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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Message from the President

How the year is moving. My induction has hardly taken place and we are preparing for PE Albert’s induction. The Greatest Train race of 2010 is still winding up and the 2011 preparations are well underway.


Last year’s blanket project was very successful and this winter project is starting next week with 1300 blankets. The contents of the two containers that arrived last year have been well distributed. The computers have been a challenge because so few schools have security but momentum is now picking up. The fourth container arrived today and the requested for desks and books are greater than the contents. Rotarians please ensure that your written requests are in to avoid disappointment. The fifth container is on the water and thanks to the GTR project we are able to contribute $5000 towards the freight costs.

Please read the Blog and give Rotarian Alta some support by responding on the blog.

DGN Anton Meerkotter is in full swing and we will be heading off to the Drakensburg to prepare for the next Conference in 2012. Watch the blog for the follow up.

Do we make a difference?


Middelburg Rotary Club handed out 92 blankets and five wheel chairs in Mhluzi on Friday 26 June.  Winters will be slightly warmer for the 92 orphans who were identified as in desperate need of some help.  Annie Mtsweni from Vukanethemba is the co-ordinator of the project.  She contacted Rotary for help as the orphans eat their one and only meal for the day at the centre where she works and she says that it is painful to see the children in such need.   Rose Mtsweni pleaded guilty to not having a road licence when she received her first set of wheels.  Mtsweni was overjoyed as she says it will be much easier for her family to take her to the clinic now.  A person really appreciates their legs after seeing the four-year-old Moshe Maesela being helplessly placed in her wheel chair.  The sight of his wheel chair being wheeled into his yard brought the fifteen-year-old Gilbert Tebele to tears as he watched from where he was sitting in the sand.  Tebele used to spend his days sitting in the sand in front of his shack, as it is very difficult for his family to move him around, before he received his own wheel chair.  Finally young Shepard Ndluvo was brought out of his family shack by Josephina Mokwena, an aid-worker in Mhluzi, to be placed in his size 18 wheel chair.  Mr Ndluvo was openly proud of his disabled son as he planted a huge kiss on young Shepards’ cheek.  The fifth wheelchair will be kept at Vukanethemba office to transport other disabled members to and from the clinic.

 



Partnership with Grand Bend In Canada

The containers from Canada. Rotary Club of Grand Bend been the sponsors of the containers containing 200 plus desks, 212 computers, 67 000 books and sports equipment can be commended for the generosity. Look at the sheer joy on this child’s face.  In another space we can see the desks.




THE LOVE AND PEACE HOME BASED CARE – Sango Village (Laersdrift)(Blanket project)


The Home Based Care was initiated three years ago by Sylvia Lukhele, a lady from the community. She noticed the dismal circumstances under which the people of the village lived and started to do something about it. She began by nursing patients and feeding aids orphans on a small scale. Her small zinc hut became a safe haven for the many vulnerable children and women of this rural community.

In 2008 the Love and Peace Home Based Care was registered as a non-profitable organization. This enabled her to appoint personnel to assist her in this essential task. Unfortunately the government is not always punctual in their payments to the organization and for long periods they are completely dependent on donations. The state subsidy is not sufficient to meet the ever increasing needs. Since 2008 the CMR has been involved with Sango Village and does foster parent selection and child court cases. They also attempt to address the social needs of the area by taking responsibility for the feeding scheme, nursery school, school clothes project, clothes and counseling.

On 6 July the Rotary Club of Middelburg donated 130 blankets to the orphaned and vulnerable children in this village.