Pretoria East Update

It is common knowledge that community service is not a walk in the park, and the past month was no exception for Rotaract Pretoria East. For a start, our Vice President Shalini Sivlal (a charter member) resigned unexpectedly due to career obligations, and a week later Treasurer Deepti Bhura followed suit. Fortunately, we have managed to fill both positions, with Lynnette Jones now assuming the office of Vice President and Phillip Kaliati, a new member, that of Treasurer. It is also with great pride that we welcome another new member to our club, Marcel de Vries, and a considerable number of guests have attended our meetings recently.
A second challenge to our club’s optimism came on Saturday the 4th of July, where Rotaract was to assist in a project by SOAPkidz to help clear alien vegetation in the Tonquani gorge of the Magaliesberg mountain range. After travelling a good 120 km to Barnardsvlei, and getting quite lost on the dirt roads following directions that were perhaps as old as the rocks themselves, the club President and Secretary eventually reached the destination only to find a deserted parking area. Unfortunately, communication with the SOAPkidz organizer was not possible, and the two members sat waiting. It emerged after the incident that our members landed up on the wrong farm (although strikingly similar to the description!), and that cellphone reception was severely limited on the hike that SOAPkidz had already embarked on. Nonetheless, Steven and Marius took this “bad luck” in their stride and decided to enjoy their own hike at Mountain Sanctuary Park close by, and still wish to join SOAPkidz on future endeavours.

One of our club’s goals is to create a balance between “service above self” and self-actualization of our members. To this end our club was fortunate enough to be addressed by Basil Muller, CEO of the successful Hutech International group. We found this down-to-earth man to have a versatile and knowledgeable approach to career orientation for all fields, and provided useful guidance in the interesting and candid group discussions that proceeded during the session. We are most thankful to Basil for his kind mentorship, and hope to get involved in his outreach work in the near future.

Rotaract Pretoria East continues to be as involved in various activities and community projects as possible. We are assisting as best we can in the selling of tickets for the Navi Redd/Rotary Pretoria East fundraiser, which is proving to be more challenging than anticipated. Our club has also started a small club newsletter, The Concero, which is compiled by Michelle Joubert monthly. We continue to strive towards fulfilling our “Rotary in Action” obligations and hope we’ll continue to make our sponsoring club proud.

Submitted by: Steven Hussey