20th April 2012

CREWKERNE: Students share South African experience with Rotary Club

TWO students from the Richard Huish College in Taunton gave a presentation on their Outposts exhibition to South Africa for the Rotary Club of Crewkerne.

Kirstie Bailey, from Crewkerne, and Daisy King, from Winsham, first visited the Rotarians before their trip to speak about their fundraising efforts, which the club donated to.

The girls returned for a special evening meeting held at the Henhayes Centre, also attended by members of the Crewkerne District Rotary Club, where they gave a video presentation showing what they got up to on their travels.

Kirstie and Daisy spent three weeks in South Africa, travelling to Johannesburg and visiting the Umkhumbi Game reserve where the learned about local wildlife for their safety whilst in the bush. They had biology lessons, which included the dissection of large animals and information on how to identify animal dung. A visit to a crocodile sanctuary taught the girls about poaching and they learned a lot about the conservation work being done throughout the reserve.

The girls also took part in snorkling and learning to spear fish with the locals, as well as a tour of Rorkes Drift and white water rafting.

Part of their trip included working at the Zulufadder project, which helps the orphans of the AIDS epidemic. They painted the walls of a school and had taken clothing to give to the children.

The second part of the evening meeting was devoted to talking about the Rotary Group Study Exchange programme, a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for business people and professionals between the ages of 25 and 40 who are in the early stages of their careers.

The programme provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country’s culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas.

Rotarian Peter Hardwill had nominated one of his employees, Sebastian Cope, as their candidate for the year, who had come to his company on work experience and became a draughtsman. He will be going to Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia to learn about their engineering and construction practises and develop personal and professional relationships. Mr Cope has himself been a charity fundraiser for several years and the club thought him well deserving of their support.

PICTURE: SUPPORT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE - Rotary GSE candidate Sebastian Cope, GSE team leader Bob Nation, Kirstie Bailey and Daisy King, Rotary Club of Crewkerne President David Welch and international committee chairman Peter Woodward

CREWKERNE: Students share South African experience with Rotary Club

Comments

Add new comment