It's the 5th Wednesday, Dave Morris, Farewell to Bert and Marja & Discon.

Please let Joan Donet know if you are coming on Wednesday Evening and how many others are coming with you. The cost is R121 per head including the gratuity. (I got it wrong last week!)

This is an official meeting so if you are unable to come please give your apologies as normal. Thanks to Allan Beuthin for organising the evening.

Dave Morris, Head of Safety and Sustainable Development at Anglo Base Metals, spoke to us last week on some of their Sustainable Development Projects around the world. It was a most interesting talk and dwelt on the importance of partnerships and we are hoping that we may be one of those partners in the future.

Dave is an amateur winemaker and he has donated wine for our evening at Mantra! Thanks, Dave.

One of the projects he talked about was Reel Gardening with seeds in an impregnated strip of paper so that all that is needed is to plant the strip to the depth of the paper and water. Unfortunately it cannot be copied onto the blog as it is in pdf. format so I have attached the pamphlet to the weekly email.

Last week was a sad occasion as we said goodbye to Bert Ettekoven and his wife Marja van Leeuwen on their return to The Netherlands. Bert joined us about 9 months ago and has done a lot for the Club.

Happily Marja is a member of the Rotary Club of Delft so we look forward to a close relationship with her club in the future. This must be first time they have sat at the same table during a meeting!


We also had a vist from a Danish Rotarian, Advocate Eli Heckscher who promised to see us agin next time he is in Johannesburg...maybe we can get him to give us a talk?

Here he is sitting between an unusually smart Don Lindsay. (He does own a tie!) And Peter Rolfe who looks like he always looks.

Unfortunately our April Public Lecture appeared in the February Snippets and not in the March Issue! All the more important that we promote it. Don is producing a poster for Wits, it is being circulated at UJ and I will send an email to all Club Presidents and keep my fingers crossed that we have a good Rotary presence.




Finally a few pictures of Jean and myself at Discon with Ganshyam.

No, the ship isn't about to sink! It's only lifeboat drill.

Dave Morris, Tanya Harford and a Mantra.

Tanya Harford was a marvelous speaker last week as she spelled out precisely what had to be done to organise our proposed Sophiatown Marathon. It is going to involve an enormous amount of time and longterm planning to make it a possibility......most likely two years. Thanks to Allan Beuthin it seems that it could be a real possibility particularly as Tanya will help us.

Our speaker this week is Dave Morris, Head of Safety and Sustainable Development, Anglo Base Metals. I can't show you what he looks like. I did find a picture on the web but I could not copy it.

Lucille Blumberg represented the Club at the Rotary Club of Northcliffe's Wheel Chair Commemoration Dinner at the Rand Club on Saturday night...thanks Lucille.

I attended the Northcliffe Rotary Club's banquet on Saturday 20th March to celebrate the arrival in South Africa of wheelchair number 20 000 from the Rushmoor Rotary Club, their project partner in Farnborough, UK.

It was a formal black tie/long dress dinner at the very elegant and beautifully restored Rand Club in downtown Johannesburg.

About 150 people attended, including the president and 6 members of the Rushmoor club, members of various Rotary Clubs around the country who had helped distribute wheelechairs, major sponsors, the head of Health in Gauteng and the National Minister for Youth, Children and People with Disabilities, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, who addressed the gathering.

We enjoyed a very good dinner and excellent wines and a wonderful performance by the winners of the Absa choir competition. There were quite a lot of speeches and toasts and gifts to the major sponsors and a short video was shown by Rushmoor on how the wheelchairs are collected, stored and dispatched .

It is a truly remarkable project that has been running for 18 years, very visionary and inspiring and an excellent example of how,major projects can be put together and unite local Rotary Clubs with a the driving force (Northcliffe) , major and very committed sponsors and an overseas partner.

Thank you to New Dawn for this opportunity for me to be part of this wonderful evening.

Lucille
________________________________

Ian Widdop attended the Farewell Presentation & Party for the N India GSE Team at the Rotary Club of Randburg last Friday.

Our next meeting is an Evening Meeting plus partners and anyone else you would like to invite.

