This Week - Dr Anton Wolfaardt, Mouse-free Marion

This is very much a follow up on last year's talk to hear progress on the campaign to eradicate mice from Marion Island.  It is very much our flagship Conservation Project and at that time we were the largest single Rotary Club contributor to the project but there have been considerable developments subsequently and it will be very interesting to hear about progress as it seems that the actual operation is soon to begin.

Anton has worked for more than 25 years in the field of seabird and marine conservation, a journey which started on Marion Island in 1994, where he spent a year working as a seabird field researcher.

He subsequently spent five years on Dassen Island, off the west coast of South Africa, working initially as a contract researcher and later as the conservation manager of the island. One of the main focuses of Anton’s research at Dassen Island was to assess the impact of oil pollution events, including two large oil spills – from the Apollo Sea in 1994 and the Treasure in 2000 – on the biology, ecology and conservation status of African Penguins. This research formed part of Anton’s PhD research, which he completed at the University of Cape Town in 2007. After leaving Dassen Island, Anton worked as a Regional Ecologist for CapeNature, the conservation authority for the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

In 2008, Anton headed to the Falkland Islands to take up the newly created position with the Joint
Nature Conservation Committee of ACAP (Agreement on the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels) Co-ordinator for the United Kingdom (UK) South Atlantic Overseas Territories, including the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Tristan da Cunha (including Gough Island) and the UK’s interest in Antarctica. The position was based in the Falkland Islands, with regular travel to and work in the other territories.

After returning to South Africa in late 2013, Anton continued to serve as the Co-convenor of ACAP’s Seabird Bycatch Working Group and worked as an environmental consultant focusing on seabird and marine issues, as well as a lecturer and guide on expedition ships visiting the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions. In February 2021, Anton took up his current position of MFM Project Manager.

Last Week - Project Meeting

The monthly Project Meeting was off to a good start with Bill Brunjes giving us an update on the plans for our second major fundraising event, the Annual Golf Day.  Very few members of the club actually play golf but he emphasised the need for companies to sponsor greens as that is the major source of income.  

Considerable time was spent hearing about the new project, Rest-a-While, an old NGO that is battling to survive as government grants seem to have evaporated and they were expecting R500 000 that is obviously not going to come.  The Community Service Committee is busy completing their investigations as to how we can help and there will be a proposal to the Board next week.  It seemed that the whole club is in favour.  It is the strength of this club that it supports NGO's that assist people whose only income are social grants or less and in today's economic climate that is so important.

Here is our Paul Harris Fellow, Adrian Gore, CEO of Discovery Health spending a day in a wheelchair as part of the Little Eden CEO Campaign.  Little Eden requires R14 160 per month, per resident so it needs to raise R61 million per year to keep providing them with quality care.  

Next Week - Business Meeting

That doesn't need a write up!

International - South Africa in partnership with Wyoming

What began with an enthusiastic health worker telling U.S. Rotarians about water scarcity in

 South Africa has blossomed into a partnership that has overhauled kitchens, bathrooms, and other sanitation facilities at nearly a dozen schools serving more than 7,200 students. 

It began with Julia Heemstra, who grew up in South Africa, speaking to a meeting of the Rotary Club of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 2018. Club members decided to support her in providing handheld water filters — and were eager to do more. Heemstra connected the Wyoming Rotarians with the Rotary Club of Grahamstown, South Africa, which was at the time rehabilitating sanitation facilities at Ntsika Secondary School. “They had an inconsistent water supply. When the water is shut off, the schools have to shut,” says Stuart Palmer, a past governor of District 5440. “We were seeing the children shortchanged in their education.” 

The clubs partnered on a global grant to do that work, then a district grant to upgrade the water systems at 10 additional schools. Then, in 2022, the two clubs received a $400,000 global grant to upgrade toilet and kitchen facilities at seven of the schools where they’d previously worked. “Seeing the incredible change — you not only have water, but you’re getting a face-lift on all these schools — it’s huge,” Palmer says.