Business Meeting, the Lecture, Eric Miyeni, Handbags, Jazz & News from Around the World.

Last week's meeting was a Business Meeting but it was poorly attended and there were few Board members there so it was really rather a waste of time but  it was socially enjoyable!

The Wits/New Dawn Lecture

Dr Pregs Govender gave a very interesting lecture on Human Rights and the challenges to them. She was walking with a crutch through one of those silly accidents that seem to do so much damage.  She also answered questions well.  The lecture was reasonably well attended by students and academics and there were three Rotarians present.

She was introduced by Professor Vinodh Jaichand, Director of the International Human Rights Exchange who I hope will come and talk to us.

He was previously Deputy Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights.



This Week

Our speaker is Eric Miyeni who has recently produced a new book, The Release.  He'll be talking about the book and copies will be on sale.

Eric Miyeni is a South African writer, actor, radio and television personality who's best known to television audiences for his role as Darryl Malgas in the drama series Molo Fish and as the presenter of the magazine show Zooming In On Men.

In 2001 Miyeni started a highly popular e-zine entitled O'Mandingo! and in 2006 he published the book a book based on it called O'Mandingo!: The Only Black At The Dinner Party.

In 2004 he was a DJ on SAfm's afternoon show but was fired after four months of being with the station for being too controversial after he discussed his contract on air.

Miyeni has also appeared in numerous films, including Bopha (1993), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and Dangerous Ground (1997).

Jazz at The Radium Beer Hall

The Social Sub Committee is arranging Jazz and Dinner at The Radium Beer Hall, Orange Grove on Saturday 27th October.  The music starts at 9,00pm and it will be a Dixieland Jazz T here is a cover charge of R60,  and we will order from the menu and eat before hand....and from the bar, of course.  I suggest we get there at about 7,30.   Please let me know how many are coming asap so that I can reserve places for us. peter@pjsfood.co.za   

Handbag Project
Katinka Vreugdenhill sent everyone an email with a complete list of items that are required.  These are the urgent ones!  We have lots of handbags but little contents!

 The Jes Foord Foundation is still in dire need of the following items for the handbags : 

• Hair combs/brushes
• Hair elastics/clips
• Deodorant
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrushes
• Small gifting items
• We are also a bit low on underwear for ladies, gents and kiddies.

Rotary news in brief from around the globe

The Rotarian -- October 2012
 

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Wheels of Hope, a collaboration between Rotarians in Nigeria and Traverse City, Michigan, USA, is providing free wheelchairs to polio survivors in northern Nigeria.

Rotary International on Facebook

Rotary clubs around the globe have many things in common, including a commitment to service. All year long, clubs are taking action to make a difference in their communities. Here’s a roundup of recent club activities worldwide:

Australia

Last year, flooding in Cambodia killed 247 people and displaced more than 200,000 families. As floodwaters receded, diseases such as cholera and dengue fever emerged. The Rotary clubs of Eltham, Australia, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, coordinated the distribution of Aquaboxes – tanks that can purify up to 290 gallons of contaminated water – to families, medical centers, and schools.

Canada

Malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and illnesses caused by lack of sanitation have devastated many villages in South Africa. In rural Hluvukani, the nonprofit Kunavelela Community Project maintains a communal garden to help nourish residents affected by disease. Last year, the Rotary Club of Bowen Island, B.C., pledged to raise funds to purchase and install a windmill, water tanks, and a basic irrigation system to support the garden. Bowen Island club members, working with the Rotary Club of Burnaby, B.C., raised more than US$12,000, and the village now has a reliable water supply.

England

During an event at St George’s House, Windsor Castle, 2011-12 RI President Kalyan Banerjee spoke about the success of the fight against polio. The occasion was a charity dinner celebrating a full year without a case of the disease in India. Guests included British Home Secretary Theresa May and Ian Macfadyen, constable and governor of Windsor Castle. BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh, who traveled to India in February for a series on the polio eradication campaign, was the event’s keynote speaker.

Guatemala

Lake Izabal, at 228 square miles, is Guatemala’s largest lake and an important fishing area. Fisheries biologists are working with the Rotary Club of Guatemala de la Ermita and a Guatemala City dive shop called Pana Divers to improve underwater habitats by building artificial reefs. In 2010, they sank 62 concrete balls to protect shallow-growing sea grasses and to shelter food fish such as Vieja maculicaudaand Mojarra luminosa. This June, they completed the project by sinking 161 additional balls about 130 feet from shore, which should provide local fishermen with 1,500 tons of fish annually. The club raised US$10,000 for the effort through a golf tournament and barbecue cook-off.

India

Indian Rotary clubs’ work to eradicate polio is highlighted in a new book by Muriel Sukumaran, a retired microbiologist and wife of Past District Governor P. Sukumaran. “I wanted everyone to know Rotary was involved in a big way,” she says. The book, titled Microbia and published in July, personifies the microbes that cause influenza, smallpox, the bubonic plague, and cholera (in addition to polio) in a narrative format to make microbiology interesting to a lay audience.

Nigeria

Wheels of Hope, a collaboration between Rotarians in Nigeria and Traverse City, Michigan, USA, is providing free wheelchairs to polio survivors in northern Nigeria. The hand-crank wheelchairs – built and donated by the Handicapped Advocacy and Rehabilitation Center, founded in 2007 in the city of Jos – can navigate rugged terrain and are in high demand. Rotarians in Nigeria and five U.S. districts, along with the Rotarian Action Group for Polio Survivors and Associates, raised US$120,000 – including a $63,385 Rotary Foundation Matching Grant cosponsored by the Rotary clubs of Naraguta, Nigeria, and Traverse City – that has allowed the center to build 1,000 wheelchairs for polio survivors.

USA

Nearly 49 million Americans don’t have enough to eat – including 79 percent of students at Greene County High School in Georgia. The Rotary Club of Greene and Putnam Counties has launched Second Harvest to help neighbors who are struggling with grocery bills. In 2008, the program began collecting food that otherwise would have been thrown away from grocery stores, restaurants, and hotels. The food is distributed through local pantries and monthly events at the high school. The Rotarians are working with Boy Scouts, the Humane Society, and Meals on Wheels, and the program has provided more than 500,000 pounds of food to families.

U.S. Virgin Islands

In December 2010, the Rotary Club of St. Thomas delivered 49 virtual babies to four schools as part of Baby Think It Over, a program that aims to demonstrate the pressures and responsibilities of being a parent. The club raised more than $28,000 to provide the babies, which come equipped with computer chips that record how the students care for them over several days. The effort, which the St. Thomas club has sponsored since 1996, has been credited with helping to reduce the rate of teen pregnancies in the U.S. Virgin Islands.