A Social Meeting at Wanderers, The District 9400 website and new members and a very distinguished guest to address us this Friday....

 From the Pen of the President...

Our President Costa is taking a well deserved rest and instead shares a beautiful sunset with us.

Last Friday....

... was the last Friday of the month and thus a social meeting, and as agreed upon was held in person at Wanderers. It is very challenging to transmit a social meeting successfully on Zoom, and thus it was decided to not offer the online option.

Last year Roger Wedlake had regaled us with My Path to Wellness (Part 1)  and this time he gave us a most interesting second part to his path to wellness.

It was the beginning of the pandemic, and as a retired chemist with a lot of time on his hands and a healthy dose of curiosity Roger's ears pricked up when he read an article that a herbal cure for the Corona Virus had been developed on Madagascar. At first he scoffed at it, but when he heard that the well respected Max Planck Institute in Munich took the claim seriously he started his own investigation into the ingredients of this alleged wonder drug.

The herb in question was the sweet wormwood plant (Artemisia annua), which is readily available at any Dischem, and with that Roger turned his kitchen into a lab and started experimenting with a variety of other natural ingredients with anti-viral properties such as echinacea, cats claw, olive leaf, astragalus and mullen leaves, tumeric tincture and potassium iodide. The Corona Virus is very PH sensitive and does not like a alkaline environment, so buffer the concoction with sodium bicarbonate.

Add all these substances to a cheap bottle of gin, and voila - an anti-septic, anti-viral throat spray is born.

It goes without saying that the chemist Roger based his creation on sound chemical principles and he does not profess this to be a cure, but it could possibly help to make us more resilient to fight off the dreaded lurgy.

The District 9400 website...

When last have you visited the District 9400 website?

https://rotary9400.org.za/

Under the Rotary Links you will find

For New Members

which gives our newer members profound insights why we have joined this incredible organization.

There are valuable links to the Rotary Basics and The Learning Centre, and we urge you to take advantage of this useful tool.

This Friday.....

.... we welcome PDG Eric Kimani from Kenya, who will address us on the Rotary Foundation and Donations. It will be a hybrid meeting taking place at Wanderers and we urge as many members as possible to attend the meeting either in person or online.

We will be joined by members of Johannesburg New Dawn.

Guests are welcome.

Please notify President Costa of your attendance.

PDG Eric Kimani is an Entrepreneur, attorney of law, fellow certified public accountant (FCPAK) and business leader of repute having founded his own companies and run some public companies such as KTDA Ltd and Sameer Africa Ltd as Chief Executive Officer.  Together with his wife Margaret, he runs the Palmhouse Foundation, a very successful education trust. He is also a published author and a sought-after motivational and inspirational speaker. He a recipient of the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS) by His Excellency the President of Kenya for service to community in 2011 and holds an LLB (Laws) degree from the University of London.  He is currently serving as Rotary Endowment and Major Gifts Advisor (EMGA) of Region 28 of Zone 22, 2021-24.

Kimani is a member of the Rotary Club of Muthaiga North and a Paul Harris Society member. He has been a Rotarian for 31 years and has served as a past president of the Rotary Club of Nairobi North and past District Governor of District 9200.  During his stint as District Governor in 2012/13, (which at the time consisted of Kenya, Uganda Tanzania and Eritrea) he grew the District with the formation of a record 21 new clubs and led a record fund raising for the Rotary Foundation.

A monthly Business Meeting, Happy recipients of beautiful books and December and January Club 100 winners....

 From the Pen of the President....

It is disappointing to note that the attendance during November was an average of 19 members per meeting.  This is just over half of our club membership.  Please note that members are required to attend at least 50% of the number of the club’s regular meetings.  The 50% can be a combination of meeting attendance and make ups by way of attending other clubs’ meetings, participating in a club or other Rotary project or attending a committee meeting.  Please attend as often as you can.

