The meeting started at 7.39 am;
Members Present:
A mere ten members were present but those that were not present all had good excuses.
President:
The President presented some pictures of Gizmo's garden showing the wonderful design concept that has been prepared by Amanda Warren. This shows more path and less garden, and underplanting of the fruit trees - altogether, a work of art. Was it a statue, or a garden gnome? Neither! It was a photo of Don Cowie - striking a pose.
Catnip wine from Motley Estate in Huntley is the latest buzz. A tasting might be in the offing.
Sargeant Colleen:
David Seymour is off to the Oxford Union Debate. The moot is a bit of a challenge to understand - in essence, if you are a citizen of a country, and your ancestors emigrated to that land, is it legal to stop anyone else from coming to join you? Nobody was able to say exactly what David Lange's famous uranium quote was.
Someone has been vandalising women's sports biographies in bookshops! Wendy's staff ordered 100 copies of Jazz Cinder's hagiography - who is the boss here? Nobody knew the answers to the Daily Quiz. Fines and more fines!
We learned that slow old men use Hurry Canes.
Three-Minute Speaker:
Don had spent the weekend downtown at the Readers and Writers festival, and had good news to report. The streets of downtown in the City are finally starting to show the promise and beauty of their design.
The new railway station is looking great and Federal Street is a gem. Christopher, a person of our acquaintance, was busy corralling bicycles in a user-friendly manner - fetch out the lycras!
A seat near the kitchen in Al Brown's establishment is worth it for the entertainment.
Main Speaker:
Sharon Crean is Beyond Water. She joined us on Zoom from Kenya. (Hubby Pete was crook unfortunately!)
They came to Kenya in 2007 and have been running Beyond Water for 17 years. In that time it has grown significantly with activity in many other countries.
The Ngoswani Health Centre is the base for work throughout Africa. Some 2.4 billion people worldwide lack basic hygene facilities and drinking water, so the task is huge.
They started with deep wells powered by solar panels. This is very expensive but the result is abundant supply for the health centre, with the surplus available for the primary school. Out with the outhouse and in with the clean convenience.
The "model" is being replicated on a broad scale.
The Girl Project provides leadership and mentoring training for young women. The aim is to develop their confidence to pursue higher education and other life ambitions such as leadership roles and business The support comes from many areas, both financial and in-kind, such as the bra-man from Morrinsville and the Ausie laptop supplier. Creative means have been used to raise the profile and funds.
There are many options for the Club to become involved. The President noted that this was a topic for the wider group of clubs - watch this space.
A truly inspirational project and an uplifting discussion. Sharon was warmly thanked for this.
A final note from the President - Rotary Means Business is now underway. We await the outcome with great interest.
The meeting closed at 8.30 am.
