As promised here are the pictures and the account of the South African Dinner arranged by Alex Gano with his US club, the Rotary Club of Charleston, Illinois as a fundraiser to match the new Dawn Thanksgiving Dinner!
An Evening in South Africa
Posted by Darcy Duzan on Mar 08, 2012 on the Rotary Club of Charleston website.
This fundraiser for a vocational scholarship in South Africa was held Thursday, March 8, 2012 at the Charleston Country Club. Guests enjoyed appetizers of chicken sosaties and frikadellers while enjoying a performance by Eastern Illinois University's Afro-Cuban Ensemble. The themed dinner consisted of salad, Cape Malay chicken, bobotie (an Indonesian beef casserole), and vegetables. For dessert pampoenkoekies with cinnamon sugar were served.
Following dinner, Dr. Roger Beck, Ph.D. in African History and author of The History of South Africa, provided a brief overview of the country. Then Alex Gano, District 6490 Ambassadorial Scholar, provided a captivating account of his year in South Africa. One of his special accomplishments was a Thanksgiving fundraising dinner hosted by his host club, The Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn. They raised more than enough funds to send a worthy South African to culinary school for a year. The club president and the scholarship recipient were seen in a video link. In the next few weeks Alex will report on the success of our dinner, which hopefully raised enough funds to provide another vocational scholarship in Johannesburg.
He expressed special thanks to Andy Methven, Mary Droste, Danelle Larson, Deborah Muller, Judi Konrad, Rick Hunt, the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn, the Rotary Foundation, his parents, and the people of South Africa. We were also honored to have District Governor Ron Schettler and his wife and Tom Hodson, District Outbound Ambassadorial Scholar Committee leader, and his wife in attendance. Thank you to everyone who supported this enjoyable evening and worthy project.
Alex will also be the featured speaker on Friday night, April 27, 2012 at the Annual District 6490 Conference in Effingham.
And this is what Rotary Africa had to say about the Thanksgiving Dinner last year:
This Week
Our Speaker is Dr Michelle Williams, a Sociology Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Wits. It's through her that we organised our public lecture last year given by Constitutional Court Justice Zak Yacoob. This year we are doubling up our contribution to a deserving student to R10 000 and no doubt that will be one of the things she will talk about.
Here is a little about her:
Professor Michelle Williams
BA, MA, PhD (University of California, Berkeley)
Michelle Williams received her BA (Political Economy of Industrial Societies and German), MA (Sociology), and PhD (Sociology) from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology and Political Studies at Wits (August 2005-December 2006). Her research and teaching interests include political sociology, social movements, social theory, qualitative research methods, and comparative historical analysis. Her book, The Roots of Participatory Democracy: Democratic Communists in South Africa and Kerala, India (Palgrave, 2008), compares the political projects of the communist parties in South Africa and Kerala during the 1990s. She co-edited South Africa and India: Shaping the Global South (Wits University Press, 2011). She is currently working on a book project with Vishwas Satgar on cooperatives in the global political economy tracing the linkages from consumer markets to producer cooperatives.
And don't forget Yvonne Chaka Chaka becomes an Honorary Member of our Club on the evening of the 28th! Book with Mike Vink.
Rotary honors Prime Minister Cameron for supporting a polio-free world
Andrew Mitchell (left), United Kingdom International Development secretary, accepts the Polio Champion Award on behalf of Prime Minister David Cameron from RI President Kalyan Banerjee. Photo by Maureen McLean
Rotary International has recognized David Cameron, prime minister of the United Kingdom, with its Polio Eradication Champion Award for his leadership and dedication to a polio-free world.
RI President Kalyan Banerjee presented the award to International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, who received it on the prime minister’s behalf at a reception at the House of Commons on 14 March.
The award is the highest honor Rotary presents to heads of state, health agency leaders, and others who have made significant contributions to the global polio eradication effort.
"We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rid the world of the evil of polio,” Cameron said in a statement about the recognition. “The commitment of Britain and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, with the support of millions of Rotarians, has helped bring this crippling and often deadly disease to the brink of eradication.”
India's milestone
“On behalf of Rotary’s 1.2 million members worldwide, I am honored to recognize the commitment of Prime Minister Cameron for his outstanding support of efforts to eradicate polio,” said Banerjee. “My own country, India, has just surpassed the milestone of a year without polio. We would not be so close to achieving the goal of a polio-free world without the longstanding support and continued leadership of the United Kingdom. We encourage other G8 countries to follow the UK’s lead in continuing their support so that the world will soon be polio free.”
The United Kingdom has been a strong supporter of the global polio eradication initiative with contributions and commitments totaling more than US$960 million through 2012.
"It is an honour for the UK and the prime minister in particular to be recognised in this way,” said Mitchell. “Britain is at the forefront of the fight against polio and last year alone, Britain helped fully immunise over 45 million children from the crippling disease. None of this would be possible without the public-private partnership of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the tireless leadership of Rotary International and its dedicated members. I urge all other countries and organisations to play their part now to achieve our ultimate goal of a world free from polio."
In receiving the award, Cameron joins a roster of distinguished leaders, including India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.
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