ROTAR-CONNECT

SOS Haiti

2010-03-26T11:54:00.004+02:00

On 20^th February, The Rotaract Club of Maputo organized a football tournament whose purpose was to raise funds to assist the earthquake victims of Haiti. Around 3000 Rands was raised thanks to the 25 friends and 6 members that participated in the tournament and the companies that donated funds directly to the cause. The event was publicized in a local paper and 3 members of the club where invited to an 90 minute long televisioofficially donate the funds and taln program to k about Rotaract a week later..

Plant For The Planet

2010-03-26T10:47:00.007+02:00

Billion Tree Campaign

On Saturday the 6th of March 2010 the Billion Tree Planting Campaign took place at Dlangeni which is situated along the outskirts of Mbabane, the meeting place was Ensukumbili High School, unfortunately for us the school children could not participate in the event as they were preparing for their test week, the school did provide us with the required materials (shovels and pickaxes) so we were good to go.
The recent rains as precious as they were had managed to erode the Donga further this was not good news, we were now faced with the daunting task of offloading the trees into the Donga, the whole process had it’s comedic moments with members slipping and sliding but that’s the price we pay for helping the environment.
Members were divided into two groups the first group would assist with filling sacks with sand, this was done to help trap the soil when it rained and with the addition of the Gabion cages the trees would have the required soil for the roots to become more stable which would lead to the elimination of the crack caused by erosion, the second group planted the trees each member was tasked with planting at least five trees each, we had an assortment of trees mostly being indigenous and some Waterberry trees.
The trees and the sand bags were firmly in place we then had to go and plant more trees along the road side right next to the high school to our second tree planting site, this proved to be very difficult as the area was barren and the soil was hard, the hot sun wasn’t helping matters either, but we did manage to make a difference and we are now hoping that the local residents will be able to take care of the area by distancing their livestock long enough for our trees to grow.

Participants

The clubs should be applauded for their attendance as this years campaign was hugely supported even though some members were in the process of writing their final examinations they still found time to accompany us. The clubs that were present on the day and the number of their participating members were as follows:

Rotaract Club of Manzini: 5 members
Rotaract Club of Mbabane-Mbuluzi: 13 (incl. 5 Interact Club of St Marks)
Rotaract Club of Malkerns-Valley: 16 (incl. 10 Interact Club of St Christophers)
Rotaract Club of Uniswa: 16
Swaziland Environmental Authority: 10
Uniswa Geography & Environmental Planning: 22
Members of the local community:

The clubs managed to plant 1500 trees on the day, which meant that we had exceeded last years target by 500 trees which is a good achievement considering that it only took us one day as opposed to last years two day event.

Gabion cages

The cages will be constructed by Steel and Wire and should not take more than 7 to 10 working days; we have ordered 6 cages and are glad to say that Nedbank will be sponsoring us with regards to the cages, we hope that they will be present when we will be putting in the cages. The community is still sourcing the rocks needed to fill the cages, the proposed return date to Dlangeni is still not finalized but we are hoping that it’ll be soon.

The Nursery

The next step with regards to Rotaract environmental projects is the completion of the nursery in Manzini, clubs are urged to support and commit themselves to this project, the contact person is Cel’musa Dlamini from the Manzini club he can be contacted on the following number 6310251 or e-mail him at cd310251@hotmail.co.uk.

The Rotaract clubs of district 9250 in Swaziland would like to thank the SEA, Nedbank and Ensukumblili High School as well as all those who contributed to making this campaign possible, the work is not yet complete next year awaits us.

LET’S ALL MAKE IT WORTHWHILE.

Compiled by: Qiniso Sibiya

Blood Drive

2009-09-14T10:08:00.004+02:00

View: Photos

On 5^th September 09, 5 members of the Rotaract Club of Maputo went to the blood bank in the Central Hospital of Maputo to make their donation in celebration of the International Day of the Blood Donor which was on 29^th August. Ever with the small number of participants, the project was a success and was very well appreciated b the hospital staff.

RYLA 2009

2009-09-14T09:20:00.004+02:00

View: Photos

Wednesday, 26^th August 2009
The Rotaract and Interact clubs of Mbabane Mbuluzi, Manzini, UNISWA and Malkerns were set to depart at 12:30 pm but who were we kidding? We ended up leaving at 14:00 pm as some of us decided to take part in the find the missing passport trivia quiz show, where did I leave it?, what is the last thing you remember doing?, which is your favourite handbag ?, hmmm…oh! The suspense…will they get it right? Well an hour later they did, so with that bit of exciting drama behind us our adventurous journey began.
Today we told ourselves that nothing would spoil our little adventure and the excitement was etched across our faces just think about it three days of unwinding and not doing anything productive, so we thought… no sooner had we stopped grinning just about 100 meters across the border our first roadblock and to make things worse lunch time was over so this meant that the traffic police had replenished their lost energy and it was business as usual strictly by the book, so having graciously accepted our fine the wheels were once again set in motion.

