The Club Assembly has been moved to the 20th July.
The only person proposed as President for 2014/15 is Katinka Vreugdenhill. Congratulations Katinka!
The Blanket Drive resulted in a large number of blankets being sold...R17 500 if I remember correctly. Many thanks to Linda Vink for picking this up at the 11th hour and drawing up an instant roster. Many thanks to those who participated at very short notice.
This Week
Our guest speaker is Adri Ludick of CHOC.
CHOC is an acronym for Children’s Haematology Oncology Clinics and was established in 1979 by a parent group in Johannesburg. They recognised how far-reaching the impact of cancer is on families and the children undergoing treatment.
By the end of the century, parent groups had been set up in most main centres. In 2000, a national organisation was formed and, today, we have divisions in:
Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal Divisions have branches to address specific local needs in Port Elizabeth and Pietermaritzburg.
CHOC does not receive funding from government but relies heavily on donations from caring corporates, individuals and parents of children with cancer. All funds raised are used to provide all-encompassing support – from direct practical help to the children and their families and those involved in the treatment – to necessary equipment.
Jenine Coetzer & Steve du Plessis joined me in judging a potjiekos competition at CHOC on Saturday.
Discon
The Vinks and the Donets represented the Club at Discon in Swaziland last weekend. I'm sure they will give us a brief summary on Wednesday. Joan Donet is clutching our Certificate of Appreciation from the Rotary
Foundation for the Club's contribution to End Polio Now!
Three-day event provides free health care to thousands in Africa
Bongi Ngema-Zuma, first lady of South Africa, helps coax a child to open his mouth for the oral polio vaccine at the Levai Mbatha Community Health Center 11 May. Photo by Anna J Nel
In 1994, Marion Bunch lost her son, Jerry, to AIDS.
It was early in the U.S. AIDS epidemic, and the stigma of the disease kept her from talking about her son’s illness with anyone but family members. But three years later, Bunch recalls feeling a tap on her shoulder and hearing a voice telling her to “get up and get going.”
“It was an epiphany … that completely altered the course of my life,” she says.
Within a year, Bunch, a member of the Rotary Club of Dunwoody, Georgia, proposed an idea to her club, and through Rotary, began bringing together community and professional leaders who shared her passion for disease prevention in general. That was the start of Rotarians for Family Health and AIDS Prevention (RFHA), a Rotarian Action Group that received recognition from the RI Board in 2004.
Health Days
Last month, the group held its third annual Rotary Family Health Days in Africa. Rotarians from 365 Rotary clubs fanned out across Uganda, Nigeria, and South Africa to help medical professionals and government workers provide free health services to 250,000 disadvantaged people.
The event included polio and measles immunizations, dental and eye clinics, and family counseling and screening for HIV, diabetes and hypertension, breast cancer, and cervical cancer. Volunteers also handed out insecticide-treated bed nets, deworming tablets, and sanitary pads.
“The reach of this project is so phenomenal because of the presence of Rotarians all across these countries who felt emotionally connected by working together as one force on one project,” Bunch says.
In South Africa, 225 Rotary clubs participated at 160 sites; in Uganda, 65 clubs supported 120 sites; and across Lagos and Ogun states in southern Nigeria, 62 clubs supported 70 sites. Two Rotary Foundation global grants provided funding to send vocational training teams to Uganda and to pay for malaria-preventive bed nets in Nigeria.
“The heartbeat of the health care system must be prevention of disease and the promotion of health rather than [trying] to cure disease, rather than trying to fix it after,” says Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa’s national minister of health.
Volunteer Chris Pretorius, a member of the Rotary Club of Pretoria Sunrise, South Africa, was amazed by the turnout for the Health Days event.
“One of the members of the health department actually said they had never been able to get so many children here on a day like this,” he says. “That in itself is success.”
Working with partners
The campaign also illustrates how Rotary partners with other organizations to expand its impact. Since 2011, RFHA has partnered with the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, which contributed US$450,000 for this year’s three-country event. Other partners were South Africa’s Department of Health, South Africa Broadcasting Corporation, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USAID, Delta Airlines, and Nampak (a producer of sanitary pads).
“We are proud to have partnered with RFHA and the Department of Health in promoting access to health screening services,” says Therese Gearhart, president of Coca-Cola South Africa. “At Coca-Cola, we invest in these initiatives because, together with our partners, we have a common vision of a South Africa that comprises healthy, strong, and thriving communities.”
Leaders of the Rotarian Action Group hope to expand the event to more African countries each year.
“Rotary is the catalyst organization in this event because of the power and (political) neutrality of our brand and the respect we receive worldwide for our ability to mobilize communities into action,” Bunch says. “This event represents the power of public/private partnerships. No one organization can do a massive event like this alone. Each partner has a defined role and set of responsibilities, and that’s why it works.”
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