Prof Ashraf Coovadia, The Princess of Africa Foundation & New Dawn and an Interesting British Rotarian.

Professor Ashraf Coovadia gave us a very interesting talk on the Children's Memorial Institute and the Board's hopes for the future.  It's the former Children's Hospital Building that has been some what neglected but now houses a number of NGO's relating to children, from Autism SA to The Toy Library.  We aim to go there for a tour of the building and for breakfast on the 15th August.  (To be confirmed).

This week we'll allow our new President to stand out on the blog!

This Week

Steve Du Plessis will be talking to us about The Princess of Africa Foundation and how we can slot in with that as a Club.  





Board Meeting Monday 30th July chez Sligcher
That means that next week will be a business meeting, the first of the new Rotary Year, so please make every effort to attend as we will report back on sub-committees etc.

If you are looking at the Video Bar, this week it's Edith Piaf, and it says the video player is too small just click under the picture and it will play in a new window.

Rotarian no stranger to adventure

by Sandra A. Swanson
The Rotarian -- August 2012
 

• 
  
•  
• 
  

---

 

 

Rotarian Robert Marshall water-skis in Saint-Tropez. The captain of a bomb-disposal squad will be helping provide security services for the London Olympics.

Rotary International on Facebook

In the early 1980s, Robert Marshall’s father ran a Southampton restaurant that hosted evening Rotary club meetings. “There was always lots of laughing, and a few beers, but I never knew what they did,” Marshall says.

He found out four years ago when he became a Rotarian in Chertsey, outside London. Marshall, who joined the British army at age 16, is no stranger to a life of service – or adventure. His wife, Shannon, photographed him waterskiing for the first time last year, while they were vacationing in Saint-Tropez with their three teenagers. “I consumed more seawater than I did red wine that week,” he says.

In the Caribbean, he once dove off a 98-foot-high waterfall. “I didn’t get a picture of that, because Shannon dropped the camera in shock.” His plan for the next family excursion? A nearly 500-mile walk across the Pyrenees along the Camino de Santiago.

Risk is part of his job too: He’s a captain in the Royal Logistic Corps, responsible for the welfare of 140 bomb-disposal specialists. Marshall also raises money for the Felix Fund, a charity that aids bomb-disposal personnel and their families.

“When these guys are disabling a bomb, they’re absolutely on their own,” he says. “It’s just them and the bomb, and one of them is going to win.”

Usually, the squadron works in Afghanistan and other countries far from home, but this summer, it’s helping to provide security services for the London Olympics.