A Gasless Meeting, Thanksgiving, Social & Polio in India

The Gas man never came so we had no speaker last week.  We had a good social time anyway, as you can see.

We also had a visiting Rotarian from Kenya who will probably squat at our Club whilst she is here!

Thanksgiving Dinner
The big event of the week was the Thanksgiving Dinner on the Thursday 24th to honour the parents of Alex Gano, our Ambassadorial Scholar prior to his return to the United States.  Unfortunately I was unable to attend but I did see the Graham Donet, Mike Vink and Linda Vink slaving away in the Chefs' Association Skills Kitchen the morning before!

Jenine Coetzer, our resident photographer sent me lots of pictures and some quick notes that I am going to reproduce as they sound just like her speaking!

More than 80 people attended

Guest of honour Gano’s - Alex’s parents

Guests from other clubs (I don’t know which!) also Shirley Downie,whatever her title is and Silvia Knoop

Turkey carving competition – every table had to send a carver – Allan Beuthin took the honours for the neatest cut up bird.  He won a fancy cutting / carving set – I do not know the brand.

Local entertainment by Graham, Allan and Ian who should rather not go full-time into singing but much fun was had with their performance.

Ian and his wife also celebrated their 27 or 28^th anniversary – he had a whole speech about NEW DAWN for people happily married and together ……

Fantastic food and desert included a pumpkin pie

Various items auctioned – from tinned pumpkin to wine to a huge framed picture of rugby players to a weekend on a farm – you will have to get the amount raised from Mike but it was around 8 thousand rand

All and all a great evening.

This week's meeting is a Social Meeting.  We only have three meetings to go as the University closes so our last meeting is on the 14th December and we re-open on Wednesday 11th January 2012.

India presses its advantage against polio

By Dan Nixon
Rotary International News – 23 November 2011
 

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John Germ, chair of Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge Committee, holds a child as Rotary Foundation Trustee Ashok Mahajan administers drops of polio vaccine, part of a Subnational Immunization Day in Mumbai, India, on 13 November. Photo by Ritam Banerjee

       

With just one case of polio reported in the last 10 months, India is more determined than ever to ensure eradication of the disease.

As part of that effort, Rotarians helped administer bivalent oral polio vaccine to more than 35 million children during a Subnational Immunization Day on 13 November. The vaccine is effective against the two remaining types of the virus.

Sporting their signature yellow vests and caps, the Rotarians also helped organize free health camps and polio awareness rallies, as well as distribute banners, caps, face masks, comic books, and other items to the children.

On 20 November, a team of Rotarians from District 3700 (Korea) served in a health camp in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, which included immunization of children against polio. The camp was organized by Indian Rotarians in cooperation with local health officials and UNICEF.

The following day, the team took part in a door-to-door mop-up campaign, administering vaccine to children who otherwise would have missed receiving it. A TV news crew from Korea accompanied the Rotarians throughout their visit, taking the End Polio Now message back to their country.

And in Mumbai, Rotary leaders John Germ, chair of Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge Committee; Rotary Foundation Trustee Ashok Mahajan; and RI General Secretary John Hewko joined Indian Rotarians in immunizing children.

“This year, there have been just over 500 cases worldwide. The fact that only one of those cases is in India is a tremendous achievement that reflects the determination of the nation's leaders and its citizens to finally rid their country -- and the world -- of this terrible scourge,” Hewko wrote in an article published earlier this month in the Hindu Business Line.

India’s next National Immunization Days are scheduled for January and February, and a series of supplementary activities are planned through June. At the same time, intensive surveillance for the wild poliovirus is continuing throughout the country.

“Rotary has invested heavily in surveillance in India over the last 12 months,” said Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization’s assistant director-general for polio eradication and related areas, at a September meeting of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee. “That’s the reason we can say with confidence that we think we’re getting close to zero [cases] in India.”

Ann Bourdin, The Gasworks & a Cape Town Rotary Scholar's HIV Initiative.

Our own Ann Bourdin gave us a very interesting talk last week on little know stories of George Washington in his teens and early twenties and how he inadvertently started the first world war, the Seven Years War.

Thank you Ann for such a fascinating talk.  This was a shortened version of a talk she had previously given to the SA Military History Society and it really is a good idea to have members talk about things that interest them....thanks Julian Nagy for suggesting it!  Everyone really enjoyed it, as you can see.

We always spend every Wednesday breakfast watching the sun rise over the gasworks...well in winter, anyway.





Our speaker this week is Brendan Fraser of Egoli Gas who will tell us about what we have been looking at for so long!

There are plans to develop the site of the old gasworks, see here, and I'm sure he will talk about that as well.


Egoli Gas has 7 500 consumers which is remarkably small for the gas network and it will be interesting to hear if the increasing cost of electricity has meant that more people are thinking of gas as an alternative.


Our new shirts have arrived and here is Greg Smith sporting one!

Former Rotary Scholar educates, supports new mothers with HIV

By Dan Nixon
Rotary International News -- 27 October 2011
 

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Aadila Sabat is passionate about her work inmaternal and child health, one of Rotary’s areas of focus under the Future Vision Plan.Photo courtesy of Aadila Sabat

Rotary International on Facebook

Aadila Sabat is on a personal mission to help achieve one of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals.  

