This Week - Project Meeting majoring on Retina SA

These are our two guests this week to talk on Retina SA.  Claudette has been our guest before but Linsay is new to us and will talk on Retina SA's fund raising activities with which we might liked to be involved.

Claudette Medefindt, National Secretary and Head of Science

Claudette has been involved with the Retina Patient   Movement since 1980. She heads the patient support division and is a trained peer counsellor.  She lectures on IRD extensively and is the Deputy President of Retina International. Claudette has Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Linsay Engelbrecht

 Linsay was diagnosed in 2206 with a sight condition - Stargardt. A rare genetic eye disease where fatty material builds up on the macula, the small part of the retina needed for central vision. Currently there is no cure. Linsay embraces life and makes the most of every opportunity, she chooses to inspire instead of being held back! She is a very family orientated individual and enjoys the outdoors.  Linsay Engelbrecht is many things: a successful businesswoman, a proud mom, and a para-athlete

Linsay successfully co-founded Big Brand

Novelties, a leading badge and branding specialist.

She is responsible for Operations, Human

Resources, Marketing & Merchandising.

Para-athlete

At 23, she was diagnosed with a rare eye disorder

called Stargardt Macular Degeneration, leaving her with only 10% central vision.

Despite her condition she chose to embrace life and ran the Comrades Marathon in 2018 & 2019.

She was introduced to Triathlons in 2020 and never looked back.  Linsay has won 5 South African Para Triathlons and has been placed in the top 10 for World & Commonwealth Triathlons.                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Last Week

We had a fascinating talk on beer brewing and production by Dave Standing, former Brewing Consultant to South African Breweries.  Unfortunately we ran out of time for many questions but I think it would be a good idea to have him back at some stage to talk about different beers and obviously to answer the questions!

Next Week

Captain Stefan Bulow will be updating us on the MV Aghulas Project.  I am sure you will remember that last time he spoke to us the project was stalled by the inability of the minister to approve the sale of the vessel to enable it to be converted for scientific and seamanship training purposes.  There was the fear that the Aghulas might deteriorate to such an extent that the project would no longer be feasible.  Now everything has worked out and the project is now at full steam ahead.

International - India
  

Chartered on Feb 19, 1974, the Rotary Club of Neemuch, RID 3040 (Madhya Pradesh), celebrated its golden ­jubilee where RI director Raju ­Subramanian ­dedicated an ­ophthalmology mobile clinic to ­Nethralaya, a local ­eyecare hospital, as part of ­Project Aapka Chashma Aapke Dwar (receive your spectacles at your ­doorstep). This global grant ­initiative,  partnered with RC ­Memphis, RID 6800, and costing ₹41 lakh, will conduct eye ­screening camps and ­provide  spectacles free of cost in remote rural regions of Madhya Pradesh.

RI Director Raju Subramanian with DG Ritu Grover (L), DGN Sushil Malhotra (R) and PDG Darshan Gandhi (fourth from R) at the inauguration of the mobile eye clinic.

Over the past five decades the club has undertaken numerous services including establishing a community centre, equipment bank, food centre for the poor, and a public rest house. “Apart from providing mobility aids for the disabled, and sponsoring corrective surgeries, our club is actively promoting eye and organ donation through awareness camps,” says club member PDG ­Darshan Gandhi.

This Week: Dave Standing, former Brew Consultant to SAB will talk about Beer.

 I recently attended a talk that Dave Standing gave on beer and I must admit that I thought it was going to be about brewing your own beer which I wasn't interested in at all.  It wasn't;  it ranged from the history of beer to how beer is made today and various types of beer and there was an international perspective.  Dave answered the many questions and I immediately snapped him up to talk to us.

Brewing, other than tea, is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.

I am sure it will be a very interesting meeting.

STOP PRESS - Unfortunately,owing to circumstances beyond his control Alton Werrett is unable to take up the position of President next Rotary Year but Andrew Paschalides has stepped into the breach.  Andrew had to cut short his presidency last Rotary Year owing to his wife's illness and so we are delighted that he can now effectively continue where he left off.

Last Week

It was a Business Meeting.  There has been quite a lot of progress relating to existing projects and now the roof and guttering renovation at Bethany is about to start, weather permitting thanks to Bill Brunjes' perseverance.

If anyone has a bakkie or some other vehicle that is able to collect the 10 wheelchairs we have ordered from Northcliff Rotary Club, please contact Ron McCormack.

We are going ahead with the proposed project at Rest-a-While in Germiston though we are very concerned with the inability of the Department for Social Development to pay the grants that NGO's and institutions like Rest-a-While are dependent on for survival.  We have already heard of one orphanage and a hospice that has had to close as a result and we are concerned about what happens to the people that were previously cared for. 

