DG Newsletter September 2023
Edition 3

Message from DG Ann Wright
Dear Members
September has been very interesting,exciting and a bit scary for some.
Sometimes it takes a natural disasterto reveal a social disaster.
Many regions recently experienced severe weather conditions
with reports of widespread flood damage and road closures. My
thoughts are with all Rotarians and communities who suffered,or who lost their homes.

Does your club have a disaster management plan and a budget?
We are so often asked to help in our towns, our districts or toassist districts in other countries. Perhaps this is an agenda item
for your next club meeting? Climate change can no longer beviewed as fake news.
PDG Tracey Wilson, PDG Lee-Ann Shearing, DGE Stephen Young,and myself attended the 5th All Africa Zone Institute in Lusaka
this month. We connected with senior leaders in Zone 22 andhad many meaningful conversations about all things Rotary.
I was privileged to be part of all the Governors in Zone 22
who signed an historic first ever commitment to the Protocol
ICC – Africa, in Lusaka on 9 September 2023. It was co-signed bysenior leaders and our RI President, Gordon McInally.
Membership
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE……..
Membership is vital to Rotary’s existence and therefore a mostimportant concern to our District Leadership Team.
District 9350 does not want to be redistricted and absorbed intoanother district. Can we aim for 200 new members this year
please?
Rotary is more dynamic and relevant than ever before; there
are more opportunities for personal growth, networking,meeting like-minded people and making a significant
contribution to the upliftment of communities in need.
Membership tips:•Have regular membership satisfaction feedback
sessions.
•Act on the suggested changes, even if it’s one change
at a time.
•Be a caring, welcoming club to every member andvisitor.
Club visits
This month I visited Atlantis, Cape Town, Langebaan, Knysna,
Beaufort West and Oudtshoorn.

I am inspired by the new members I have met. They are young
and young at heart, enthusiastic and ready to take on thechallenges communities are facing.
I loved the energy and enthusiasm which greeted me at every
club meeting and I’m fascinated by the way in which each clubaddresses projects differently, each making a significantimpact.

Thank you to my fabulous AGs Frederik, Pam and Suné whomade sure that my visits went smoothly and to Presidents
Mary Ann, Barbara, Jolene, Herb, Marcel and Leon for yourwonderful hospitality. You and your members make all thekilometres and travel hours away from home worth it.
Thank you.
Projects
Thank you to all the clubs who are tackling Basic Educationand Literacy. Is anyone working on a project that assists
children with learning difficulties? I’d love to hear what youare doing.
Mental health: Is your club working towards improving
access to mental health services with access to preventative
care and treatment? Please let me know if you are planningan awareness campaign, or a project for the young/elderly,
doing something for your members, improving a facility
such as a psychiatric hospital. The scope is wide. Consider a
Global Grant. There is plenty of money available.
A Chinese proverb
Depression doesn’t take away your talents – it just makes
them harder to find.
RYLA CampDue to the weather conditions in Franschhoek it wasdifficult to leave the campsite on Monday. Once again, theneed for members, especially Club officers, to load theircontact details on to the database was highlighted as wewere unable to connect with some clubs with regards totravel arrangements. Please read PDG David’s account of
the events that unfolded. My sincere thanks to all who wereinvolved in ensuring the safety of all learners throughout
their stay and departure.
Next month the Rotary theme is: Community Economic andDevelopment Month. Are you working with entrepreneurs?
Please let me know.
Keep warm, safe and Bless you for the good you are doing.

Ann

Peace is not when everyone agrees.
It is when we respect our disagreements
and still play in the sandbox together.

If I had asked people what they wanted,
they would have said faster horses.
Henry Ford

TAKE ACTION: www.rotary9350.co.za

District 9350
IMPORTANT NOTICEROTARY AFRICA
MagazineNEWSLETTERHIGHLIGHTS
1. DG Ann Message
2. Rotary Africa magazine
3. Did you know?
4. Save the dates
5. Some Club News
6. DG Club Visits
7. 5th All Africa Institute

By Sharon Robertson
Recently we have been hit with excessive increases inthe cost of paper, posting and printing.
Our Directors have therefore approved an increase in
the printed magazine subscriptions from the1st January 2024 as follows:
Printed magazines (local) R245.00 per member per 6months
Printed magazines (foreign) R300.00 per member per
6 months
The good news is that the digital magazine (local andforeign), will remain the same: R135.00 per member
per 6 months.
Letters will be sent out to all Rotarians in the districts
we serve, encouraging the move to digital for thosestill subscribing to the printed magazine. With the SA
Post Office situation, the digital magazine is really thebest option.

