This Week - Debbie Cockrell & Richard Griffin will be talking about the expansion of a community project both within the community and outside it.

This promises to be a very interesting talk, not only because it's about engagement within the community which is often quite difficult but also about involvement of community members with Rotary.

Richard Griffin, the founder of Madame Zingara. After some travelling, Richard returned home and got his break with his own restaurant in Long Street. “It was a tiny store called Serendipity and it was based on my love for pasta. After that I opened House of Serendipity and Griffin’s, sold them and went to travel some more.” After satisfying his ever-present wanderlust he finished his degree at Le Cordon Bleu International in London before heading back home. On his return he opened the original Madame Zingara in Loop Street in 2001. The restaurant was booked out for weeks at a time. The combination of over-the-top costumes and characters, friendly service, surprising food combinations and near-obsessive attention to detail amazed and delighted the Cape. in fact he opened a number of different restaurants in Cape Town but now he has established Emzini opposite the Westdene Dam which is the focus of the community effort.....and his particular interest is the arts which Emzini supports.

Debbie Cockrell spent 15 years in the hospitality industry but then branched out into social development.. She is co-founder of Social Impact Africa which is aimed towards creating, building and participating in the ecosystem for Social entrepreneurs and Changemakers focusing on providing solutions to societal challenges and development workshops for youth in townships and grass roots organisations.

She is Chairperson of the Toy Library Association of SA and a founding Board Member of Comm-UNITY Green Projects as well as Operations Manager and Programme Co-ordinator of the Slovo Centre of Excellence.

The Slovo Centre of Excellence and Toy Library are Non Profit Organizations which aim to provide educational support based programmes through play based learning and activities to various sectors in our community. This includes Early Childhood Development, primary school aged children as well as other areas of society such as differently abled and the elderly. Connecting resources through partnerships and collaboration with like minded entities.

Next Week:  Project Meeting

Just make sure that Jim Rankin is aware that specific projects need to be on the agenda for the meeting.

Last Week:  Business Meeting & Social Breakfast

I was unable to attend either the Board Meeting or the Business Meeting last week owing to lack of electricity for roughly 70 hours which meant that even my backup systems ran out of juice!

I am delighted to see that the Board were able to sort out the calendar for June and July which I had been waiting for in order to organise speakers etc.

The Social Breakfast at Belgravia Bowls Club was a great success and saw the induction of two new members.

Will McConville and  Katlego Madihlaba.  A warm welcome to you both!  Lurking in the background are President Ron Smith and Membership Chair Andy Connold.   The Club "Jewel" has just been repatriated which is why President Ron is not wearing it.  Does that make the inductions invalid?????     

International:  Mexico

A community kitchen built by the Rotary Club of Nuevo Santander at a local school is ensuring hundreds of children have meals in low-income neighborhoods of Nuevo Laredo, a city on the U.S. border. “Most of the houses in this area do not have running water or electricity,” says Club President Jorge Tello. The club launched the $150,000 project in 2018, and the kitchen at the Comedor Santa María school began operating in August 2020; meals were first served to-go due to the COVID-19 pandemic before the dining room opened in May 2021. “Operation costs for providing breakfast and lunch for 230 children every day is $9,300 a month,” Tello says. The funds are donated by businesses and individuals. Club members supervise the operation, and Rotarians are
adding solar panels to the facility.