District Convention in Orangeville
Posted by Peter Stam
This years District convention was at Orangeville and started Friday eve. at 5-7 P.M. with the Meet and Greet session at the Best Western after which District Governor Dave and the R.I. rep.(Dave's brother inlaw) welcomed everyone.
At 7 P.M. the visiting Rotarians that signed-up for the Home Hosting, left to their Hosts for the evening meal and fellowship.
I must say, it was a great evening, our hosting family Graham and Fiona Ferguson welcomed Tim and me in their home together with 4 more Rotarians with a refreshment and goodies and after we had such a good meal, we could not have been treated better at the best restaurant.
We left at 10.30 P.M. and visited a hospitality room at the hotel for a while, which was hosted by the Orangeville and area clubs.
The next morning we went to the Fairgrounds for breakfast.
Attending Rotarians from our club were: Michael, Norm, Jantine, Flor, Tim, Doug and me.
The first speaker was with Dignitas/ Doctors without borders and spoke about the bad situation in Africa. Especialy in Malawi which is one of the poorest Countries there and had one of the highest ratio of HIV/Aids positive people.
A very big concern is that so many health-care people die that they don't have enough nurses and also the young people are dying and the parents.
That leaves an age group of people from 15 to 25 years old to eventualy run the country.
You can click on this link or past it into your browser to learn more about Dignitas.
www.dignitasinternational.org
The situation there is much worse as we can imagen.
At 7 P.M. the visiting Rotarians that signed-up for the Home Hosting, left to their Hosts for the evening meal and fellowship.
I must say, it was a great evening, our hosting family Graham and Fiona Ferguson welcomed Tim and me in their home together with 4 more Rotarians with a refreshment and goodies and after we had such a good meal, we could not have been treated better at the best restaurant.
We left at 10.30 P.M. and visited a hospitality room at the hotel for a while, which was hosted by the Orangeville and area clubs.
The next morning we went to the Fairgrounds for breakfast.
Attending Rotarians from our club were: Michael, Norm, Jantine, Flor, Tim, Doug and me.
The first speaker was with Dignitas/ Doctors without borders and spoke about the bad situation in Africa. Especialy in Malawi which is one of the poorest Countries there and had one of the highest ratio of HIV/Aids positive people.
A very big concern is that so many health-care people die that they don't have enough nurses and also the young people are dying and the parents.
That leaves an age group of people from 15 to 25 years old to eventualy run the country.
You can click on this link or past it into your browser to learn more about Dignitas.
www.dignitasinternational.org
The situation there is much worse as we can imagen.
The next session was a World Community Service Panel which presented some of the projects going on world wide, like the wheelchair project in Mexico and school projects in Africa.
Also the shoebox program that is continuing in Mexico.
The afternoon started with a presentation from the Current Group Study Exchange (GSE)which are from South Africa, very interesting.
After the coffee Ron Denham presented the water problems that some of the third world countries have.
Please paste the address below into your browser for his presentation.
http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/7080//html/26002/D-7080%20Oct%2007.ppt
After the speakers there was a cocktail reception, a choir singing and the banquet as a closing of the day, which finished around 9 P.M.
There were also many booths with different projects which some of our people can speak about in our meetings.
Also the shoebox program that is continuing in Mexico.
The afternoon started with a presentation from the Current Group Study Exchange (GSE)which are from South Africa, very interesting.
After the coffee Ron Denham presented the water problems that some of the third world countries have.
Please paste the address below into your browser for his presentation.
http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/7080//html/26002/D-7080%20Oct%2007.ppt
After the speakers there was a cocktail reception, a choir singing and the banquet as a closing of the day, which finished around 9 P.M.
There were also many booths with different projects which some of our people can speak about in our meetings.