Berrima Marketplace Playground Upgrade
I made a brief presentation at the Council Meeting this week (24th July) in support of the Draft Master Plan for the Marketplace. The Plan was approved by Council with many positive comments about the project and Rotary’s involvement. However, because of the fact that we will be removing a couple of (insignificant) trees, and in light of the heritage sensitivity, the WSC Planning Department has insisted that a DA be obtained before starting work. This suggests that another couple of frustrating months will go by before a sod is turned.
Wingecarribee Vocal Muster
At the Changeover, Richard Lane kindly fought off the after-effects of the ‘flu to sing the National Anthem for us. This also gave him the opportunity to promote the big Awards Night coming up on the 27th of July at Gibraltar Hotel, Bowral. Tickets are $60 each, but he has arranged a special discount for RCBD members, family and friends if we can put a table or two together for the night. A request for attendees has been circulated but we are still looking for a few more to make up a table. A reminder has recently been sent out.
SHBG Kite Flying Workshop
International
This week we report on the outcomes of some of our aid shipments. MAFO client African Bush Camps Foundation reports that goods from the two containers shipped recently to Zimbabwe and Zambia are now being distributed. The brand new Maunga Health Centre near Livingstone will be fitted-out and equipped with the contents of the Zambia container, once the building is completed by ABCF volunteers. The Centre will then be handed over to the Zambian Government to operate.
The ABCF Board inspects the nearly completed health centre at Maunga Village, Zambia.
And in Democratic Republic of Congo, 150 pairs of eye glasses purchased with a Pink Umbrella Foundation grant and air-freighted to DRC as a RAWCS project have been distributed to residents of the remote Lotumbe village, greatly improving the lives of those who were suffering from impaired vision. Lotumbe can only be reached by canoe, with a trip to the provincial capital taking several days. Poor vision and other health problems seriously affect the mobility of the villagers in an environment where self-reliance is necessary for survival.
Public transport to Lotumbe on the Congo River.
Not that we were trying, but MAFO seems to be heading towards a new record for aid shipments within a given period. Just three weeks into the new Rotary year and five separate projects are underway. Hospitals and medical institutions in Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands (2) and Kenya will be the recipients. And as of today, 25 July, date we have received two new orders for air freight shipments, one from a Swiss supplier of water treatment equipment that serves the Asia-Pacific region, and one from Rotary’s own Lucy Hobgood-Brown for emergency medicine skills training equipment to her beloved Democratic Republic of Congo. During the same period we hope to add a third air freight shipment, that of Grant Hannaford’s optical lenses to Nepal.