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

Whatever lies within our power to do also lies within our power not to do (Aristotle)

Last Friday...

....was our monthly business meeting which was held via Zoom and sadly the attendance was very poor with only 16 members attending.

Report backs in brief by the various committee chairs: -

Attendance - Pam Donaldson:

December was not representative, as we only had one meeting, but in November attendance had gone down to a disappointing average of 19 members per meeting. It was emphasized that we should appeal to our members to make a bigger effort to make an appearance.

Finance - John Symons:

All subscriptions are paid up 

Our finances are looking healthy

R17 000 of the proceeds of last year's quiz evening to be dispersed to the following charities:

- Charity Begins With Me

- Curamus School for Autism

- Boikanyo

- Gideon's Animal Outreach

Membership & Almoner's duties - David Bradshaw:

David needs to be commended for the sterling job he does as club almoner and he makes every effort to connect with as many of our "old" Rotarians, widows, Anns and friends of Rotary

Yvonne Franklin (Mark's widow) spent a month in Sedgefield with her children, and is keen to join one of our in-person meetings at Wanderers

Bernard Neuhaus, our oldest member, is still working hard and also wants to attend a meeting.

James Byrne - had all good intentions of attending our last Wanderers meeting, but lost concentration while driving to the venue, hit a curb and burst a tyre. Thank goodness he was fine.

Hugh Rix - had a few health issues, but is feeling better and hopes to soon attend in person again.

Roger Lloyd - has moved to the Cape, but has still not been able to move into his house. He says he's exhausted!

Carol Lawrence - has moved from mid-care into frail care

Elaine Margolius (Peter's widow) is doing fine

David is hard at work trying to establish a satellite club in Dainfern. Potential members meet in their clubhouse every second Thursday, and there are an average of 10 persons attending. Many of them are foreigners, working in South Africa for a limited number of years.

International - Richard Moloney:

Richard is hoping to identify some smaller sustainable local projects that could attract some overseas interest.

He would love for some of us to attend this year's  RI convention in Houston Texas, and if not this year why don't we start saving for Melbourne, Australia in 2023?

Youth - Jean Bernardo:

Because of rotational learning last year the Interact Club at Highlands North Boys had great challenges, but they did manage to do a successful blood drive.

This year they would like to hold four blood drives  and get involved in the Blanket Drive.

It is good news that they are joining the Junior City Council of Johannesburg.

A date has been set for Career's Day at the Holy Family College on Saturday the 5th of March, and Jean is appealing for members of our club to assist on the day.

The Youth Leadership Course, which had to be put on hold for the last two years will definitely go ahead this year. Dates to be confirmed. Because of the newly introduced Youth Protection Policy it will mean that we will need all hands on deck to make sure that we remain compliant with regulations.

Rotary Foundation - Les Short:

Les is making an appeal to all club members who have not yet registered with My Rotary  to please do so.

Fundraising - Sonja Hood:

Because the past quiz evenings have proven to be really successful we are planning to hold two quiz events this year, in May and in October. 

It is never too early to start collecting prizes, so please let us us have any unwanted Christmas gifts or liquor for our raffle hampers.

Community and Vocational Services - Sybille Essmann:

We once again need to say a huge thank you for the generosity of the Norwood Spar patrons who supported our annual food drive and over three weekends we managed to collect food items to the value of R32 000. 

the five charities that  each received a goods voucher  of R6 400 are as follows:

- Charity Begins With Me

- The Frida Hartly Shelter for Women

- Phutaditjaba in Alex

- Curamus School for Autism

- Boeregemeenskap

The gratitude demonstrated by these recipients was immeasurable. Cheryl Hlabane of the Frida Hartley Shelter shared this special photo with us.

There are so many selfless people who do wonderful work in our community and it has therefore been decided that we will in future also acknowledge them with a Community Services Award.

Vocational and Community Services Award nominations can be forwarded to Lyn Collocott. 

In conjunction with the Committee for Environment we would like to organize a Rotary Day of Service.