This is a major problem and there have been meetings of affected organisations to discuss the problem.  All we can do is to hope that Government does find the money from somewhere.

Next Week - Project Meeting

Much of the meeting will be concerning our increased involvement with Retina SA and possible ways that we can support them as individuals as well as Club involvement.

International - Suriname

Passing rates on secondary school entrance exams that have dipped as low as 50 percent have vexed officials in Suriname. The Rotary Club of Paramaribo Residence, whose members include several teachers or retired educators, is aiming to improve those results and reduce dropout rates. In October, the club instituted a mathematics training project for around two dozen teachers at schools serving older children. The programme includes courses on topics such as set theory, equations, functions, plane geometry, and trigonometry. “You have to use mathematics at every level of your life, and statistics show that in Suriname kids have low grades” in the subject, says club member Yvonne Mohabir. A retired school dean and Rotarian, Ewald Levens, leads the sessions, which are funded with the support of the Dutch Association of Mathematics Teachers.

This Week - Business Meeting

There's not much to say about a Business Meeting because you will all receive the agenda anyway.  Probably the most important thing is to see if our President  Elect, Alton Werrett has managed to fill all the positions on the board for the coming Rotary Year as there are only two board meetings to go.

In the meantime here is something we should aim to be involved with though some research is necessary as host families in 2025 would need to know dietary requirements.

Saturday 6th April is set aside as a social meeting but there are no details available.

Last Week

Dr Anton Wolfaardt updated us on the Mouse-free Marion Project.  What struck me most was the care that is taken into ensuring that the extermination of mice really does happen and that nothing else is damaged as a result. What was particularly interesting was the failure of mouse extermination programmes on two other islands and that the Marion Island project has been postponed until research has established why those programmes failed. 

This is why the Marion Island Project must not fail. 

Next Week

Dave Standing, former Brewing Consultant to SA Breweries, will be talking to us about beer.  This is not a home brew talk, it's a talk about beer and his experience is an international one.

International -  India

Monsoon rains regularly pummel Maharashtra state. With the support of a $50,000 global grant, the Rotary Club of Mumbai Down Town Sea Land oversaw construction of five check dams that will help farming families manage flooding in the Palghar district. “The majority of the rainwater runs off the surface, as the land is mostly rocky and consists of hard soil,” says member Chandraprabha Khona, who directed the project in cooperation with the Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka. A nearly $30,000 contribution from Shabbir Rangwala, a past president of the Mumbai club, was instrumental. The new concrete dams will allow farmers to expand irrigation and cultivate additional crops, as well as store water for sanitation and top up borehole wells. Khona adds that the project will lead to “an exponential jump” in farmers’ income.

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.

This Week - Project Meeting

 The Project Meeting is to discuss progress on existing projects and possible new ones.  As I can't guess what will be coming up here are some pictures of the completed water project at Bethany Home for Abused Women & Children.

Johannesburg is having multiple problems with water and Bethany cannot afford to have no water with so many women and children dependent on it for ablutions quite apart from the need for constant washing of clothes, bedding and dishes.  The club has solved the problem by installing a JoJo tank as you can see and an automatic pump.

When water is available from the municipality it flows into the tank and obviously throughout Bethany Home.

When there is no water the pump automatically switches on and supplies the home with water and switches off again when municipal water is again available.

Not shown is the security cage that has been fitted to protect the pump.

Last Week

Roxanne Bredenkamp, Chairman of the Germiston & Bedfordview SPCA, gave us an interesting talk on the problems they have faced over the previous financial year.  It is to Roxanne's credit that she has
managed to sort everything out and is concentrating on maintenance which has been much neglected.  She has a committee that is dedicated to getting things right and the club was impressed by her personal integrity and candour.  It's seldom that organisations dependent on support from the general public admit to mistakes and misjudgments and she is sure of our support.

Next Week

Dr Anton Wolfhaardt will be giving us an update on Mouse-free Marion.

Here's what Marike Stander, a researcher from the University of the Free State has to say about her visit.

International - Australia

The First 2000 Days of Life is a project of the Rotary Clubs of Corrimal, Dapto, Fairy Meadow and Kiama. Research has shown that the first 2000 days of life has a significant impact on a child’s development and their future health and well-being. It is now known that the in-utero experience of a baby followed by a child’s early life experience predicts their chances of succeeding at school, of doing well in life, and of having chronic diseases as an adult.

Given the importance of raising awareness of this research, the four clubs are working with local New South Wales healthcare professionals and agencies to deliver the key messages under the First 2000 Days Framework. Rotary is providing the important link between health and agencies as Rotary works across the community providing funding and support to many agencies supporting local families.

