This Week: Godfrey Giles will talk to us about Military Veterans and the problems they face both locally and internationally and solutions to these problems.

 Godfrey Giles has for many years organised the Remembrance Day Service at the Cenotaph in Central Johannesburg but his involvement with military veterans goes back much further than just that as he is Past President for Life of the SA Legion and Honorary Vice President of the World Veterans Federation.

We have enough old boys of Jeppe in the club so it's a great pleasure having someone who went to KES to talk to us.

It promises to be an interesting talk.

Last Week

It was a Business Meeting with a difference because much time was taken up discussing the SWOT Analysis circulated by President Andrew and what could be done about a weaknesses as well as the long-term survival of the club.  We have Presidents in place for the two years after this Rotary Year but there is much to do for the future with new ideas for fund raising and how we can continue dropping the average age of members.  In order to discuss this and to give members the opportunity to think about it before hand we have changed our normal monthly programme for September to have a special meeting to decide what can be done to address the issues raised.  The Business Meeting will be moved to the second Wednesday of the month and the first Wednesday meeting will be given over to this discussion.

Next Week

It's the Visit of District Governor George Senosha.

DG. Senosha holds a Doctoral Degree in Business Development and Administration, a Doctoral Degree in Community Building, and a qualification in Hotel and Hospitality Management. He also has a background in Human Resource and Industrial Relations from UNISA.

He began his career in the hospitality industry, where he managed hotels. He then transitioned to the tourism industry, serving on boards of tourism associations and industry groups. In 1997, he joined Pick n Pay Bela-Bela as a floor manager, rising through the ranks to become the first black South African to own a Pick n Pay Franchise and to introduce it to the Township.

Our meeting will be held at Belgravia Bowls Club, 18:15 for 18:30 and will be preceded by a Board Meeting.  The cost will be R220 per head excluding coffee and drinks will be for your own account.  Partners and guests are welcome and it promises to be a good social evening.....and the food will also be good and there is a vegetarian option, vegetable lasagne.  Please let Ilesh know that you will be there plus others.  He will put a poll on our general WhatsApp group.

International:  Sierra Leone

Health workers trained through a Rotary project resuscitate infants struggling for air

Trainees in the Helping Babies Breathe programme hold newborn simulator dolls called NeoNatalies at the Lungi Government Hospital in Sierra Leone.

As a midwife who works at health facilities all over the Western Rural District of Sierra Leone, Banneh Daramy sometimes has to assert herself. Her confidence and skill can make the difference between life and death.

“I went to one facility and the people on duty did not even recognise that I was a midwife,” she recalls. “They’d just done a delivery, and the baby was not crying. So they concentrated on the mother, and the baby was left alone. Immediately, I entered. I knew how to resuscitate the baby.”

As the mother screamed in panic, Daramy grabbed a self-inflating resuscitator and fitted it over the baby’s face.

“I used it to ventilate the baby. And within one minute, the baby started crying,” she says. “The mother had been crying and shouting, ‘Oh God, please save my baby! Please save my baby!’ And then she was so happy. That’s why, whenever I see a delivery, I stay until the end to see that the baby is safe.”

It didn’t take expensive equipment to save that baby’s life. A self-inflating resuscitator sells for about US$11. Daramy’s knowledge of neonatal resuscitation — and her quick thinking — made all the difference. She learned many of her skills through Helping Babies Breathe, a training programme created by the American Academy of Paediatrics that she took part in through a Rotary global grant project.

Birth asphyxia, or the failure to breathe at birth, kills an estimated 900,000 infants globally each year. Although it accounts for less than 0.1% of newborn deaths in industrialised countries, it’s the leading cause of neonatal mortality in low- and middle-income countries, like Sierra Leone. Many newborns who aren’t breathing can be saved if health care workers begin resuscitation immediately, so it’s crucial for providers to learn how to respond as quickly as Daramy did.

Since 2022, Rotary members in Sierra Leone and North America have collaborated to offer the Helping Babies Breathe protocol to more than 650 nurses, midwives, and other health workers from all over Sierra Leone. The programme was funded through a global grant co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sybil Bailor, the club’s 2023-24 president, was committed to the program in part because of her own experience. She once had a difficult delivery, during which her baby struggled to get oxygen.

“When my second child was being born, it was quite a long process, and she got distressed in my birth canal,” Bailor says. “Her oxygen level was below 90%, so they gave me a medication to make the contractions come quicker. This is one of the reasons why this particular project is very special to me.”