As part of his 2021-22 initiatives Rotary International President Mehta is encouraging clubs to plan and host a practical and action oriented Rotary Day of Service. The event should address a challenge facing your community that fits in one or more of Rotary's areas of focus and bring together volunteers from within and outside of Rotary. We are halfway through the Rotary year, and many clubs have already risen to the challenge.

Watch this space, we will share our plans in the near future.

Happy Recipients of beautiful books....

In early December Ann Hope-Bailie and Jean Bernardo made a trip with many of boxes of glossy books which we were donating to the Esperante Primary School in the West Rand. The language medium at the school is Afrikaans, so these books titled Wat of Aarde gaan hier aan, a story of the relocation of a family of elephants were very well received.

A few days earlier Ann was accompanied by Sybille Essmann to the German School of Johannesburg where they were welcomed by the principal Mr Holtmann who happily accepted over  100 German books titled Wo in der Welt sind wir bloss? (roughly translated as Where in the world are we). Mr Holtman earmarked the books to be presented

 to learners that had achieved distinctions that year.

This Friday....

....is a social meeting at Wanderers. There will be no Zoom transmission.

 

We are back with Charmaine's Story, A "New Beginnings" drinks party at Ann's, and a great charitable initiative......

From the Pen of the President....

I pray that 2022 will be a year of happiness, fulfilled dreams and hopes for all our members and friends.  The start has seen both sides of the vaccine controversy becoming increasingly adamant.  Consider the strong statements that have been made about Novak Djokovic and his Australian visa problems.  RI has come out in strong support of being vaccinated, a view supported by most medical and scientific experts.  I am astounded by the number of people who really believe that the vaccine is a way of injecting a fluid computer chip into your system or that the vaccines were developed by experimenting on unborn foetuses.  No doubt about which side of the debate I take!

 

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realise how little we understand about life, ourselves and the world around us  (Socrates)

Last Friday....

....we kicked off the year with a hybrid meeting at Wanderers, and as our techno-boffin  Ann Hope- Bailie took care of proceedings it went ahead without a hitch.

It was Charmaine Leesman's turn to share her story with us, and as she works in Pretoria she beamed in via Zoom.

An unforgettable highlight of her young life must have been when she had the rare privilege of meeting Mother Theresa at the age of 15.

She met the love of her life Michael in creche when she was only 3 years old, and started dating him when they were still at school. The other two men in her life are her two sons Gerald and Tyron

Her other babies are her much loved dogs Gabi, Hannah and Babba.

She reminisced that as a child her dad had driven a BMW  and she had told him that one day she would work for BMW and sure enough, after starting her working life at OK Bazaars she then bagged a job at a BMW dealership and then was promoted to BMW South Africa where she worked for many years.

Volvo then headhunted her and now she has a challenging career with Stellantis, one of the leading global automakers.

Charmaine is a bit of an adrenaline junky and has done the famous Bloukrans bungee jump, rated as one of the highest commercial bungee jumps at 216 meters.

Her charitable passions involve children and animals, and the SPCA has a very special place in her heart. By joining Rotary she is hoping to channel these passions.

Thank you for sharing, Charmaine.

"New Beginnings" drinks at Ann's...

As our Christmas gettogether had to be cancelled last year, we thought it fitting that we should begin 2022 with a little bit of fellowship. Ann and John Hope-Bailie graciously hosted the drinks party and judging by the snapshots taken, it was a very jolly occasion. 

David Bradshaw got a bit chilly and borrowed Ann's dressing gown to keep him warm.

Charity Begins with Me Initiative....

The Rotary Club of Rosebank has had a long standing relationship with Paul Harris recipient Stephan Ferreira of Charity Begins With Me.

Last year we donated a JoJo tank to the vegetable garden project that he spearheaded in Durban Deep and he is now asking for assistance for his township recycling swap shop.