The project is known as the ‘Illawarra Shoalhaven First 2000 Days Community Project’. The aim of the project is to make the community aware of the importance of the first 2000 days, to communicate the key messages from The NSW First 2000 Days Framework and let people know where to seek further information and help if required.

To accomplish these outcomes the project has:

• produced a flyer to deliver the key messages 
• developed a peer education program with Health to be delivered to agency staff and other key community groups. This will give staff a deeper understanding of The First 2000 Days Framework to enable them to deliver the messages to families in a way that meets their specific needs
• in addition, we will be conducting a media campaign to get the key messages on the importance of the first 2000 days out to the wider community.

Please download a copy of the First 2000 Days Flyer

This Week - Roxanne Bredenkamp, Chairman of the Bedfordview and Germiston SPCA

Last week, thanks to Hennie Scholtz' expertise, we have finally finished the refurbishment of the large pen at the SPCA.  Why it has taken so long is because of the dire financial straits the SPCA was in and we didn't want to continue until we were certain the the branch wasn't going to be closed by head office.  Also the SPCA's requirements have changed as Roxanne has remarkably paid off all their debt and has everything back on track.  It promises to be an interesting talk.

Last Week

The Business Meeting came up with some important decisions, the most noticeable being the way the weekly meeting is structured when we have a guest speaker. In future the speaker's spot will follow Porky Pig and any Rotary Business will follow.  This allows more flexibility for the speaker who may want to leave directly after the talk and also the speaker is not compromised by Rotary Business taking longer than anticipated.

The other aspect of the meeting that is of such value to the club is the new projects that are coming through that involve our new members.  This is vital for the continuing growth and development of the club.

Members who have been in longstanding executive positions in the club have seen the need to handover and mentor members taking over those positions.  We are definitely looking for an accountant to join our club who is familiar with the Sage Pastel accounting system so that there can be a smooth handover in the future.

Next Week

It's a Project Meeting.  With so many new projects being proposed it promises to be a very interesting meeting.  Next week I should be able to give you more details as to what we will be hearing about and discussing.

International - Canada

The Rotary Club of Olds, Alberta, is livening up its process for awarding grants to community groups. In November, representatives of about a dozen organisations pitched their proposals at a contest modeled on Dragons’ Den in which venture capitalists judge entrepreneurs’ proposals for investment. The organisations were allotted five minutes to make their pitch, followed by five minutes of questioning by a panel of Rotarian “dragons,” or judges. Club President Randy Smith concedes that the awardees would have received their share of the roughly Can$10,000 regardless of who won. But he says the spirited affair gave the groups, including Interactors and Fire Department Cadets, an opportunity to hone their presentation skills and showcase their creativity.

 
 

This Week - A Business Meeting

There's not much to say about an impending Business Meeting so here is a cartoon instead.

Last Week

Lorenzo Barry's talk and presentation was quite an eye-opener.  It was very interesting to hear how he became involved in small farmers' problems and it was an excellent presentation on how he sees the possibility of moving forward and what further research is required.

What made it especially interesting was that he sees the problem as a business opportunity for his partnership and the farmers concerned and that certainly resonated with the club.  We look forward to having him back to discuss it further

 Next Week

Roxanne Bredenkamp, Chairman of the Bedfordview and Germiston SPCA will be talking to us.  It's going to be an interesting talk as they have been in dire straights and she has managed to sort everything out and repay their debts and concentrate on maintenance and refurbishment.  The involvement of the former Satellite Club has really helped move things forward.

Our Inspectorate recently encountered an interesting case involving a juvenile Chacma baboon being kept in improper conditions. Thanks to a concerned member of the public, we swiftly intervened and rescued the baboon, ensuring she receives proper care at an accredited wildlife facility. At GBSPCA, we strongly oppose the keeping of wild species in captivity unless for bona fide conservation or rehabilitation purposes.

International - Hungary

When the operator of a summer camp for children with Down syndrome or other cognitive disabilities announced in 2021 that she could no longer run the week long programme, the Rotaract Club of Kecskemét stepped up. The initiative to keep the programme going has become “our club’s biggest and favourite project,” says Anna Antalfalvi. She and other members of the university-based club are education and psychology students. “Our aim is to help children develop through activities during the day. This allows parents to relax and work through their difficulties in support groups.” The club’s eight active members and a few volunteers run workshops, cook, serve, and clean. The camp, which is free for participants (17 children and their families in 2023), costs the club about $3,100 a year. “Our sponsoring Rotary club helped for the first time this year, providing a day’s food and cooking a lunch on another day,” Antalfalvi says. “When they personally experienced the atmosphere of the camp and the importance of the work we do there, they decided to make it part of their annual fundraising goal to help fund the camp.”