8. Angola Immunisation Drive
9. RYLA
10. Relief Fund
11. Tell your Story
12. Environment

July 2017 marked the 90thanniversary of Rotary Africa.

13. Area of focus: Economic and Community
Development
14. Angola Celebratory Dinner
15. Rotary’s Vision Statement

The magazine, established in 1927, has undergone
two name changes and expanded its distribution toinclude English-speaking Africa. Rotary Africa ispublished by Rotary In Africa a registered publicbenefit organisation.
Rotary Africa is one of the more than 30 regionalmagazines (licensed by Rotary International) which
communicate with Rotarians as part of the Rotary
World Magazine Press.

EDITOR:
Tanya Stone tanya@conferencewise.co.za
DISTRICT GOVERNOR:Ann Wrightannw6942@gmail.com
DISTRICT OFFICE:
dist9350@iafrica.com

More than half of Rotarians worldwide receive aregional magazine. These publications are distributed
in more than 130 countries, published in 24 languages
and have a combined circulation of 872 000.
Each magazine has a regional point of view but also
includes articles and photographs of international
interest from Rotary International.

SAVE THESE DATES!

🌟 BOOK NOW

Exciting news for YOU!
1.
2.

2x 2hour virtual Club Visioning programme forclubs
1x per week for 12 weeks x 90min Rotary
Leadership Institute course for members

PDG Lee- Ann Shearing will present an introduction to
the two items via a webinar on Wednesday 25 October@ 18.00 – 18.45
A wide range of Rotary memorabilia
is available to purchase throughout
the day. Bring your pocket change!...

She will explain the curriculum, the length andcommitment required and why you and your club will
benefit. Both these courses will change your life.
For link please email: davidho@yebo.co.za

New Member Orientation workshop

Payments to be made to:
Account Name: Rotary Club of Riebeek Valley
Bank: Standard Bank
Branch: Malmesbury
Branch: 051001
Acc No: 10163686074
Reference: Mini Conference – your nameContact for accommodation: Kitty Snyman (082 9277 459)
Contact for conference information: Desiree Whiting(072 441 3455)

Register Now forTHE ROTARY CLUB OFWYNBERG'S ANNUAL QUIZNIGHT.
The Quiz Night is an annual
fund raiser of the Rotary Clubof Wynberg and is used tosupport various projects,
including NSRI Station 16, St.
Michael's Child and Youth Care
Centre, and the Sexual
Offenses Court Wynberg.
The annual Rotary Wynberg Quiz Night is being held at Timour
Hall Villa on Friday 17 November at 18:00.
Registration closes 10 November; register and pay before 31
October 2023 and stand a chance to win a round of drinks for yourteam: (a beer, glass of wine, or a cooldrink each).
Cost per player R100pp maximum 8 players per team.
Food and drink will be available on sale.
For more information email rotaryquizct@gmail.com
Register your team via the Google Form link below.
REGISTER HERE

Have fun while learning more about what it means to
be a Rotarian
Who should attend? Members who joined between
2020 and 2023.
In person Saturday 28 October 9.30 – 12.30 venue
tbc (costs: coffee & snack)Virtual Saturday 4 November 9am – 12 zoom link
To register: email: davidho@yebo.co.za

DG CLUB VISITSRC BEAUFORT WEST

AG Suné Rupping , President Marcel deNecker and DG Ann.
Special dinner by candle light during
power outage.

RCBW supports the popular children’s playpark
in the town.

RC OUDTSHOORN
The Club meets at the Men’s Club in town.

A special dinner was arranged for the DG’s visit.
The members make beautiful teddies. Last year 1000
teddies were given to children in their communities.

Oudtshoorn supports a creche in an impoverishedarea in Volmoed.

DG CLUB VISITSRC CAPE TOWN

DG Ann with Pres Barbara, AG Pam, PP Stephen.

RC Cape Town meets at Royal Cape Yacht Club.

RC ATLANTIS

With the Atlantis Rotaracters.

RCA helped establish this reading nook at a local recreation
centre. AG Frederick, Pres Mary Ann and PP Danny.

How do yousee HOPE?

Abri Ferreira
RC Oudtshoorn

Ek sal graag ‘n nagskuiling vir haweloses wil bou inOudtshoorn.
Die behoefte is groot,dit sal beslis help om die strate seveiligheid te verbeter en die geleentheid skep vir
opheffingswerk.
Sal ook beslis help om menswaardigheid te gee, en hoop
aan hulle te verskaf.
Om GROOT dinge te bereik ,moet ons nie net DOEN nie,maar ook DROOM, nie net beplan nie, maar ook GLO.
AG Frederick, Pres Mary Ann and DG Ann.

