The Midwest Comes to New Dawn

It is always great to welcome visitors to club meetings and last week we were graced by the presence of Chuck Udell from Kansas City.
     Chuck was part of a Rotary Friendship Exchange tour to South Africa by their District 5710 to the Southern Africa based District 9350 (they stretch from Cape Town all the way to Angola).
     He flew back to Atlanta from Johannesburg and decided to visit a club in this city on his way home.

President Carol Stier receives a banner from PE Chuck Udell of Kansas

     Chuck is President-elect of the Rotary Club of Leawood Kansas, near Kansas City, also a breakfast club. They were in Southern Africa for about two weeks, during which time they visited seven clubs and numerous service projects.

     During their visit they also started planning a visit by District 9350 to Kansas and environs.

Chuck Udell of Kansas in the American Midwest

     Of course there was another Midwesterner at the meeting; Greta Schuler, our own home-grown American who hails from St Louis in Missouri, a neighbouring state to Kansas.
     Greta addressed the club on a topic she has dealt with for a number of years now: the plight of migrant sex workers in Johannesburg.
     She concentrated on the work she has been doing in helping the sex workers to start up a newsletter to improve communication in a very difficult environment.

Greta Schuler addressing the club

     Greta is working on a PhD in Creative Writing at Wits, but is also a Doctoral Fellow at the African Centre for Migration and Society.
     "At ACMS, I am using my background in creative writing to conduct research using participatory and innovative arts-based methods to explore the lived experiences of migrant sex workers. Today I’ll talk about a specific project that started in 2015 but builds on the work that I was doing during my Rotary scholarship in 2012: the Izwi Lethu: Our Voice Newsletter," she said.
     "The newsletter is written by sex workers and meant for other sex workers to read. Since sex work is a crime in South Africa, sex workers often don’t like to talk about their business publicly. This means there aren’t many sex worker stories widely available to challenge stereotypes and fight stigma."

     Those who missed the meeting missed a fascinating and insightful talk on a hidden corner of society.

Tim Bashell of The Link

      The meeting of 18th April will be a wonderful opportunity for cementing ties between the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn and The Link Literacy Project

     At that meeting we'll be handing over a symbolic cheque for R100000 to The Link, representing the club's commitment of own funds for expanding the work of this wonderful organisation.
     We pledged R30000 per year of club funds over the next three years but impatience got the better of us and in anticipation of obtaining a Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation, have decided to use available funds to get the ball rolling.
     The Link is ready to get going at two of three schools almost immediately: Westbury Primary, Primrose, Germiston, and a school in the Maboneng precinct.
     Megan Maynard, co-ordinator for The Link, will be able to give us more details at the meeting. Tim Bashell, chairman of The Link, will also attend.

DG Jankees and DGA Judy Sligcher at a recent Rotary function

     DG Jankees Sligcher has also pledged to be there in his official capacity as District Governor.
     We'll invite the local press and other media outlets to get coverage of the handover.
     Once the Global Grant is in place, The Link will be in a position to plan further expansion, for which New Dawn will obviously still be liable for R30000 a year for next year and the year after.
     These are exciting times for the club.
     Please note that the meeting tomorrow will be a business meeting. There will be a speaker at the  meeting on the 11th April. Watch this space for details.
     Frayne Mathijs will be speaking on the desirability of a national health system at the meeting of 25th April.

Lone Botha of Woodside receives Easter eggs from Judy Symons and Jenine Coetzer

Judy Symons handed Easter eggs over to Nancy Madau, social worker and Sarah
 Sunker, manager of the 5Cees

     We're all recovering from Easter, of course and hopefully the children of the Woodside Sanctuary and 5Cees in Berea have also recovered from a surfeit of Easter eggs thanks to the generosity of club members and the efforts of Judy Symons and Jenine Coetzer.
     Thanks to them for giving up time to see that the kids got a bit of a chocolate fix before the Easter break.
     A Date to Diarise: The end of an eventful Rotary year is already on the horizon and planning for the induction of our new president, Linda Vink, has already begun.
     The date we've set aside is Friday 29th June. A save-the-date invitation will be going out soon, but please diarise the date so long. The venue is still to be decided, but will probably be at Twickenham Guest House, the Parkview Golf Club, or the Country Club Johannesburg depending on availability, costs and other details.
     Birthdays: Believe it or not, but there are no member birthdays in April.
     A Thought for the Week: In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag. - W.H. Auden (1907-1973)