DONAGHADEE ROTARY CLUB
LADIES NIGHT
Last week was Ladies Night at Donaghadee
Rotary Club. This event held at The Stables Groomsport was organized by
President Les Jones as a thank you evening for the member’s wives and partners
who had organized two fund raising events during the year. These were the Craft
Fair and the Wine and Cheese Lunch at Bow Bells. President Les welcomed
the ladies and Duggie Anderson and his wife Marion from Comber Rotary Club. The
President explained that the money raised by the ladies had been split between
REMIT and Comber Drugs Project. President Les in the absence of Old Bill Best the International Service Chairperson read out a report forwarded by Old Bill on Rotarians Eliminating Malaria in Tanzania. The report explained
how Malaria is a debilitating illness, which can lead to chronic anaemia, brain
and kidney damage especially amongst children and pregnant women. Malaria is difficult to
eradicate as the mosquitoes breed in swampy marshy areas of the tropics, and the
parasite is becoming resistant to the cheaper drugs. Without control Malaria can
have a dramatic impact on economic development.
Past RIBI President Dr. Keith Barnard-Jones in consultation with the Rotary Club of Arusha and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine are working together to help eliminate malaria in Tanzania by education and the provision of mosquito nets. Due to the outstanding success of the lunch at Bow Bells we as a club were able to forward £800+ to REMIT which will enable them to fund a 3-day training session for health workers in a local hospital Many thanks to all who
supported this event. Duggie Anderson then
described the work of The Comber Drug Awareness Project. He explained that it
was operated through The Ulster Community Hospitals Trust in Newtownards. He
stated that Comber Rotary Club set up the Drugs Awareness Group as a separate
entity for legal reasons. This empowered them to go out and raise funds from
both the public and private sectors. In 2000 they went for broke and rather than run one offs went for what was effectively a Rotary Project. In 2002 they had their first mobile classroom. The aim is to supplement, back up, and support the Personal Social Health Communication Curriculum in Primary Schools. Duggie then posed the question why Primary Schools? He answered by saying well this is where they can have an impact. If they went into Secondary Schools then peer pressure would have already started to work and the pupils would be subjected to lots of other alluring attractions. The project now has two
mobile classrooms covering North Down and Ards. Every primary school child has
had the opportunity to visit the unit. With the second unit they can now visit
Castlereagh Lisburn and Newcastle. 90% of funds are public funds 10%comes from the private sector. 10% of £110,000 per annum is quite a lot of money that is why all contributions are so welcome. Duggie then thanked the ladies for the donation of the cheque, which President Les presented to him. |
|
|