When: 19,00 for 19,30 Wed 31st March

Place: Mantra Mumbai Restaurant, 4th Ave Parktown North

Cost: R135 inc gratuity.

Book with Joan Donet not later than Monday 29th March.

Here's an interesting Rotary Project in Australia:

Rotary Cartoon Awards

The Rotary Cartoon Awards competition is designed to recognise the best of Australian and international cartoons with prizes totalling over $10,000.

The Rotary Cartoon Awards are sponsored by the Rotary Club of Coffs Harbour City to raise funds for various Rotary charities and to promote cartooning through the Bunker Cartoon Gallery. All entries will be donated to the Rotary Club of Coffs Harbour City for exhibitions at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery and other galleries in Australia.

2009 Rotary Cartoon Awards

In 2009, the 21st Rotary Cartoon Awards exhibition ran during November.

Here's the winner:

I hope you saw the notice for our sponsored lecture in "Snippets". Please invite as many people as possible to attend this lecture. If it really is a success it could become an annual event.

The Inaugural Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn Public Lecture
in association with The Centre for the Study of Democracy
(a joint project of the University of Johannesburg & Rhodes University, Grahamstown)
"Demons & Democracy"
Mobility & the Limits of Citizenship in Contemporary South Africa
Professor Loren Landau, Director of the Forced Migration
Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand
Thursday 15 April 2010
18:00
University of Johannesburg Council Chamber
Kingsway Campus.
All are Welcome. Admission Free.
Many incoming Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars have studied under Professor Loren Landau so it is very appropriate that he will give the Inaugural Lecture. We hope that many Rotarians, Ambassadorial Scholars, Exchange Students and Friends will attend.
Cell: 082 899 7080
peter@pjsfood.co.za: President Peter James-Smith

A Letter from Lorraine Cockrell and Tanya Harford speaks to us this week.

Lorraine Cockrell of The Slovo Centre of Excellence was our speaker last week and she sent us a letter of thanks from which this is an excerpt:

I have to commend your club on the warmth of reception I experienced, and the sincere interest expressed by those I was able to speak to afterwards. I missed chatting to some whom I would have loved to learn more from, viz. the gentleman who runs the Woodside Sanctuary, who spoke about the Teddy Bears he received for his children.

Please ask your members not to hesitate to email me for exchange of ideas, or for any contributions they may wish to make, specifically in coaching/assisting me managerially, as much help needed in this regard.

I was most appreciative to receive a call from Ms Eleanor Hough of McCauley House School. She very graciously donated some feeding products called "Vita Meal" 25 nutrient enriched pre cooked cereal, similar to e'Pap (but much more expensive) for the children of the SCE Project. This was valued at approx. R2500-00, and instead of her utilizing it for her school children, she felt that our children needed it more, and hence made the decision to donate it to me. What a kind gesture that was, we are so grateful.

Her contact person for this then contacted me, and this lady is also going to try and see how she can assist me with some necessary "in kind" donations. We are going to meet soon, to discuss further in this regard. In the meantime, this contact person, managed to get a promise for a donation of "toys" for the project. This will come in so handy, as we are looking to establishing our own "Toy Library", so that we can have some stimulating activities for the little toddlers at the informal crèche I spoke of.

We are working in conjunction with an NGO called "Wozo'bona" (which means come and see). They are in the process of establishing a "Come and Play" Center in the Brixton Recreation Center where we are hoping to make our interim home. I would then ensure that somehow we get the crèche toddlers to come to the Come and Play Center every alternate day for an hour or two, just to give them a change of environment, to offer them some supervised play stimulation. So this toy donation may come in real handy as we make time to play with the little ones.

Our Speaker this week is Tanya Harford whose advice we are seeking on the development of a Sophiatown Marathon.

Following her retirement from the Women's International Tennis Tour, and a brief stint at AJAY (Nike and Wilson), Tanya began building Harford Sports Promotions. Nearly twenty years later, she has been involved in a host of events, including large music concerts, International Polo events, and two of the world largest events, the Discovery 702 Walk the Talk (the largest mass participation event in South Africa, Africa and top 10 in the world!) and the Pick n Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge (the second largest timed cycle event in the world).

