Monday 29 April 2019

Counting the Cost of Cyclones, Floods

Two cyclones and massive flood damage on the South Coast of KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape have wreaked havoc in Southern Africa over the past few weeks.
     The death and damage caused by Cyclone Idai and the local flooding especially, have created a massive upheaval in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people for whom life has not been easy at the best of times.
Flood damage and mudslides, as at this house on the KZN coast, wreaked havoc
     Rotary, Gift of the Givers and other international aid bodies have been doing sterling work especially in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi where Cyclon Idai hit the hardest.
     In comparison Cyclone Kenneth has left a slightly smaller path of destruction and loss of life, but again left hundreds of thousands of people literally without a roof over their heads.
     One hopes that Rotary clubs in the affected areas in South Africa after the floods last week have also been trying to find ways of helping locals to slowly start getting their lives back to normal again.
A township in the Eastern Cape after heavy rains
     The efforts in Mozambique were detailed by PDG Jankees Sligcher at the meeting last week in his report back as a member of the District 9400 Coordinating Committee.
PDG Jankees Sligcher reports on disaster relief efforts with Julian Nagy
     D9400 managed to obtain the first ever Disaster Response Grant from Rotary International to the tune of $25 000 and has already collected almost R300 000 in funds for disaster relief as well as other necessities such as mosquito nets, water purification sachets, blankets, clothes and linen from clubs in the district.
     Johannesburg New Dawn donated R10000, as previously reported.
Cape Vultures circling over the Magaliesberg
     We touched on the issue of Judy Sligcher's induction date at the meeting, as the Rotary year is now fast approaching its end.
     Judy has now revealed an important date on the club calendar, Saturday, 20 July, for her induction as president of the club.
     The Sligchers are doing things differently and the induction will take the form of a visit to the Nyoka Vulture Project of the Brits-Hartbeespoort Rotary club.
Cape Vultures at a feeding site
     Coffee, rusks and muffins will be followed by a talk on the project by John Wesson of BirdLife SA. The induction ceremony will be informal, promises Judy. After the ceremony there'll be a braai for lunch to which members will be expected to contribute.
     This promises to be a wonderful occasion and everyone is urged to invite friends and family along. The drive doesn't take much more than an hour and we'll be able to arrange lifts for Rotaract members and anyone who doesn't feel up to driving alone.


Dave Bradshaw with Carol Stier and Helene Bramwell
     The speaker at the meeting last week was Dave Bradshaw, an old friend of the club and our previous AG.
     Dave recently spent ten days in Ethiopia and said it is a fascinating destination, despite being in one of the most volatile areas in the world on the Horn of Africa, with neighbours such as Eritrea, Somalia and South Sudan
The Rock-hewn Church of Saint George, Lalibela, is a World Heritage Site
     Dave has been a Rotarian since 1976 when he joined the Rotary Club of Chelsea in London.
     He moved to South Africa in 1981 and joined the Rotary Club of Rosebank in 1982, where he's been ever since.
     He's retired from the tour operator Travelvision, for whom he still arranges tours to Israel.
The Castle of Fasilides. Ethiopia is the only African country with ancient castles
     He said that although Ethiopia is one of the world's poorest nations, it also currently has one of the fastest growing economies and seems to be shaking off the bad effects of occupation by Italy prior to WWII until 1942, the Haile Selasse era and the Communist regime that ousted him.
     Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa with more than 90 million people, who speak 84 different dialects. It is the most mountainous country in Africa.
A colourful Ethiopian market
     It is a place of ancient culture with rock-hewn churches and is considered as the region from which modern humans first set out for the Middle East and places beyond.
     Despite the recent fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 last month, Dave says it is one of the most modern airlines on the continent.
Setting up for a traditional coffee ceremony. Coffee is one of the main exports
     It is a mostly Christian country with about 33% of the people being Muslims.
     It has nine Unesco World Heritage sights and a number of game parks to rival the best anywhere in the world.
     Because of the public holidays on Wednesday (Workers' Day) and next Wednesday (8 May, election day) there will be no meetings for the next two weeks. The next meeting is on Wednesday, 15 May where the speaker will be Peter Sadie, speaking about the work that Meriting does.
     Because of the public holidays, the board meeting has been moved to Friday 10th May. The club assembly is the following day, Saturday 11th May at 9am at Twickenham Guest House.
     Please remember to submit project proposals before the assembly so that they are ready for discussion.
     Ian Widdop has already spoken about a proposal with Meriting for entrepreneurship training and mentoring; Carl Chemaly has promised an interesting proposal and Helene Bradwell, along with Bronwyn Tucker and David Marshall are going to propose a project based on the Enviro Loo toilets for schools.
President Linda Vink trading banners with visitor Dominiek Callewier of the Netherlands
     It was also a privilege to host two foreign visitors to the meeting in the persons of Dominiek Callewier, president-elect of the Rotary Club of Kortrijk-Grioeninghe and Kees van Lindentol, both of the Netherlands. Kees was in South Africa for reunion celebrations for the agricultural college that he and Jankees attended. Dominiek says he's a regular visitor to Johannesburg and has promised to visit again.
Three Dutchmen ... Dominiek with PDG Jankees and Kees van Lindentol
     Judy Symons reported on a successful Easter egg drive for the collection for the 5 Cees and  Woodside Sanctuary. As ever, we received a grateful thank you letter from Woodside.
     Megan Maynard has also reported that The Link are hard at work vetting new schools where they can open learning centres funded by the RI/New Dawn Global Grant, to date our biggest project ever.  
     This will be the last blog for the next two weeks, but the work of the club goes on, even if we cannot meet.
     A Thought for the Weeks Ahead: The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)




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