DG CLUB VISITSRC LANGEBAAN

RC Langebaan inducted Hein Crocker and Bea Nelson. Marlene
Crocker looks on. Well done!

The passionate and sparkling Langebaanmembers.

RC KNYSNAThe Club meets at the Yacht Club at lunchtime.

President of Interact, Athabongile Kostayi, DG Ann andPresident Herb Hunter at Percy Mdala Secondary School where
the children and staff held an anti bullying campaign event.

The forest was partially cleared allowing the children tohave exciting adventures.

The Club supports many ECD schools in the townships. The
Learning Tree school is a true centre of HOPE for the children.CLUB NEWSRC HOUT BAY

Family Health Day
One of the highlights in the month of September was
the annual Hout Bay Family Health Day on Saturday
16 September 2023.
This event sees several medical organisations providing
free medical services to the community, supported by
the Rotary Club of Hout Bay and the Rotaract Club ofHout Bay.

There were about 250 staff volunteers, ranging fromstudent practitioners (doctors, occupational therapists,physiotherapists, speech therapists, audiologists,dietitians, & dentists) to qualified gynecologists, doctors,pediatricians, pharmacists as well as nurses. Hout Bay
SHAWCO community health workers were also present.
The unfavorable weather conditions did affectattendance but nonetheless, approx. 250 Patients
received free medical care and assistance. Consideringthat every patient on average visited 3-4 medicalstations, close to 1000 free treatments wereadministered. The dispensary gave out free medicationand handed out prescriptions where necessary.

RC TYGERBERG

Rotary Grants
Tygerberg has embraced this month’s theme,
Education and Literacy, with the following twoprojects.
1.

We used our District Grant to provide 11 tablets
to Attie van Wyk Primary School. These will be
used in G3 to strengthen literacy and numeracy
skills, and we will be monitoring results to see
the effectiveness.

2.

We launched our Global Grant project toprovide tablets to GR-G3 in eight local
underprivileged schools. Attie van Wyk is being
treated as a pilot for us to see the results
achieved to add to our motivation for the Grant.
Partners from our District will be welcome
since the project is an ambitious R3,5m. We're
currently looking for our first internationalsponsor, with assistance from Helene Visser and
PDG Carl-Heinz Duisberg.

RC WATERFRONT“Entrepreneurs Course”
During an interactive session on September 20th,2023, Paulo da Santos, the founder of iEducate
South Africa, shared his expertise with a group of
Salesian learners enrolled in an entrepreneurshipcourse.

Environment

The discussion began by exploring the reasons why
most SMEs struggle to succeed and eventually close.
The learners were enthusiastic and engaged in theconversation, expressing a desire to learn practicalstrategies for implementing their business ideas andIdea creating a profitable organization.

The session emphasized the importance of research,including understanding one's product and market, as
well as proper costing and accounting practices. The
learners were introduced to free online tools that could
improve their ventures and encouraged to move awayfrom outdated methods of manual bookkeeping andcostings.

The 5th All Africa Institute – Lusaka, Zambia

Several of the Zone 22 leaders, with RIP Gordon and Heather McInally

DGE Stephen, his wife, Jackie, DG Ann, DG Riana D9400,
PDG Tracey and DG Jacques D9370

Signing of the Protocol ICC – Africa. It was co-signed bysenior leaders and our RI President, Gordon McInally.

Angola Immunization Drive

Dr Khalid, the Coordinator of WHO/UNICEF for this region inAfrica for POLIO and Dr Jean Marie of WHO office, in Luanda

Rotarian administrating polio dropWORLD
POLIO DAY
24 OCTOBER
Is your Club planning an eventon the day?
Showcase your story on Rotary
District 9350 Clubrunner.

Want to donate?
https://www.endpolio.org/donate

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)
is an intensive leadership experienceorganized by Rotary clubs and Districts
where you develop your skills as aleader while having fun and making
connections.

RYLA Franschhoek
COPING WITH A DISASTER
By PDG David Holtzhausen

Picture the scene – A RYLA camp in the mountains with60 learners – when the mother of all storms hits thearea. No cell phone reception in the area – we could
only get signal by driving 2km up to the top of themountain!

How did we deal with it?
Once we realized the pass was closed (road hadcollapsed on one side, and mudslides on the other), weknew we had a problem.
Our facilitator team sprang into action.
•

we phoned all the leaders’ parents to advise them of
the situation, and not to try and come through.