Founder and Managing Director – Harford Sports Promotions

International Special Events Society (ISES) – Certificate of Merit

Professional tennis player on International Women’s Circuit:1976 - 1983

1981: SA Singles Champion

1981: Career best with world ranking of 31 in Women’s Singles

End of 1981: No.2 Doubles player in the world

Other titles for 1981: The Swiss Open Doubles, The Italian Open Doubles, The German Open Doubles, The French Open Doubles (Grand Slam Title), The Wimbledon Double Semi-Finals

Co-chair 2010 Jo’burg Gay Games Bid Committee

I have just come back from Discon, hence the lateness of this blog, and I will give a brief verbal report on Wednesday.

The video is Judy Collins. I reckon she was the best American female folk singer of the 60's!

The North Indian GSE Team! This week Lorraine Cockerell talks to us about The Slovo Centre of Excellence.

What a wonderful time we had with the GSE Team from North India. They were interesting, informative and most of all, fun.

The Social Function at Twickenham Guest House organised by Linda & Mike Vink kick started the whole visit on a high note. Everyone enjoyed the occasion and the North Indian food as well. It was a truly social occasion because we all enjoyed being together and our guests very quickly became part of us.
Wednesday saw the team's presentation to the Club. This was really a delight because we were no longer strangers and the Team Leader, Ganshyam Acharya, gave us a short introduction to India before Vikas Tiwari, Siddhi Joshi, Pranav Joshipura and Devika Rathore gave their individual presentations. Everything was delightfully personal. We presented everyone with our Club Banner and after breakfast Allan Beuthin, Bert Ettekoven and myself took everyone to Constitution Hill to see the Fort and the Constitutional Court. We then rushed through to Troyeville so everyone could be photographed in front of Ghandi's house and then briefly to New Town for a break before lunch at a Gujarati Restaurant in Fordsburg after which Vikas had a R25 haircut. Opinbion was divided as to whether it was a bargain or a disaster!The afternoon was spent at The Institute for International Affairs at Wits. Tom Wheeler and his team provoked an interesting discussion on parallels between post-independent India and post-apartheid South Africa. 40 years of Congress Party rule in India...40 years of ANC rule in South Africa?

The next day was Vocational Day for everyone. When I went to say goodbye to the team at the Country Club on Friday morning I made a point of discussing the vocational visit with each individual team member. Without exception they were thrilled with the opportunities and contacts that they had made and everyone was delighted with what they had experienced and all felt that they had learnt something. Thank you Eleanor Hough, Nhlanhla Thwala, Andrew Smythe, Lucille Blumberg, Hugh Rix and Ian Widdop for making the Vocational Day such a constructive exercise for everyone. That is a tremendous achievement.

Thank you to all the hosts, Linda & Mike Vink, Bert Ettekoven & Marja van Leeuwen, Joan & Graham Donet and Robin & Ian Widdop for opening your homes to our guests and making them so welcome. A special word of thanks to Ian Widdop for putting everything together and keeping us all on our toes and finally to everyone in the Club, you all helped to make the GSE team feel that they belonged.

Our Speaker this week is Lorraine Cockrell, the facilitator for the Slovo Centre of Excellence:

The Slovo Center of Excellence (SCE) is being established to initially serve some of the needs of the Joe Slovo Informal Settlement and its surrounding communities. The SCE project will serve as a resource center, which is being established on the foundation of the Wayside Sunday School (WSS) ministry that has been ongoing for this settlement over the past four years, under the auspices of The Evangelical Bible Church, in Bosmont.

The need for a more structured group of stakeholders that could offer a more holistic thrust into the community and its children was identified. It was felt that there remained a need to cater not only for the spiritual wellbeing of the children, but indeed to address their physical, emotional, social and intellectual wellbeing as well. This would build on the foundation of the good work started, and offer growth and development towards a more holistic project.

A group of interested people to take this forward was recruited, and the SCE Steering Committee was formed. SCE Steercom was given the mandate by Councilor Fadiel Moosa to pursue with whatever specific objectives initially, to get the SCE off the ground. The University of Johannesburg (UJ) was sent a proposal to partner this initiative, and they agreed to adopt the SCE Project as one of their community outreach programs.

