anatomy character Meredith Grey, Banga makes her own scrub caps herself which she wears when operating on patients. She added, “It’s my way of being myself in the job that I have”.

As a medical student, Banga wanted to specialise as a paediatrician. She then took time off from clinical medicine and studied public health at the University of Cape Town as a Mandela Rhodes Scholar in 2015.

“At that time, I realised I discovered that surgery is a public health intervention and I looked at how many paediatricians are out there versus paediatric surgeons. Children are not little adults, and we actually need paediatric surgeons and not general surgeons to manage children,” Banga said.

Wow factor

Secily Wilson

The women virtually float down the runway at the “Fall into Fabulous” fashion show. As they smile and twirl, Secily Wilson sits in the back, relishing her role as fairy godmother.

“When you see before-and-after shots of these women, you can feel the empowerment,” she says. “They’re like, ‘I got this.’” They aren’t models, and their stylish clothes and makeup aren’t the main point of the event. The women are graduates of a six-month program that aims to lift them out of challenging life situations, whether as a result of domestic violence, a bad relationship, or a financial catastrophe.

The nonprofit Wilson founded, called WOW, or Women Overcoming with Willpower, provides a range of sessions that include mental health counseling, job interview preparation, and résumé-writing advice. Since she founded WOW in 2012, the organization has benefited nearly 1,000 women and children through the empowerment program.

In the women she helps, Wilson also sees herself.

Not long ago, she was a well-known local TV news anchor dreaming of a big-time network job. But that was before she had a stroke, on air, just before her 40th birthday. It was the first of a series of misfortunes that hit the mother of two: She was laid off. Her marriage broke up. Her home was foreclosed on. Then she had a second minor stroke.

“Why me?” she remembers thinking. “I lived very silently in this pit of depression and despair, thinking my life was over.” Eventually, a friend told her: “Snap out of it, girlfriend. Enough of this pity party.”

At the Fall into Fabulous fashion show,
 volunteers on the “glam squad”
assist the women in the programme
 with hairstyling, makeup, and wardrobe.

A “trained survivor” and “closet party planner,” Wilson set out to teach resilience to others who were in similar situations but lacked the advantages she had. She rallied friends and sponsors to organize the first fashion show and luncheon, but soon realized she needed to offer more. WOW is now a registered 501(c)(3) organization that serves 15 to 20 women a year, assisted by a range of corporate and other supporters.

One of them is the Rotary Club of Lake Buena Vista, near Disney World (read more about this club). Wilson had joined the club because she was drawn by the organization’s dedication to community service.

The club supports WOW through donations, says Greg Gorski, 2018-19 club president. Members also help coach the women in the programme in job search and financial management skills, and volunteer at WOW events like the fashion show.

The nonprofit has supported women as they bought their own homes, returned to college, and established savings accounts for the first time.

Yvonne Hoffman, Before & After

Yvonne Hoffman recalls her first day in the programme, when Wilson asked each attendee to name five positive things about herself. Hoffman couldn’t come up with even one and broke down in tears. She and her two teenage daughters were just coming out of a bad domestic situation.

She says Wilson jumped in and quickly cited two things — her pretty smile and the fact that she had shown up to start anew. Today, Hoffman is happy, newly remarried, and working a higher-paying home health care job after going back to school.

“Secily was there when I needed her more than I ever needed someone in my life,” Hoffman says. “I think it’s because she’s got this ability to have such empathy. She’s been there.”

Mark Franklin, UJ Boy Child Project, a Busy Weekend for the Club & PolioPlus

Last Week

I wasn't at the meeting so I am grateful for President Jean sending me photos etc.

President Jean anticipating a
Springbok victory in the World Cup!

Mark Franklin talked about the days of his youth.  It must have been interesting and amusing.  It always concerns me that those of us who are of a certain age are totally unimaginable as young people to others.....just show them photos of your misspent youth and they are shocked by your hair....if you're male that you actually had any and if you're female the hairstyle and very often how short your skirt was.

And Stewart Mutegeki assisted the Rotaract Club of Johannesburg and the Community Engagement Dept at UJ with their Boy Child Project.  He is standing at the extreme left.

This Coming Weekend
First of all there's  the Rotary Rosebank Youth Leadership Course....don't forget to let President Jean know if you will be attending and assisting with the braai on the Sunday.

Secondly, The Food Collection at Norwood Spar.  In all there are 18 two-hour slots to be filled but only 8 have been taken so far.  I know that there are Rotarians at the Youth Leadership Course but we have 36 members!  Costa Qually shouldn't have to struggle to get people.

This Week
It's a Business Meeting but quite a few Rotarians & Board Members will be in the Magaliesberg.  

Friday 18th October
Boniswe Mdingi, who is a polio victim will be talking about polio.  She also distributes clothing so if you have any clothes that you no longer need, bring it on the 18th.

Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 30 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.

As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.  This was a project to immunise 6 million children over a number of years.  

1985 saw the launch of PolioPlus, initially to coordinate the private sector with this Rotary initiative which had  target of $120 million.  