“We can all do something to heed the call to action from the United Nations to eliminate by 2015 all new HIV infections among children and keeping their mothers alive,” says the former Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar from South Africa. “Because the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child is preventable.” 

The rate of transmission is as high as 45 percent for mothers with HIV who don’t receive antiretroviral drugs, according to the World Health Organization. Use of the drugs, however, decreases the transmission rate to less than 2 percent. 

Helping mothers

Sabat works in Los Angeles for mothers2mothers (m2m), a nongovernmental organization that educates and supports pregnant women and new mothers on issues related to HIV and maternal and child health. She helps train new mothers living with HIV to provide such support to women like themselves. These “mentor mothers” then work alongside doctors and nurses to serve the needs of this population group, helping to lessen the burden on critically understaffed health systems.  

In addition to saving lives, achieving the UN’s goal is an economic imperative, says Sabat. “It costs less then $100 to stop the transmission of HIV/AIDS from a mother to her child during pregnancy, but if that baby is born HIV-positive the cost [of treatment] is $150,000.”  

Since 2001, m2m has grown from a single site in Cape Town to more than 700 in nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with offices also in London and Los Angeles. One of the first donations to the organization came from the Rotary Club of Waterfront in Cape Town.  

Sabat’s connections with m2m and Rotary go back to her teenage years in Cape Town. She was president of her Interact and Rotaract clubs, and a Rotary Youth Exchange student to France.  

AIDS orphans

“Thanks to the guidance of my parents and Rotary District 9270, I have always been involved in some kind of activism,” Sabat says. “Many projects the district is involved with are related to the care of the nearly two million AIDS orphans in South Africa. I was fortunate to be part of many of these projects, and this instilled in me the desire to do more work related to AIDS.” 

Sabat, who was a 2007-08 Rotary Scholar at the University of San Diego in California, traveled back to Cape Town earlier this year and met with mothers involved in the program. 

“Some of the women spoke about their reactions when they found out that they were HIV-positive and what it was like sharing the news with their partners,” she says. “They thought their lives had ended, because they had such little knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Only after being introduced to mothers in the program did they think that their babies could be born HIV-negative and that they could live long, productive lives caring for their families.”

A Sabrage, Malaria Bracelets, George Washington (I do not tell a lie!) and the UN.

Julian Nagy really entertained us last week with his talk on Champagne and a demonstration of Sabrage!  It happened to be his birthday so we all had Krone Borealis to drink, the Cap Classique that I think is closest to Champagne and also ages well....if you can keep it long enough!

Julian suddenly produced the sabre from behind the Rotary Flag.  We all thought he was going in for the kill and New Dawn would be on the front page of the Sunday Times as opposed to our usual back page position!

The NICD Choir...see if you can spot Lucille!

Lucille Blumberg has been telling us about the Choir she has started at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the NICD Choir!  I went along to their first public appearance during the staff's lunch hour.  What a lot of fun!  And how good they were!  The audience were amazingly enthusiastic and I'm sure there'll be a lot wanting to join after that.  The choir manager who is reported to be "very strict" is our potential member, Nathi Ndlovu.

And here they are again in a Traditional Dress number!  Look for Nathi.

Nando's have asked us to buy Malaria Bracelets from Cape Union Mart.  They have been in there for a few weeks and all the money paid for them goes to the Malaria Project.  Nando's just want to prove to them that people will buy the bracelets and it is worth Cape Union Mart supporting their sale.

Our Speaker this week is another member, Ann Bourdin.  I heard her speak to the SA Military History Society on "A Callow Youth - George Washington in the Seven Years War".  I knew you would all enjoy it.


Here is George Washington in heroic pose...obviously not a callow youth!

Rotary, UN celebrate special relationship

By Ryan Hyland
Rotary International News – 9 November 2011
 

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Michel P. Jazzar, RI representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, and Richard S. Carson, RI representative to the Organization of American States, confer between panel presentations during Rotary-UN Day, 5 November in New York City. Both spoke on an RI representatives panel. Other panels focused on health, water, literacy, and youth. Rotary Images/Alyce Henson

       

More than 1,000 Rotarians, UN officials, Rotary youth program participants, and guests celebrated the special relationship between Rotary and the United Nations on 5 November. 

Rotary-UN Day, held annually at United Nations headquarters in New York City, included panels on health, water, and literacy, highlighting Rotarian projects that advance the goals of the UN and improve lives around the world.  

Kiyo Akasaka, UN undersecretary-general for communications and public information, commended Rotary for its ongoing collaboration with the United Nations to improve the health of children worldwide, and for its contribution to polio eradication.  

"Our shared vision for a safer and better world is what brings us together here today," Akasaka said. "It's your model of Service Above Self and your sterling results in improving health that makes Rotary one of the most important partners of the UN." 

Peace and justice

Both organizations are striving to create a more peaceful and just world, noted RI President-elect Sakuji Tanaka. 

"If you were to seek the one idea, the one goal that is at the core of Rotary, you would find the same goal that you find in the charter of the UN: to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors," Tanaka said.

Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund, stressed the importance of partnerships. 

"Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recognizes that every problem the UN faces cannot be [solved] by the UN alone," he said, adding that Rotary's "understanding and commitment to partnerships will make so many of these goals we share possible."  

Partnerships

Rotary is committed to partnering with organizations like the UN, said John Hewko, RI general secretary. 

"Rotary is learning by experience that it can accomplish more in concert with others than it might on its own. Working together multiplies our success: one plus one equals three," Hewko said. "This new formula provides a unique opportunity to enhance humanitarian service, which is what Rotary is all about. It helps build understanding and peace -- the mission of Rotary and the UN."

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, head of the Division of Women and Child Health at Aga Khan University, discussed the strategic partnership between the university and Rotary, and the challenges of promoting maternal and child health in developing countries in Africa and parts of Asia.  

More than 300,000 women die each year from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, Bhutta said. "Our biggest challenge is reaching these poor women, families, and infants to give them adequate health care." 

"I believe we are at the beginning of the journey with Rotary International to improve child and maternal health in the hardest-to-reach places in Central and South Asia and Africa," he added.  

Other panelists during Rotary-UN Day included Jacob Kumaresan, executive director of the World Health Organization, New York; Paul Edwards, senior adviser for UNICEF on water, sanitation, and hygiene; Ginny Wolfe, senior director of U.S. communications for the ONE Campaign; Philippe Kridelka, director of UNESCO, New York; and Ron Denham, chair of the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group.

Rotary, which has a 66-year history with the UN, holds the highest consultative status offered to any nongovernmental organization by the Economic and Social Council, which oversees many UN agencies.

Powerless Peter, Business, Julian Nagy & a Kayak.

My apologies for the lateness of the blog this week.

 A huge bluegum came down in Friday's storm in the street behind us smashing the electricity cables and a small substation.  City Power were on the spot within the hour and it has taken until Tuesday morning for them to be able to restore power.  I was very impressed with the way they worked but it took a couple of days just to remove most of the tree!

Board People plus Alex plus the President's Leg doing Board People things .

Last week's meeting was a Business Meeting and turned out to be quite fun! The next big event is the Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday 24th November, not just to raise funds but also as a thank you to Alex Gano's parents who have allowed us to enjoy his company as our Ambassadorial Scholar for a year.  To book please email Mike Vink.

Rotarians doing Rotarian things.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Business Meeting was the sanctification of Allan Beuthin.  I'm not sure whether this is permanent or merely a passing phase!  Allan, we will certainly be watching you at future meetings to see if  your nimbus has slipped!

Former Rotary Scholar kayaks across England for charity

By Arnold R. Grahl 
Rotary International News -- 7 November 2011 
 

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Peter Woolsey, a 1965-66 scholar to the United States, paddles down the Oxford Canal 6 June on his way to London. Photo courtesy Peter Woolsey

Rotary International on Facebook

A 70-year-old former Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar isn't letting age slow him down.

Englishman Peter Woolsey, a 1965-66 scholar to the United States, recently completed a 400-mile solo kayak trip from Kendal, in England's Lake District, to London, raising more than US$2,500 for Age UK, a charity that provides information, advice, and support to the elderly.

When he was 17, Woolsey completed the same journey through England's network of canals and down the Thames River. As his 70th birthday approached, he decided that repeating the voyage would be an ideal way to celebrate.

"As a youngster, I was fascinated by canals and kayaking, and it grew into a passion which has stayed with me throughout my life," Woolsey says. "I’ve always felt that age shouldn’t be a barrier to achieving your goals."

Early in his life, Woolsey's hobby earned him a job leading groups of British canoeists down the Rhone and Ardèche rivers in France for PGL, an adventure holiday company. After graduating from Manchester University, he set up and managed a water sports center at Miramar on the French Riviera.

Scholarship year

Woolsey was 25 and back in England when his stepfather invited him to a meeting of the Rotary Club of Stockton & Thornaby, Durham, which was seeking candidates for a scholarship. He won it by promising he would visit every Rotary club he could and never turn down an invitation to speak.

He made good on his promise, speaking at 84 clubs and four district conferences during his scholarship year. After studying business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he used his scholarship experience to build ties between Wharton and the European campus of INSEAD international business school, in France, where he received his MBA. Because of his efforts, students can now earn a degree by doing combined studies at the two campuses.

Woolsey went on to work as a publisher in England, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, then created a point-of-sale system for merchants in several countries in Europe. He later launched a company that supplied banking and insurance software to businesses throughout Northern Europe and the Baltic, requiring him to commute between Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

While in Estonia, he became a charter member of the English-speaking Rotary Club of Tallinn International, before moving back to England three years ago. Complications from pneumonia and his constant travels have kept him from seeking out another club, he says.

As for his passion for kayaking and canoeing, Woolsey maintains that they’re perfect activities for people of any age.

"I always say, if you can get into and out of a bath unaided, then you can probably get in and out of a canoe, so why not try it? I genuinely believe that canoeing and kayaking are two of the most gentle activities you can do, if you use a canal or a quiet river like the Thames."