June

Jun 30, 2020 by

June

1st – Zoom Meeting

 
We met again by Zoom and had a speaker from Uganda. We miss meeting in person but one of the advantages of Zoom is that a speaker can be anywhere in the world. Faruku Kibaba was in fact in Winchester, detained by Covid but he could just as easily have been at home in Uganda.
 
He has done an amazing amount for Rotary and for peace and was a truly inspirational speaker.
He told us about his work with the Great Lakes Peace Centre and PeaceJam and his new Rotary Club of which he is founder President.
 
He is supported by the Rotary Club of Winchester with whom he is staying at present.
Faruku was in the UK as a postgraduate student and was due to speak at the District Conference. All this has been changed by Covid 19 and he is for the time being unable to return home.
 
In Uganda he is involved with a project helping people with Hepatitis. He is also working on an environmental project encouraging the use of solar energy instead of traditional more polluting sources.
 
We were told about an Education project in Uganda to educate children who are orphans due to Aids or other diseases. Another of Faruku’s projects is to train and give self-sustaining skills to young mothers to learn a practical skill. Faruku has some items produced by these young women which it was planned to sell at the cancelled District Conference and which are still available for purchase through Winchester Rotary.
 
Faruku told us about the Annual East African Peace Conference and of his work with PeaceJam. PeaceJam is a project from the USA linking young persons to Nobel Peace Laureates. Friends of Great Lakes Peace Centre is a Ugandan schools project.
 
Faruku is forming a new Rotary club in Uganda in part from Rotaract members. The club is awaiting its charter. The new club is running a Covid support project especially for the elderly and terminally ill. We learnt that there have only been about 200 cases of Covid in Uganda, and another 200 or so in Ugandans who have acquired the disease elsewhere, and been repatriated. There have been no deaths due to Covid as such, but there have been deaths from the consequences of lockdown itself, and it is this which the Covid project is helping. A question was asked as to whether this would be eligible for a Global grant, which it might be but would need support.
 
We then dealt with a few items of business.
 


15th – Zoom Meeting

 
We met for our Club Assembly which is the opportunity for Steve Uden, our incoming President, to outline his plans for the new Rotary year which commences in July.
 
Our meeting was of course by Zoom and we were pleased to welcome Richard Giles, Assistant District Governor as our guest. President Win reported on her successful year and then handed over to Steve who told us that while it was difficult for him to make detailed plans we would keep going with what we had.
 
We will prioritise our support within the local community.
 
We will not be able to run any of our major fundraising events this year, but as a result of careful management we have adequate funds to provide support where needed. We hope that our next big fundraiser in 2021 will be the North Dorset Cycle Ride and that it will be even bigger and better.
 
Our Business Partners scheme is one of the club’s success stories with over 60 partners making it the most successful such scheme in the UK. We recognise that many of the scheme’s members will be having a difficult time and look to see what we can give back.
 
We must meet socially as soon as we are able perhaps with a barbecue and Steve outlined how we will put new life into some of our activities.
 
We also look forward to a twinning visit to Heerlen in the Netherlands next year.
 
Minutes can be found in the member section. 
 


29th – Zoom Meeting

 
This was our last meeting of the Rotary year and what a strange year it has been.

Pictured: Rotarians on Zoom
 
Our speaker had had to cancel for personal reasons, but Win’s daughter Sian had been “volunteered” to assume responsibility at short notice. Sian runs Mad Science in her home area. Normally she is going into schools and providing science education and after schools clubs, but unfortunately that is not happening at present due to Covid.
 
Win welcomed her daughter Sian to the meeting. Sian then gave us a demonstration of “Mad Science”. We were treated to surprising colour changes in apparently clear liquids – courtesy of pH indicators – followed by manufacturing slime, exploding hydrogen balloons and flying tea bags.
 
Meeting on line is of course possible wherever one is located and so we were happy to also welcome, and exchange greetings with guests from Steve Uden’s old club of Northampton Beckett. We were pleased to learn from them that all of the toilets they had funded with our help at schools in Malawi were now completed. Covid had prevented them from visiting and the schools will reopen to pupils after the end of lockdown.
 
This was Win’s last meeting as President. She said a few words about her year and the impact of her illness and thanked members for their support. She then handed over the Presidency to Steve Uden. Steve then thanked Win for having continued to fulfil her duties, despite difficult personal circumstances, and complimented her on her having exemplified “Service above Self”. He then presented Win with her surprise Paul Harris award, all achieved by Zoom with the assistance of Fred, Win’s husband. (For the benefit of non-Rotarians “Service above self” is the motto of Rotary and Paul Harris was the founder of Rotary. It is the custom to give Paul Harris awards to Rotarians who have given exceptional service.)

 

Pictured: Outgoing President Win, Tim Cook and Incoming President Steve

Win was obviously totally taken by surprise and for once lost for words!
 
The meeting closed with some light hearted comments and a couple of jokes from our new President Steve Uden. Is this a sign of things to come?
 


Reminiscing – Nov 16th 2016

16th – Shaftesbury Fire Station

Rotarians and their partners made a vocational visit arranged by Trish Lever, to their local fire station where Station Commander Matt Scott introduced his team of “on call” firefighters, all with other day jobs, who demonstrated the special equipment carried on both appliances (fire engines to every youngster).

 

fire-night-3

 

We were then split into three groups to hear more about their high tech communication systems, followed by the opportunity to use some very impressive safety equipment designed specifically to facilitate safely removing injured occupants from vehicles involved in accidents.

 

Then the “Fear” factor, the chance to scale a 42ft (13m) ladder and climb into a burning room (no that’s not true) but you did have to leave the ladder and enter the “cage” by straddling the safety barrier. The extra-long 13 metre ladder was erected on the tower, and more female than male visitors had a go to the second level, complete with harness and helmet.

 

Dorset and Wilts recently merged their Fire and Rescue Services. New recruits, men and women, are needed to ensure the public’s safety, whenever fire, traffic accident or other emergency occurs. Shaftesbury’s team have long- supported the town’s events, such as Gold Hill Fair, and The Carnival Procession.

 

Afterwards President Bernard Skam and his wife Sheena hosted a Thai supper for visitors and firefighters at their Bell Street home, which suffered severe fire damage 24 years ago!

Huge thanks to Trish for organising the event, to Bernard and Sheena who hosted the supper and of course Matt Scott (station Commander) and the Firemen that safely looked after us.


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