Tracey Sawyer is one of those rare committed people(MC Trevor Jones aptly used the term “saint” after hearing her story) who have chosen a life style route totally geared to helping others rather than continue on with her established and well paid comfortable professional career.
Tracey founded Testigo Africa, website www.testigoafrica.org. Its stated aim is to help indigenous communities..the Maasai of Tanzania …”contribute to the social and economic fabric of Africa on an equal footing with everyone else”.
Her address told of the life and hardship of the Maasai people. Historically the men are semi-nomadic herd keepers continually on the move to locate feed albeit in a broadly defined region. Often their wives and children remain village bound in the district, that being a semi arid part of North East Africa near the Tanzania-Kenya border. It has a wet dry seasonal climate but often with sustained drought periods . Typically there would prevailing mud for the shorter wet season but a dust plain with scattered small trees in the dry. Tracey’s first direct experience started in the Longido village near Mount Mongido and we were shown several photos of the people, and their simple but apparently happy lifestyle.
Tracey and her organisation strive to harness the Maasai (really the women) manpower to establish vegetable plots and water management processes by specific agricultural training and fund raising in support of them. Moreover it has sought to develop a self generating aspect. In the past few years their success has been remarkable on all fronts , yet of course fund limits determine the extent to which tangible water storage equipment can be proliferated . A low tech plastic based mini household dam might cost as little as $400 for instance.
Extensive images of broad vegetable gardens and singular home key-hole gardens demonstrated how the women, there was only one man in about 100+ trained, had gained from this project. Now far less nomadic they had a base from which to produce and trade vegetables. Testigo’s initiative had spread to adjacent villages with the original trainees becoming trainers in their own right . It was not uncommon for individuals and Testigo team members to travel 30 miles to get involved.
As with the westernisation of any indigenous culture there is always the issue of managing change, but one noted positive was the improved health of the impacted Maasai from a better and more stable food source.
There are always challenges, from water scarcity, transportation needs and fund limits but Testigo has ongoing near term goals to increase the number of trainers, achieve a 100 new household dams and purchase an improved 4WD vehicle.
So interested was the audience that many stayed on to view the Maasai produced video on the project—it can be seen on Testigo’s web site.
Richard Bainbridge was an eccentric; an intellectual; with a sardonic wit. He joined Rotary Hawthorn in 1981, and served as our President in 1997-98. And, sadly, he died a few days ago after a long and terrible illness.
The recent passing of past member and President (97-98) Richard Bainbridge reminded me of one of his notable legacies.
Many would not be aware but the “Seekers” Concert was largely allocated to Rotary 9800 to raise funds to establish, Australians Against Child Abuse, in 1992. Richard took on the job of promoting it to our District, allocating the tickets, receiving the funds, balancing the Bank account and smoothing complaints etc. We sold over 2400 tickets, raising in excess of $100,000 NETT.
AACA never looked back and today is “The Australian Children’s Foundation” the Nation's leading organization for Child Protection.
David and Libby Owen are going on holiday for a few weeks. So, I'm the new, temporary editor of this bulletin.
I used to do this job years ago, and I recall it as fun - but frustrating with making our ClubRunner program do what I want it to do. Seems as if not much has changed.
Please let me know how I could lift my game. Please be patient!
The Shadow hears that one of Anne Scott’s teenage granddaughters has just become the Victorian junior weight lifting champion in her class. Apparently she weighs 60kg and can lift 70kgs. Anne seems quietly proud but bemused at this new accolade to the Scott clan.
The Shadow likes the picture shows that we now have during the early parts of some of our meetings. The picture changes so relatively rapidly that the viewer typically has not quite enough time to absorb all the content! For many pictures it’s like a mental alertness test – challenging but fun.
Skiing pictures from HansCarlborg’sMember Behind the Badge talk last week caused TheShadow to ruminate: how many active skiers do we still have in the club? Does BillTroedel still slide on Mary’s Slide at Mount Hotham? Does LawrenceReddaway still speed down Little Buller Spur? Does HansCarlborg still glide along on his cross country skis? Are there any otherskiers in our midst?
This week, plaudits to Anne Scott for recruiting lots of visitors: husband Ken, daughter Emma Plowright, and friend Margaret Fitchett.
Remember Geoff Wright collates attendance information and he needs to be told of "make up " events which we attend.
Tell Lawrence Reddaway by Friday noon of any expected absence from lunch on Tuesday. Late or non apologies can raise our catering costs. Also, please alert him to any attending guests so that he can include them in his estimate for the Kooyong caterers, and prepare name tags.