Stop 1-Carolina
Our first stop was in Carolina and before the driver could even stop at the one of many four way stops the cries of springbok echoed inside the quantum, so by the time we arrived at the café thoughts of the memorable springbok were filling the atmosphere , we dashed inside the towards the deli section only to discover that turkey was being served on the menu on a Wednesday and springbok on the Thursday, so had we stuck to our original plan of leaving on Thursday we would have received our scrumptious grilled pork ribs.
The sun was slowly descending and with the darkness creeping in the deep anxiety started to take effect, are we there yet? How many more minutes? Little did we know that it would take us nine more hours to arrive at our destination.

The arrival
We arrived at about 23:00 pm and were kindly escorted to our wooden cabins only to discover that there were four beds and six of us per room, this only meant one thing we had to play the rank game a very simple and effective game, we had Interacters on the floor and Rotaracters in descending order president, vice etc, on the beds don’t you just love democracy. The good thing about arriving late in the evening is that nobody had a clue about how our surroundings looked like this only made us even more eager to welcome the following day with enthusiasm.

Thursday, 27^th August 2009
Day 1

We awoke to the site of a beautiful lush green forest, the birds were chirping, the sun was out with full force the day could only get better…so we thought. The day was supposed to begin with us receiving leadership training but to our surprise we were the only clubs that were present. The other clubs arrived late in the evening and to our surprise there was quite a large turnout.
We were told to take our eating utensils and head for the dinning area, little did we know that it would be a ten minute hike and we were going to do this for four days, all was not lost though after dinner we were split into groups and were told to come up with a group name, war cry, build a wheelbarrow and create a flag, now the flag together with the wheelbarrow were to be taken everywhere we went and it proved to be a daunting task. 23:00 pm the day was almost over we were told to return to our cabins but they had one more surprise for us we had to hand in all cell phones we were going to receive them on Sunday OMG!.

Friday 28^th August 2009
Day 2

Friday by no doubt was the best day apart from the bad overcast conditions which tried to dampen our day only to find that our spirits were up for the challenges of the day. The first session of the day began with being taught about the seven habits of highly effective people this was presented by Rudi our RYLA facilitator. The seven habits are:

Be Proactive

Begin with the End in Mind

Put First Things First

Think Win-Win

Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood

Synergize

Renewal

We were told to apply these habits throughout the entire camp and I must admit it was a bit tricky but not impossible. Our eight activities for the day were divided in half four on Friday and four on Saturday and each team got the opportunity to participate in all the tasks. The activities included:

Treasure hunt

Broken Squares

Build A Raft & Cross A Dam

Team Skies

Underground Maze

Piranha Crossing

3 Trees

Quiz

The biggest most exciting activity had to be the Potjie challenge whereby each team had to prepare a dish for the judges using their environment as a theme, teams were required to sleep outside for the entire night and avoid being kidnapped by the opposing teams.

Saturday, 29^th August 2009
Day 3

The last day of carrying flags and broken wheelbarrows, by this time our bodies were aching no thanks to the sleep depravation we endured throughout the night. The schedule for Saturday was more or less similar to Fridays schedule with the only difference being that it was our last day and we were expected to perform our very own RYLA theatre production. There are two things in life, SERIOUS, K.I.S.S (Knowing the task, Involving everyone, Setting an example, Supporting each other) these were some of the performances that stood out, all in all it was an enjoyable experience which was topped off with a late night disco ( lahlum’lendze).

Sunday, 30^th August 2009
Day 4

The sad goodbye, well it depends on how you look at it for some it was the start of a good friendship whilst others had, had enough of the RYLA experience. The journey home was long and frustrating at times but very memorable.

I would like to thank all the Rotary clubs who sponsored Rotaractors and Interactors, we hope next year the numbers will be tripled.

Mr. Qiniso Sibiya
Mbabane Mbuluzi Rotaract
Vice President

Maputo Special Meeting

2009-09-14T08:53:00.007+02:00

The Rotaract Club of Maputo recently held a special meeting, where club members brought guests (prospective members). The purpose of the meeting was to present on What is Rotaract? thus inviting those willing to join. The club also presented on its goals for the year and service projects. Also represented was the Sponsoring Rotary club which also had an opportunity to present to the audience What Is Rotary? and the goals for the New Generations for the year. 6 people were recruited on the day.