He is encouraging the children of the Durban Deep informal settlements to collect recyclable waste and in exchange they are then able to "buy" an item on offer, be it food, clothes,sweets, toys or stationary.

Last week Sybille dropped off a car-load of items collected from our members that went into "stock"

On Saturday the children lined up with their bags of collected recycled waste.

The items on offer:

The informal waste pickers now have their turn to make a living from the collected recyclable waste.

This Friday....

.... Our first Business Meeting of the year. 

"See" you there.

A lesson in San Culture, Norwood Spar Food Drive - it's a wrap! and one last gathering for 2021....

 

From the Pen of the President...

There is mounting evidence that the Omicron variant of Covid 19 generally has mild symptoms on those people it infects, particularly if you have been vaccinated. Whilst medical specialists say it is too early to form a definitive view in this regard, it certainly provides a ray of hope in an otherwise gloomy situation. A doctor I played tennis with over the weekend felt Covid may well become similar to flu – a virus that will always be with us but not one that poses a great risk and one that will have an annually updated vaccine available. I pray that these positive views prove to be correct.

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and worries of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.

Last Friday...

.... we were entertained by guest speaker Michael Daiber, general manager of the !Khwa-ttu San Culture and Education Centre, which was developed up the West Coast, 70 km north of Cape Town on a remote, desolate farm with spectacular views of Table Mountain in the far distance. 

Originally from Switzerland, Michael came to South Africa as a young passionate anthropologist more than 30 years ago with a yearning to learn more about the San people. Unlike the Khoisan, who possessed sheep and cattle and who lived predominately on West Coast, the San, or Bushman, were hunter-gatherers, without possessions and scattered throughout the whole of Southern Africa all the way up to the Okavango.

In 1998, Michael  met Irene Steahelin, another Swiss National and also an anthropologist, who had come to South Africa to write her Master's thesis about the San. She had a vision of establishing a place that could showcase the San culture to the world and therefore pledged the funds to buy a dilapidated farm consisting of 850 hectares of land, which had been on the market for 10 years. The land was placed into a Trust directed jointly by the San and the Swiss-based Ubuntu Foundation.

San people came from all over the country to work on the project and it took years to clear the land and renovate the buildings and in 2006 the project  was finally ready to open to the public.

Today it is a thriving tourist attraction receiving 20 000 visitors a year, with 40 permanently employed San. Every year 10 San interns between the ages of 18 to 30 come from various parts of South Africa and spend 6 months at !Khwa-ttu and are taught all aspects of tourism from building roads to making cappuccinos. The aim is make these young interns self-sustainable, and even if they are unable to find formal jobs they are given the practical tools to start their own little businesses in conservation, tourism or manufacturing.

To learn more about this unique project you can click into this link kindly shared with us by Michael.

https://vimeo.com/345703883 

Trolley Loads of good Cheer...

This past weekend we made one last concerted effort to encourage Norwood Spar patrons to donate non-perishable food items to our annual "festive cheer" drive and although we have not yet received the final figures our initiative has born abundant fruit.

Thank you to all the willing and able volunteers, we would not have been able to do it without you. 

We are hoping that we will be able to still distribute the vouchers before Christmas thereby ensuring that we will be able to deliver some much needed Christmas Cheer to some of the most vulnerable communities.

This Friday....

For those joining Christmas the Christmas party please don't forget a toy or book or sweets for a less privileged child. 

The Relevance of Attendance, A successful Norwood Spar Food Drive, but volunteers still needed, November Club 100 winners announced and RSVP for Xmas Drinks....

 From the Pen of the President...

The Omicron coronavirus variant has caused illogical panic reactions in many parts of the world.  The UK, EU and several other countries’ politicians seem as devoid of rational thought as many of those we are saddled with in South Africa. Being able to analyse and identify a new virus variant is not the same as being the source of it.

