Active Haenertsburg Rotary leads the way
In the past two years the 23 club members of the Rotary Club of Haenertsburg have raised R1,8 million and have donated significant amounts of money to local humanitarian causes in support of the community.
President of the club, Deneys Barry, says that the success of the club is embedded in the diversity of skills, talent and ideas which the members of the club bring to the table “to improve the human condition”.
Rotary Haenertsburg falls under the district known as Rotary 9400 which represents 1200 members from the northern part of South Africa; from Botswana, Swaziland and Southern Mozambique.
Rotary is considered as a reliable network to channel funds for humanitarian work from institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Due to the contribution of Rotary clubs within the World Health Organization’s infrastructure and with the support of the Gates Foundation, Africa was recently declared polio free,” Barry explained. He says Rotary also operates a fund, the Rotary Foundation, which will match monies raised by Rotary clubs should the merits of the proposed project be considered sustainable.
“If a project falls within one of the focus areas of the Rotary Foundation a global grant may be awarded. Our club has been awarded several grants for the Thusanang early childhood development (ECD) project that has been running for a few decades in our area. One of the Rotary objectives is Basic Education and Literacy and the Thusanang project contributes directly to this objective,” Barry said.
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The club has also built three early childhood centres; projects where the members were physically involved in the construction.
A global grant has also been applied for to fund a project called Limpopo FemKit that will provide washable sanitary towels to school girls and rural women. In this project Rotary Haenertsburg, in partnership with Blessman International, intend to supply materials and equipment and to train a number of seamstresses to make and supply the sanitary towel kits.
Apart from cutting and sewing skills, the course will include entrepreneurial training to equip the seamstresses to market their products.
“Since obtaining its charter from Rotary International in February 2001, Rotary Haenertsburg has considered the preservation of the planet earth an important area to focus its attention. In the early years Rotary Haenertsburg supported the adoption of the WESSA Eco-Schools by our Rotary district and the club assisted some of the schools by sponsoring projects to plant trees, control soil erosion and the use solar ovens as alternate sources of energy,” said Barry.
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“In addition Rotary Haenertsburg has been involved with the ‘Friends of the Grasslands of Haenertsburg’ (FROGH) working to preserve the natural grasslands of the area. The environmental objective has been considered very important to us.”
In June this year the Rotary Foundation Trustees unanimously approved the addition of a new focus area: “Supporting the Environment”.
“The members of our club choose to believe that, by convincing their district in 2017 to propose to Rotary International that the additional goal of “Preserving Planet Earth for future generations” should be formally added the object of Rotary, they played a small part in the adoption of this important focus area.
Two of Rotary’s major annual fundraisers are the Ebenezer Mile and the Iron Crown Trail Run. Due to the lockdown restrictions these events could not be staged this year. It is hoped that a third major fundraiser – the Magoebaskloof Plunge Marathon, a joint venture by Rotary Haenertsburg’s Millennial Satellite Club and Rotary E-Club’s Satellite Baobab, will be presented on 21 November 2020.
Residents who can identify with the work which Rotary Haenertsburg does within an atmosphere of congenial fellowship, should consider joining the club. Contact Rotarian Lana Quinn on 083 628 6643.