Pretoria East Update

2009-07-30T12:23:00.001+02:00

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

Sibebe Survivor

2009-07-28T11:38:00.013+02:00

On 26 July 2009, Rotaractors from the Manzini club joined thousands in the 6th Annual Sibebe Survivor Challenge organized by the Rotary Club of Mbabane-Mbuluzi. The event seeks to raise funds to finance the club's service projects. Last year over 1500 survived Sibebe and about E120,000.00 was raised.

Once again the challenge was to walk a distance of about 6km to the top of Sibebe and down again. Sibebe is amongst the world's largest single granite outcrop.

The club took part in the event and supported in 3 levels:
1. Corporate Sponsor: 1-Team of 6 members @ R1000.00
2. Individual @ R100.00 each.
3. Service: helping carry out a few errands
In total about 12 members took part in the event and it turned out to be an exhaustive, life threathening and exciting day...where we lead, connected and served our Rotary Community.

Also represented was Uniswa Rotaract club who were represented by their president and of course the host clubs' new generation Mbabane-Mbuluzi Rotaract who helped with the event's protocol procedures as of the previous day.

Whilst there was a lot of moaning & groaning as many struggled to get to the top of Sibebe, our Team pressed on for the ultimate prize. It was a defining day in many a lives who took part in the event as it turned out to be a test of character. A few almost turned back(if none did) as they grew tired of the journey that seemed to lead nowhere.

Thumbs up to the Rotaractors who woke up early Sunday morning to take part in the event, help with protocol and most imporatantly surviving the challenge. It was good to see, members of the sponsor club (Manzini Rotary Club) in the event as well. We did represent.....

We were definitely up for the challenge

Literacy

2009-07-27T18:51:00.007+02:00

On 22 July 09, the Manzini Rotaract Club, Inkhanyeti & St Theresa’s Interact clubs turned up in full force at 9am to sort books into categories, stamp and re-box them. These books were donated to Manzini Rotary Club. There were over 40 youth present!
All mixed up and loose books were sorted, stamped & packed. The remainder of the books were already sorted into categories in their boxes and were left in the container. We only managed to stamp about a fifth of the books and also managed to create an isle down the centre of the container (but only half way). So there is now access to the middle of the container books.

The sheer number of books and size of the container is so large that there was no way we could have been able to create an isle the entire length of the container and our stamp ran out of ink about a 5th of the way through stamping! Our estimation of how many books there are, based
on an average number per square metre is between 10 – 20 thousand books.

The two schools arrived at the distribution at 4pm. The head master & head mistress of Evening Bearing & Songweni Primary schools, respectively, were present from Nhlangano. We had sorted out 3 boxes of primary school books for each of them (text books, novels etc) and asked them to take a walk through the container to choose some boxes for themselves. As you can see from the pictures attached they went away with 2 bakkies full (approx. 300 – 400 books each) and were extremely happy & grateful. They are in the process of setting up libraries in their schools (with the help of Cleo Bonnie, the Reading ambassador of Malawi / “Africa”) and these books are to go in the libraries for maximum use by all students.

Cleo Bonnie will be sending the pictures & an article to the papers to print, not sure which day, so look out for it.

As per Rtn Alma, there will be another distribution for another 4 - 5 schools and the National Library soon.

Yours In Rotary

PP Cassandra Bastock
Treasurer
Rotary Club of Manzini

Celebrating the World Rotaract Week

2009-03-23T21:26:00.009+02:00

In order to celebrate the World Rotaract Week, Rotaract Club de Maputo conducted a group of activities pre defined by the RI for this week.

The first activity was to present about Rotaract to a Rotary Club that does not have a Rotaract Club; therefore on the 11th of March, P Sária, Lineia & DRR/PP Eurídice, went to Rotary Club da Matola, were they were well received by Rotarians. The meeting was so fruitfull that on the 7th of April a presentation will be made for prospective members to re-create Rotaract Club da Matola.

Rotaractors with Rotarians from Matola

The second activity was to assist the sponsor Rotary Club meeting. On 12th of March, Rotaract Club de Maputo visited Rotary Club de Maputo

Rotaractors at Rotary Club de Maputo meeting

Also to celebrate the week, on the 13th of March, DRR Eurídice and P Sária, went to a Radio Station, one of the biggest stations in the Country, Rádio Cidade (part of the National Radio), for an interview to explain about Rotaract on the District as well about Rotaract Club de Maputo

The third activity was to receive Rotarians from the sponsor club on their meeting. It was success since we had the honour to recieve PDG Maria Luísa, P Ian, IPP Infante, PE Felix, PP Nhancale & Rtn Ana Prescila.