Fortunately, the WHO and other international bodies responses are more reasonable and acknowledge the skills and abilities of our scientists who identified the variant and were transparent about it. It is unfortunate that SA is being punished instead of being praised. I shudder to think of what the adverse effects will be on our economy and, in particular, on the tourism and airline and sectors.

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

Remember, no human condition is ever permanent (Socrates)

Last Friday...

As the year hurtles to its inevitable end and the Silly Season is in full swing it is also evident that Club members have other commitments that keep them from attending weekly meeting. Only 19 members attended Club Assembly which was resumed from the previous week. 

With dwindling attendance it was suggested that the Ramble would be the ideal forum to reiterate the value of attendance.

Regular attendance is one of the requirements of Club membership. Rotary emphasises attendance because it recognizes that to remain an effective Rotarian, a member must experience the good fellowship of weekly meetings and be involved in the Club's progress and projects. Per the Rotary rules, members should have a minimum of 50% attendance at meetings.  

The calculation of attendance includes:

• Attending club meetings
• One or more make-ups which result from:

• Attending another Rotary club meeting
• Attending a committee meeting of the club, district, etc
• Attending a district or club sponsored activity
• Attending a meeting of a Rotaract or Interact Club.
• Participation in a Rotary project or fund raising event - such as a shift at a Spar collection, blanket drive, careers day, etc
• Attending a Rotary conference, convention or assembly
• Spending 2 or more hours in a day preparing for or organising a club or district project / event – for example preparing a RYLA course, making masks, repairing wheelchairs, etc

For multi-day events, include a make-up for each completed day or partial day that exceeds 2 hours.

Furthermore it was discussed that the new members who had joined in the past year, were at a distinct disadvantage due to the Covid lockdown restrictions, and had not been able to learn the ropes from the "old" hands in the Club. It would therefore be an excellent idea to introduce a mentorship program to help integrate the "newbies" into Club life and activities.

Rosebank Rotary volunteers assure Festive Cheer for  the Not-so-Privileged.....

The October food drive was followed up by a further weekend of food collection this past weekend, and once again we were blown away by the generosity of the community.

... Two more volunteers needed for this Saturday 4th December

Please let Tutty Faber (fabertutty@gmail.com) know If you are willing and able.

This Friday....

....promises to be a fascinating presentation.

 

Have you RSVP'd???

Technology lets us down at Club Assembly, Calling Volunteers for the Norwood Food Drive, Boikanyo's Buggy project gets our support and get ready for Christmas Cheer

 From the Pen of the President....

During our assembly last week it was apparent that some members were not fully aware of some of our projects or what was required to assist.  We strive to include relevant information in the weekly Ramble for members to read.  If you feel you would like further detail on any project, please just ask Sybille or pose a question on the WhatsApp chat group.

Our hearts and thoughts go out to Tayla and her family on their tragic loss.  May the Lord comfort you and help you during this time of sadness.

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

Be as you wish to seem (Socrates)

Last Friday....

...our techno-expert Ann Hope-Bailie had placed her trust in Jean and Sybille to set up and conduct the technical aspect of a hybrid Club Assembly at Wanderers.

We had had a dry run a few nights earlier and Jean had made copious notes and taken photos of wires, sockets and connections and we were pretty confident that we had everything under control. 

 

The editor of this weekly newsletter is unfortunately not sufficiently techno-literate to explain what exactly went wrong, but suffice to say that despite Ann's telephonic input all the way from Cape Town we eventually lost WiFi connection  and managed to cut off the Zoom participants, who had gamely hung in there in the hope that we would eventually get on top of our challenges. It was not to be.

Costa then made an executive decision that, given so much time had been wasted, it would be wiser to postpone and resume Club Assembly this Friday 26th of November.

It will be a Zoom meeting.

As they say in the Classics " C'est la vie"

Volunteers needed for the Norwood Spar Food Drive...

On Saturday the 27th we  need two more volunteers to dedicate two hours of their valuable time to our annual food drive.

