Monday the 5th July

Monday 5th July – Alan again – Charlie is still busy with technology issues!!

Today we visited 3 Rotary Club projects with Patrick Draper of Hillcrest Rotary Club – the first was:

Phinduvye Community Development Project – which is run by a lady called Jabu (yet another amazing yet totally unassuming woman). We saw a photo of this plot taken a year ago and the transformation is unbelieveable as is the work that this organisation undertake.
• They have a day care centre in a Wendy House for 30 children aged 9 months – 5 years – it is run as a community project with no fees paid.
• There is a lunchtime feeding programme for 110 chilldren.
• A community garden where they grow vegetables in car tyres as the ground is poor
• The Marianhill mobile clinic visits every Monday for HIV testing and general medical issues.

Amathubu (which means opportunity in Zulu) run by Suzi Lyons & Robert Zumu – I am sorry to be repetitive BUT yet again Suzi is a truly amazing woman – she has had a debilitating illness for 2 years, is confined to a wheelchair BUT her drive is to help people in the local community by building/rebuilding houses.
We visited 2 sites where this organisation has made a commitment to make a difference – the first is a property where Robert has built a house out of pre fabricated concrete fence panels (similar to Banbury buildings garages). This guy acquires second hand fence panels and converts them into houses – the benefit here is that they do not have to lay foundations and the time scale for building is far smarter. I suggested that he contact the manufacturers to see if they have reject panels and also from a PR perspective houses from fence panels!! The second is a site that they are hoping to undertake a similar project.
Robert also works with 9ocal teenagers to train them in building techniques.
Another project that has impressed us and I hope we can offer some support.

Our third project was SKADA – Street Kids+ Adult Education Development Association – this is a guy called Apollo who has no qualifications BUT has a real passion for helping these kids. Currently he has 32 youngsters on the project – the kids stay in 3 locations – a log cabin, a caravan outside the log cabin and 2 rooms in a hose close to where the kids go for vocational training. He also has a panel beating workshop. This guy is doing a good job but lacks management skills & would have to be closely monitored if we decided to fund him.

This evening we attended Hillcrest Rotary Club’s Induction evening – it is the start of the Rotary year and in the UK we call it the Handover meeting where the new President takes on the chain of office.
It was held at a rather upmarket retirement complex – most of the guys were in black tie or suits, a couple of guys were smart casual and then there was Charlie & I !! Having said all that it was a great evening of fellowship and we were accepted for who we were and not how we were dressed.