Three years later Rotary International and The World Health Organisation launched The Global Polio Eradication Initiative. There were an estimated 350 000 cases of polio in 125 countries.

We've helped immunise more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries. So far, Rotary has contributed more than $1.8 billion toward eradicating the disease worldwide.

Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyse as many as 200,000 children each year.

Explore the history of Rotary and polio eradication

James Croswell, Mark Franklin, the Alexandra Leopards who help us and Rotaractors Saving the Sri Lankan Coral Reefs

Last Week
As you will have seen in President Jean's column Dr Hugo Tempelman was unable to attend because, against all odds, the Ndolovu Youth Choir and Dancers had reached the Final of America's Got Talent so he obviously had  support them.... and today's the day, the 17th September.

I was secretly quite pleased as I was away last Friday and I really wanted to hear Dr Tempelman's talk.

Instead James Croswell stepped into the breach and talked about his flying experiences.  Having heard a couple of his stories I am sure it was entertaining talk.







Our upcoming fund raiser is very important because with the Rotary
Foundation we know that any money donated to them and their projects, no matter how small, actually gets to where it is intended and is not eaten up in administration costs.  The same applies to any monies raised by individual clubs as projects are funded through a separate account and the club is not allowed to use money raised for anything else.  The funds for running the club, international and district dues are paid by members themselves from a separate club account.

This Week

Longstanding Rotarian Mark Franklin will be telling us about himself.  What is so interesting about these talks by long-term members of our club is that they have become more about the person rather than their profession so we really do get to know each other a lot better.

Here's Jeannette Horner with the Leopards from Alexandra Township who always help with our August Spar Collection at Norwood Spar.  The best salesperson was the smallest one there! Just a reminder to help with the September Collection later in the month....after payday.

The beautiful coral reefs along Sri Lanka’s coastlines have long attracted tourists. But the coral reefs, once filled with brilliantly colored fish and other species, have been dying. 

Image credit: Rotaract club of University of Moratuwa

Coral bleaching due to warmer ocean temperatures, along with excessive fishing, sand mining, and polluted waters, has heavily damaged these living systems.

The Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa recently completed a three-year project to replenish the corals. Project Zooxanthellae — named for the type of algae that lives on the surface of corals and nourishes them — involved Sri Lankan Navy divers placing 10 steel-framed structures underwater several hundred yards from shore. The divers then attached about 60 finger-size branches of live coral to each of the six-sided, 5-foot-high frames, which look like industrial jungle gyms. The coral polyps secrete the protective exoskeletal material that forms a reef. In four to five years, new reefs will have formed around the frames. The frames will eventually rust away, leaving a healthy reef.

“We wanted to do something to save the coral and help tourism,” says Rotaractor Paveen Perera. “This project will help people in those coastal areas who earn a living through the tourism industry.”

The project came about in 2016 after Sahan Jayawardana, the club’s environment director at the time, heard a lecture on coral reefs by Nalin Rathnayake, an oceanography expert from the Department of Earth Resources Engineering at the University of Moratuwa. A similar reef seeding project had been done successfully in the Maldives.

The location of the future reef was determined by the National Aquatic Resources Research & Development Agency, which conducted a survey looking for optimal growing conditions. The structures were designed and made by Siam City Cement (Lanka) Ltd., in collaboration with Rathnayake.

The coral pieces came from a nearby site, and it took about a year to get permission to harvest them, explains club member Natasha Kularatne, who helped oversee the project. Over the course of a week, the structures were placed in the waters off Jungle Beach, Rumassala, a major tourist area, and the corals were attached.

So far, the project has been successful, and this year the club was recognized with a Rotaract Outstanding Project Award for the South Asia region. “The Navy went on a dive and took photos, and it shows growth,” says Perera. “They are doing well.”

Khanyisile Mboya, Fundraising for PolioPlus, Dr Hugo Tempelman and Shelterbox.

Last Week
 Khanyisile Mboya  spoke to us mainly about her Rotary journey from assisting in starting up a Rotoract Club at Rhodes University to a Rotary Student Exchange and then eventually to joining the Rotary Club of Northcliff.

Northcliff have created an environment that is welcoming to  young people such as Khanyisile who are upwardly mobile and this year some of them are on the board of the club.  It is obvious, really, that an evening club, a breakfast club and an eclub are able to recruit such young people.  A lunch club is another matter as generally lunch hours, as such,hardly exist and so it's much more difficult to have members from this group.

Fundraising for PolioPlus.

Make a note of the date and get as many people as possible to come.  I have an inbred dislike of Rotarians raising money from Rotarians.  We need to flood Parkview Golf Club with non Rotarians and see this as a possible recruitment event, not only for our own club but for others as well.

Rotary International is on the last phase of ending Polio internationally.  Africa was declared Polio Free only a few days ago, now we just have areas of conflict such as Afghanistan which makes things very difficult.

As you will have seen the poster is also in the left hand column as a constant reminder.

This Week
Dr Hugo Tempelman will be telling us how  a Mobile Unit can bring Services to a Community.  This is  the most important aspect of our proposed Cervical Cancer Project, something that Dr Tempelman is particularly interested in.