•we notified club contacts as well.

•

we phoned every contact number we had forcollection of learners to also advise them to not try
to come through.

•we set up a WhatsApp group with all parents to keepthem updated.

•

we contacted disaster management to alert them wewere stuck at camp. As they had bigger problems todeal with, they confirmed we were safe and said
they will be in touch later.

•we contacted the local municipality(Theewaterskloof) to confirm which roads were stillopen.

•we advised the learners and waited.

On Tuesday morning we worked with the remaining
learners. Parents went through a lot to get to camp .
One drove his 4x4 over the damaged road to collect his
daughter, and various people sneaked through roads
that were officially closed!
By 11am we had 6 learners still to be collected, but wepacked up and took everyone down to Villiersdorp tomeet them. Unfortunately, the town was without powerso reception was limited, but 5 learners were collected
and 1 travelled back with us. Delays on the road (a hugemudslide had closed the R43 after a truck got stuck)meant that the journey back was five and a half hours!
24 hours later than planned – everyone was safely backin Cape Town!

Around midday, once the rain had pretty much stopped,
we checked the road. Mudslides were bad but
accessible via 4x4.
One parent made it to camp around 1pm, andconfirmed the rest of the road was passable – so ourteam jumped into vehicles and cleared a path throughthe worst mudslide. The family of the leader worked
with us.
Once we knew vehicles could get to us, we sent a
message to the group to tell them the pass wasaccessible (huge debris on the roads still) and that they
could access via Worcester (according to the control
centre). We also cleared a smaller mudslide that was a
problem for normal cars.
By 6pm more than half the learners were on their way
but a number were not coming through as they got
conflicting information. SAPS were a problem as they
told people not to attempt to access the camp and wenever heard from or spoke to them!

Lessons learned:
We need contact numbers! Too many clubs failed tosupply details of who was collecting learners. We needto actively respond to anticipated conditions if
something like this is identified again.

TELLYO U R
S T O RY

ReliefFund
Disaster Relief Funds
By Peter Hugo

The District does not have a Project reserve and we
don’t budget for a Disaster Fund.

The Clubs in an area are the best vehicle to respond todisasters, but they can't expect financial support fromthe District.
Regarding the Disaster Grants the Club should initiate it.
We have the expertise to assist them to makeapplications. During the Covid disaster we had three
Clubs that were successful in getting Disaster Grants.
The appeal for assistance for Morocco. There are issues
with the Reserve Bank and there is so much red tape.
Instead, clubs should rather contribute to the RotaryInternational Fund which is on the RI website. It’s mucheasier and you know that it will be well controlled.
We should try to help all citizens in times of disaster.
We are well informed about disasters locally in theWestern Cape, but not so well informed about any inthe rural areas, Namibia and Angola. We rely on clubs
to initiate requests for assistance from our other clubs
or our neighbouring districts.

Have you thought of lobbying your local
hotels to remove single-use packaging forhygiene products?

The World Health Organisation estimatesthat poor air quality leads to more thanfour million premature deaths around theworld every year.

Renovations can be exciting, but they
can generate a huge amount of waste.
When tackling projects do you aim to
reduce waste, refurbish and recycle?

PUBLIC IMAGE
Is your website up to date?
Is the branding correct?
You don’t need to spend thousands on creating aclub website.

The essentials are:Who you are
What you doWhere?
When you meet and a reliable contact via acellphone or an email address (and makesure the contact person responds to any queries
timeously).
Correct and compliant branding is essential as it
identifies your club as being part of theInternational organisation that is Rotary.
Potential members need to see photos of clubmembers in action doing something whichshowcases what your club does. Appealing
photos attract attention and interest.
If you choose to havephotos of your club
Officers please ensure
this is updated annually.

Environment

ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENT“We carry out service projects that enhance economic andcommunity development and create opportunities for decent
and productive work for young and old. We also strengthen
local entrepreneurs and community leaders, particularly
women, in impoverished communities.”

Visit ROTARY.ORG for more information.

ANGOLAN CELEBRATORY DINNER
A celebratory dinner was held in Luanda tocommemorate the founding of Rotary inAngola on 23 September 1955.
Members from Luanda and Luanda Sulattended the event.

Rotary
ROTARY’S VISION STATEMENTTOGETHER WE SEE A WORLD
WHERE PEOPLE UNITE AND TAKEACTION TO CREATE LASTINGCHANGE ACROSS THE GLOBEIN OUR COMMUNITITES AND IN OURSELVESTAKE ACTION: www.rotary9350.co.za