Rotarians focus on causes both local and international
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
President Kay Diack rattled through the regular programme of the Zoom meeting of the Rotary Club of Inverurie rather smartly because she had a full programme to get through welcoming to 28 attendees.
After apologies for absence, best wishes to fellow members currently on the sick list, upcoming events such as the first round of the Gavel Competition involving a number of local clubs she then passed over to secretary Dorothy Lamb for reminders, correspondence and her comments on the main topics discussed at the weekly District meeting held the night before, also on Zoom.
As member Jim McColl said: "That happened to be how clubs share information, a reminder, perhaps that there is a network of clubs across the land battling to get their jobs done and objectives met in the face of Clovid-19.
"Kay rounded off her remarks with a good news story – the opening of the new Post Office branch at Highclere with a nod to birthday boy George Ross.
"In turn, each of the committee convenors then reported on their schedules.
"The really interesting debates were centred on three topics - children with learning difficulties; child carers and, support for homeless families. "These are early days to be able to flag up specific activities but it does indicate that club members have not taken their eyes off the ball, regardless of the present pandemic nor will they neglect on-going projects with schools and other local organisations.
"We have a busy schedule to tackle – so what?
"That is part of the real challenge facing Rotary and other organisations with strong charitable objectives."
Members also recently had an update on the Monde Primary School project, situated some 75km north of Uganda’s capital Kampala.
In 2017 the group funded the refurbishment of three classrooms and the building of a new kitchen and accommodation for three members of staff. Once completed, the project immediately benefited the children and teaching staff but has now become a fantastic resource for the community during the present pandemic.
The school is in lockdown because of the pandemic but because the teachers live on site, they have been able to continue with the education of the children by providing homework – a simple thing, but would not have been possible without the accommodation block because the teachers would be dispersed without resources.
Keeping schools open during the pandemic is a theme Rotary are very familiar with here in UK and it is no less important in an impoverished subsistence farming area of Africa.
The refurbished classrooms have also been brought into service as a hub for the local civic services to provide education on Covid-19 protection and community safety.
The club has also started the annual Rotary Shoebox appeal and individual boxes can be obtained by contacting members through their Facebook page.
