Service above Self.
Join us for a meeting – 18h30 on Wednesdays at G & F Restaurant, Shortmarket Street – and find out how you can ‘fit into the bigger picture’ to help make a change in your community
Very Active Rotary Club of Stanford, District 9350
Some of the Rotary projects in our Village
Community care
Consol Solar Jar project - we were first introduced to the Consol Solar Jar in February of this year. The Club realised the potential and benefits of this product to the less fortunate and decided to take on this as a project, which we lauched at our Earth Hour Celebrations on the Market Square. We have had jars go as far as Kenya, India, France, Italy and most recently Uganda and Knoxville through our sister club Knoxville Rotary and Webb Rotary Interact that were bought in support of our club and the project. The aim of our project is to bring light and safefy to the less fortunate. We purchase Solar Jars from Consol Glass, sell them at a "profit" to the more affluent supporters of Rotary in order to subsidise the less fortunate with a Solar Light at an affordable price. There has been overwhelming support for our project.<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-ZA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]-->
Soup kitchens – we are supporting 3 soup kitchens that feed between 175 – 250 people and are looking into supporting 2 more – one in Thembelihle specifically geared towards the disabled and elderly who are home-bound, and the other at Die Kop informal settlement.
Emergency care to the needy – 4 shacks burnt down this year and Rotary is at the forefront of providing emergency articles such as clothing, blankets, household goods and food packs to those who have lost everything. We also heard about a very sick mother at Die Kop with 3 children – she is so ill that her 9-year-old daughter became the primary caregiver. They were also helped with mainly food, clothing and blankets.
Winter Warmth – blankets were handed out to children, the elderly and disabled persons attending a workshop in Stanford. As you all know, this winter has been the wettest for many years and so the calls for assistance have increased, but thanks to the support we received from the Stanford Community though donations and “in-kind gifts”, we were able to assist where genuine needs existed.
Education
School Starter packs – these are provided to all disadvantaged school starters in Okkie Smuts, Die Bron and St Paul’s schools.
Assisting disadvantaged children to widen their world through travel – 12 children from the Okkie Smuts Koshuis were supported to visit Upington, where they were hosted by the Upington Rotary Club and had a wonderful holiday in the area – a visit to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park was a highlight. In September , a group of 12 Upington children came to visit Stanford and surrounding area – this holiday-of-a-lifetime for children who had never seen the sea was sponsored by Upington Rotary Club, Gordon’s Bay Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Stanford.
Specialised education for disabled children – little Abigail has been doing very well in Worcester and we are waiting for her report card to share it with all the people who so kindly donated towards her school fees. Together with the Stanford Stumble, Rotary was able to raise sufficient funds to pay for the first two years of Abigail’s schooling. The Stanford Stumble took place on 24 November albeit the terrible weather and all funds raised will go to the Specialised Education Fund / support for disabled children.
Expansion of after school care facilities – a grant has been received from Knoxville Rotary to expand after school care facilities in the village so that more children can benefit from supervised after care and thus be kept off the streets. More information about this will follow as soon as the funds have been made available.
The need for a youth centre in the village which can cater for all the young people in the village is critical. A number of professionals (such as therapists, artists, business mentors, computer specialists, etc ) have already been lined up to give of their time to assist at such an institution. It was hoped that a youth centre could be housed in the area originally earmarked for the library at the community hall (Stoor) but this was declined by the ward committee and Overstrand. All the committees who sit on the Health & Welfare Forum had identified a youth centre as THE most critical need in the village and it will therefore remain a goal to strive for.
The Stanford Creative Works project promotes a nurturing, safe and stimulating environment for children and young adults to explore their creative potential – this is a project launched by Regina Bronner and already there are around 60 children attending the sessions. Regina will now start a second session so that two age groups can be provided with a session of their peers. Rotary is proud to announce that we support Stanford Creative Works as a life changing project. Each and every member of this community can help by collecting everyday items such as shells, milk bottle lids, feathers, buttons, magazines, brown paper bags, etc (full list available from any Rotarian) to enable children to create their own artworks. As this is an art related project, the proceeds from the sale of Gay Du Toit’s pottery will be used to provide some of the art materials used – Thank you again Pierre for your kind gesture.
Self Empowerment Projects
WoolWorx – our main self-empowerment project in 2012 was to teach some of the women living at Die Kop to knit and crochet. We are proud to say that they have completed a number of garments, mainly scarves, hats and some children’s jumpers. During the process of teaching them to knit, Lana and Clare found that there were two ladies who could barely see what they were doing – Rotary was able to arrange for their eyes to be tested in Hermanus and contributed towards the cost of reading specs for them. One of these ladies has now been able to find employment, quite possibly because she can now see much better than before