Who would like to put up their hand the following Saturday the 4th of December where we are looking for 4 more willing and able bodies?

Come on guys! We are people of action!

We raised R8 852 at last month's collection days. Surely we can do it again!

Please contact Tutty Faber on fabertutty@gmail.com, who is responsible for the duty roster.

Boikanyo - Have Faith....

In lieu of President Costa's induction dinner the club members raised a sum of R3 590, and the Board unanimously decided to donate these funds to the Boikanyo - Dion Herson Foundation, to enable them to continue providing cerebral palsy children with much needed specialized wheelchairs. Marilyn Bassin's next Madiba buggy project will take her and her team to Burgersfort, Mpumalanga before the end of January, and every cent will help greatly to get the buggies to their destination.

Get ready to party...

Saving the environment with compostable sanitary pads, Our Club's public image gets lauded, calling all volunteers and Why we should make EcoBricks....

 From the Pen of the President...

 

At the time of writing, we are facing reduced water supplies that are expected to last for another 2 or so days. Not too long ago we had load shedding, or the now more used term of blackouts. We feel inconvenienced and annoyed that those in charge don’t seem to have gotten their act together. Yet, for so many of our citizens a reliable supply of water, electricity and basic services is a pipe dream.  Perhaps we would do well to be more tolerant of the problems service providers face and plan how best to cope with breakdowns and interruptions that will likely be with us for many years still.  Also, let us continue to help those who cannot help themselves.

Costa Qually
President

Tailpiece

He who is not content with what he has, would not be content with what he would like to have. (Socrates)

Last Friday...

.. Dr Coenie Louw, executive director of Gateway Health Institute and Growth.Life, was invited to address the club about his  research and development of socially, economically and environmentally sustainable sanitary pads made from natural banana fibres. These pads are 100% compostable, breaking down to soil in less than 180 days.

Why sanitary pads?

• Commercially available sanitary pads are unaffordable for a large portion of the female population
• Commercially available pads take 850 years to biodegrade
• They pollute the environment with micro-plastics
• Sanitary pads donations drives are unsustainable
• On average a young girl loses 44 school/work days a year due to menstruation.
• Just because girls are poor it does not mean that they need sub-standard products.
• With such high youth unemployment girls and young women need economic empowerment opportunities.
• Job creation for female small-hold farmers and in manufacturing and marketing.
• It is good for the environment 
• The bio-plastic is produced by the CSIR, use of organic glue and disinfected by UVC
• Sustainability is guaranteed by planting of banana trees to provide the fibre.
• Additional income through the sale of the fruit
• Compostable sanitary pads could cost 50% less 
• Carbon credits
• Expansion plans for tampons and disposable nappies.
• The R & D is almost complete, the SABS and CSIR will soon be testing samples for microbiology, absorption and composability.
• They plan on manufacturing 35 000 pads to be tested on 500 girls and young women.
• They will then be able to register 4EVA and the IP and create social franchises.

And a  Prestigious Public Image Award goes to....

Calling all Volunteers to offer their time for the annual Norwood Spar Food Drive..

On the last weekend of November we need 2 volunteers to fill the Saturday 27th  9:00 - 11:00 time slot and a further two for the 13:00 - 15:00 time slot.

On Sunday the 28th of November we need one volunteer to join David Bradshaw for the 11:00 - 13:00 time slot.

On Saturday the 4th of December we need 1 volunteer for the 9:00 - 11:00 time slot to join Mike Honnet and  further 2 volunteers for the 11:00 to 13:00 and another 2 for the 13:00 - 15:00.

Please contact Tutty Faber on fabertutty@gmail; he is co-ordinating the roster.

Why we should make EcoBricks...

Our club has enthusiastically supported the Rotary Club of Randburg's EcoBrick project in Diepsloot and it gives us pleasure to showcase their successes.

EcoBrick Classrooms

This Friday....

It will be Club Assembly. It will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting and we urge as many members as possible to attend.