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News and events

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Fashion show Family meeting Blood Pressure Day
Eluxolweni shelter

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Fashion show



The fashion show was held on 8th October, as a joint event with Inner Wheel. UTV personality Pamela Ballentine hosted the show, and clothes were supplied by Kasu and McQuillan's Menswear of Portadown. The male models were members of Portadown Football Club, although President Kevin took to the catwalk!

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Family meting



There was a good turnout of members and their families - of all ages - at a special evening meeting on 29th September, designed to let family members know more about what Rotary was about. After greetings and business, everyone was entertained by balloon modellers the Twistin Twins

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Blood Pressure Day

The Blood Pressure Check day took place on 5 April, with Clubs throughout the British Isles being involved. In Portadown, testing took place at the High Street Mall shopping centre, with a rota of medically-qualified testers (Rotarian and non-Rotarian) and Club members taking part throughout the day. In total, 278 people were tested.

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Eluxolweni shelter

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Alison Turner, spoke to the Club in July on her experiences in South Africa. She was involved with work at the Shelter, and describes her experiences.

The Eluxolweni Shelter for street children is based in a converted railway station in Grahamstown, a small town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It houses over forty children aged from 4 to 17.
The bedrooms are small, each holding up to nine children in very cramped conditions. At lunch times, the shelter often caters for up to fifty children and space is limited. As the photo shows, the children squeeze into the tiny dining room, which doubles as a living room.

The one bathroom is in a sorry state of disrepair, with broken tiles, rotten doors with gaping holes and leaking, rusty pipes. The shelter has one washing machine.

Three house parents are on site to supervise the children and prepare meals. The nearby Amasango School, run by Rotarian Jane Bradshaw, caters for those children who have missed a lot of schooling because of their difficult circumstances. Three Rotarians are on the Board of Trustees for the shelter.

Every week I visited the shelter to play with the younger children. On one occasion we drew pictures and one of the boys drew this picture, indicating how he had ended up in the shelter. His story is a common one.

Most have been victims of abuse, and several of the girls have been savagely raped. The shelter aims to re-establish the children's contact with their parents, where possible. In order for this to happen, the services of a social worker are necessary.

In one year, the shelter's expenses include food - R50, 400 (about £4500) and salaries - R103 200 (about £9900). Other expenses include clothing, maintenance, electricity, water, insurance, stationery and fuel. The total expenses are around R316 000 (about £29 000).

The shelter provides a place to sleep, meals, clothing, medical and dental care and access to schooling and social services. It is a haven for young people who have suffered a great deal in their short lives. Any support from Rotary would have a direct and valuable impact on these children.

	Doing a test
	Rotarians taking part in the test

	Lunch at the Shelter - the children
	One of the boys
	The bathroom
	The drawing

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