After lengthy negotiation with the Coronationville Secondary School stakeholders, (being the School Principal Mr A S Louw, and the then SGB Chairman, Mr Gounder) written permission was granted on the 24 April’08 and 6 May’08 respectively, for the SCE Project to be housed where the current WSS ministry now still continues (correspondence to be tabled). We were therefore advised that we could utilize their address for the SCE Project.

Due to the lack of available fulltime manpower, donor/govt funding, and approved building facilities, the SCE project as initially envisaged has not been able to take off. However, the momentum and interest has been kept alive with continuous meetings to report back on status quo, an intense workshop held in the beginning of this year, to determine the need for way forward, and the recruitment of additional Steercom members. After much thought and deliberation, the Steercom agreed to work with the status quo the SCE currently has, and to get off the ground initially, the SCE programs most feasible to start with initially, that can be accommodated.

In order to now get going with the SCE initial programme, the following is in place:

• Fulltime manpower to take this project on initially.
• Limited Donor financial support to “make good” derelict building and facilities, however - to a point only. In this regard, we would hope to work with the School for State contribution, towards damage and repair as needed to make the building facility usable, including health hazards, security risks, and pest control scenarios. We would also wish to request community participation and awareness towards this end, by means of a “road-show” within surrounding communities, to request contribution and volunteer participation.

The SCE’s Initial Main Objectives to date are for:

• An After School Care programs that will endeavor to assist the SCE’s school going children with:

- Supervision of their homework, which will include reading/literacy enhancement opportunities.

- An after school feeding scheme

- After school extra mural activities eg. Art, various sports activities viz. dance exercise (Hip-Hop), development in swimming, running, soccer. Then also activities geared towards - art, cultural music instruments, singing, etc. In this regard to create opportunities for children to attend theatre/stage productions, etc.

· A Health and Wellness Programme that will endeavor to address HIV/AIDS and other related diseases and their conditions within the community, by offering information and counseling sessions to address problems encountered within the community, then follow up with referral to State stakeholders, for their intervention.

The SCE’s Secondary Objective would be to endeavor to collaborate and network with other organizations and their stakeholders, to ensure that mutual value and synergy can be derived and added through such collaboration and our partnerships, for the good of all ultimately.

The GSE Team cometh..........

It was a fascinating talk by our member Hugh Rix on Woodside Sanctuary. I don't think any of us realised just how much Woodside does.....the presentation on the screen says it all.

I don't any of us appreciated the on-going funding problem when you have adult residents who arrived as small children and they are there for their whole lives.

We are currently looking at the costs of installing solar water heating at Woodside.

This week we have the GSE Team presentation instead of our business meeting. It is a very busy week with the Team and I'm sure it will be most enjoyable.

Thank you everyone for the efforts you have made to make the GSE Team's visit to Johannesburg New Dawn a memorable one. It really has been a team effort initiated by Ian Widdop.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them but as we'll all be seeing them on Tuesday evening at the function at Twickenham Guest House organised by Mike & Linda Vink, and again on Wednesday morning for their presentation, you can be sure that next week's blog will be flooded with them.

Their names are Vikas Twari, Siddhi Joshi, Pranas Joshipura, Granshyam Acharya (Leader) and Devika Rathore. They would not thank me for using the photos attached to their application forms!

Finally a couple of comments on RYLA from the two learners we sponsored from the Dominican School, Jeppestown:

Thembi Masondo

Words cannot describe the wonder of the experience, yet I will try.

This trip has been an eye-opener; I have learnt brand-new life and leadership skills. The camp teachers and counsellors were helpful and patient with us, nursing us through every step of the way.

The mentally and physically challenging activities were fun-filled, and during these events we met extraordinary people who we may now call friends. We are already thinking of a reunion, and will keep in touch via Facebook.

It was a life-changing experience, and I have returned ready to tackle any challenges that come my way.

Remofiloe Sebobe:

The camp has challenged my perspective on leadership, and I now realise that being a leader requires the humility of also being a follower. No matter what life throws my way, thanks to the weekend hosted by RYLA, I feel prepared to tackle these challenges without hesitation.