Rotary Club de Maputo @ Rotaract Club de Maputo meeting on 13th of March

The final activity was to conduct a project with the presence of Rotarians, and this was made on the 14th of March in two orphanages, Casa da Alegria & Orfanato Menino de Jesus da Manhiça (80 Km away from Maputo City). This activity also had the presence of Rotarians, PDG Maria Luísa & PP Nhancale.
Rotaractors donated 200 school bags, 500 school books, 200 pencils, pens and rubbers.

Rotarctors & Children from Orphanage Menino Jesus da Manhiça

VP Hermenegildo, Óscar, P Sária & Durão

Rotaract (Swaziland) in Plant for The Planet

2009-03-05T11:04:00.011+02:00

The Rotaract clubs in Swaziland, in partnership with the Swaziland Environment Authority (SEA), and NEDBANK Swaziland, participated in the planting of over 1000 trees at Ezulwini area.

The exercise is part of the global initiative by United Nations Environment Programme, which encourages all sectors of society to engage in tree planting activities in a bid to save our planet from the environmental crisis.

In an effort to create awareness on the importance of land rehabilitation, enhancing biodiversity resources and at the same time address erratic climatic changes, the Rotaract clubs in Swaziland yielded to the call to plant trees (indigenous) which will also help address the issue of soil erosion and land degradation.

The Billion Tree Campaign - Plant for The Planet is Rotaract's D9250 project which was proposed to clubs by the DRR, Euridice Vicente in a meeting held in September in Maputo, Mozambique. All clubs present agreed to be part of this global initiative.

The project was launched officially on 28th February 2009 at Ezulwini, at the Ezulwini community school. Present during the official launch was the Minister of Tourism and Environment, Mr Macford Nsibandze. The trees were planted over two Saturdays at the same area.

Trees planted were provided by Mr. Msibi, who also briefly described the types of trees and the reasons why the selection was appropriate for the planting environment.

DRR Visits

2009-02-12T20:26:00.006+02:00

This year I had the lucky to visit three clubs in two different countries, South Africa and Swaziland.

The first club I visited was our baby club, Pretoria East (@ RSA) and it was so good to meet them for the first time. Pass from email to real faces and voices. They were so interested and learn more about Rotaract in generally and also about our District clubs activities and ways to work. And for you that know me, you can imagin my happiness in talk about something that I love and live for the past 7 years. Sadly I only met 2 members, Shaline (VP) and Steven (Secretary); but next time I go there, I will meet all members...

From left to right: Shaline, Steven & Euridice (DRR)

My second trip was to Swaziland, where I met two Rotaract Clubs, Melkerns & Manzini. It very nice to see you all again and here about your projects. All Swaziland clubs are working thogeter on our District Project - Plant Trees for the Planet. They are really engaged with UNEP, supporting the Billion Tree Campaign, which is very good, because more people will know about Rotaract and a mark will be stronlgy printed in Swaziland.

Rotaractors from Swaziland and the DRR

Manzini on that same day was going to induct new members, but sadly I wasn't able to stay overnight and attend their dinner, BUT a did a promisse that I really intend to keep.. Participate on clubs anniversary next year... they are the oldes club on our District 9250...Unfortunately I did not meet any member from UNISWA and Mbabane Mbuluzi (other new club).

See you all soon

Rotary Pretoria East Media Event, 26 January 2008

2009-01-31T15:30:00.001+02:00

The Rotaract Club of Pretoria East had the honour of handing over a cheque for the amount of R32 000 to Child Welfare Tshwane at the the club's sponsoring Rotary Club's media event held on 26 January.

The funds were raised at a gala dinner and fundraising event on 18 October last year. The glamarous event was held at the five-star and award-winning Geet Indian Restaurant and was attended by, among others, the Indian High Commissioner to South Africa, HE Mr Bhatia and his wife, as well as the South African Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.

In attendance was the Rotaract Pretoria East President, Marius Redelinghuys, and Secretary, Mr Steven Hussey. The cheque was handed over by President Marius to Child Welfare representative Ms Marinda Gerber (see photo).

From Left to Right: Ms Marinda Gerber (Child Welfare Tshwane), President Marius Redelinghuys (Rotaract Pretoria East)

From Left To Right:

Eben Brummer (Rotary Pretoria East, Public Relations); President of Rotary Kiev Central, Bulgaria; President Karin (Rotary Pretoria East); President Marius (Rotaract Pretoria East)

Contributed and Compiled by Marius Redelinghuys (mariusredelinghuys@gmail.com)