Ndlovu Medical Trust was founded in 1994 by Dr. Hugo Tempelman and his wife Liesje. What started as a private primary health clinic, Ndlovu Medical Centre, has since expanded to a Non-Profit-Organisation employing more than 320 people and operating in two locations.

Ndlovu Care Group of South Africa provides innovative integrated Community Health- & Community Care services to the communities of Elandsdoorn & Bushbuckridge and its surrounding townships.

The Ndlovu Care Group developed an applicable and replicable Care Model for scaling up services in communities through:
- Local capacity building for sustained community development and improved standard of living in rural areas
- Information, awareness, and education on health related issues to promote behaviour change, early care seeking behaviour and prevent more HIV infections
- Affordable and integrated Primary Health Care (PHC), Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS Care to promote personal wellbeing and community health in general
- Childcare Programs to address the needs and life skills of Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVC)
- Research, Monitoring & Evaluation to ensure evidence based interventions and improved outcomes
- Replicating the NCG Model within the public sector and other NGO’s to assist in the upliftment of health and community systems across Southern Africa.

Just to cheer everyone up,the Ndlovu Youth Choir: Dance Group has reached the Finals of America's Got Talent which will be on the 17th September...we wish them luck.
Here's their semifinal performance:

With the recent disaster in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian we can be sure that Rotary in partnership with Shelterbox is there.

Rotary International announced on 3 June a three-year partnership renewal with its disaster relief project partner, ShelterBox. For almost 20 years, this unique humanitarian alliance has supported families with a place to call home after disaster.

Rotary is a global network whose members take action to make a lasting difference in their communities – and worldwide. ShelterBox provides emergency shelters and other essential items to support families who have lost their homes in disaster.

What began as a local connection with one Cornish Rotary Club has led to an international movement that’s provided 140,000 ShelterBox family tents or 390,000 ShelterKits worldwide to date (a value of over £54 million).

First adopted as a millennium project by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard in 2000, the support of Rotary members and clubs around the world saw ShelterBox become Rotary’s Project Partner in Disaster Relief in 2012. Since then, the partnership has helped transform ShelterBox into an internationally recognized disaster relief charity, supporting families with emergency shelter after disaster.

The partnership extends far beyond financial support. Around 1,000 Rotary members are involved in ShelterBox as volunteers, staff or response team members. And clubs worldwide offer valuable, practical assistance to help ShelterBox reach more families fleeing disaster or conflict.

This has recently included support for families in Malawi flooded from their homes by Cyclone Idai and communities in Lombok devastated by the 2018 earthquake and tsunami (quotes and details at the end of this release).

“ShelterBox has been Rotary’s Project Partner in Disaster Relief since 2012, and we are excited to renew the partnership for another three years,” says Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko.

“Through this project partnership, Rotary members around the globe can collaborate with ShelterBox to support communities in desperate need of emergency temporary shelter and vital supplies following natural disasters,” adds Hewko. “Additionally, Rotary and ShelterBox will continue to expand cooperation efforts through preparedness training and stockpiles of prepositioned aide in disaster-prone regions.”

Caroline White, interim Chief Executive at ShelterBox, said: “Whenever disaster strikes, Rotary is beside us. From the earliest planning stages to final evaluations, Rotary members help ShelterBox make community contacts, organize logistics, and reach disaster-affected families in remote areas who might otherwise go without.

This partnership has helped ShelterBox become who we are today. Our global network of 17 ShelterBox affiliates, who raise funds and awareness worldwide, evolved from Rotary relationships.”

Rotary club presidents around the world have also commented:

Ace Robin, President of the Mataram Rotary Club, Indonesia, was caught up in the deadly earthquakes that hit Lombok in 2018. Her home survived, but many around her were destroyed. Through an agreement with the government-led response, Ace’s club was central to bringing ShelterBox aid to Indonesia.

Thanks to their support, vulnerable members of the community received vital emergency shelter, including families with elderly relatives, pregnant women or new mothers.

Ace said: “Working with ShelterBox taught us a lot – they showed us how to build shelter and select families to help. It also gave us a chance to show what Rotary is to local people.”

After floods triggered by Cyclone Idai left tens of thousands homeless in Malawi this March, Rotary members connected ShelterBox with communities in the Blantyre region, helping them understand local needs and culture. Members helped deliver emergency shelter to almost 2,000 families. And ShelterBox supported the Rotary Club of Limbe to join the wider disaster response, enabling the club to deliver food to communities whose entire crops had been destroyed by the floods.

Rotary Club of Limbe President Eric Chinkanda said: “It was a great experience to work with ShelterBox. We have not only walked a mile in reaching out to the many Malawians who faced hardship, but we restored confidence in the displaced people that all was not lost!”

James Kingston, Club President of the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, in Cornwall, said: “The members of Helston-Lizard Rotary are delighted that Rotary International continues to recognize ShelterBox.

I joined the club a few months before the Millennium Project began, and I’m so pleased we’re still involved. It has been wonderful to see the charity grow into an internationally recognized, professional disaster relief organization.”