Speakers Evening

On Thursday 8th October the Rotary Club of South Queensferry scheduled a Zoom presentation from Arif Anis Malik, a life coach and intern speaker. However Arif was stuck in traffic on the M25. He began his talk on the phone and spoke until the battery ran out. Immediate Past President Jim McCulloch will try to rearrange the full presentation. During the phonecall, we heard how Arif has worked with politicians, coaching people to become good speakers. He has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, and the London School of Economics.

In early March this year, Arif contracted COVID-19 when no-one knew very much about the illness. Hospitals were not taking admissions. He discovered the ambulance crew who arrived to help him had eaten nothing but a bag of crisps all day as everything, including hospital canteens, was closed. When he recovered, Arif and two friends, the owner of several restaurants and  a colleague from LSE, decided to supply meals for NHS staff, ambulance crews, police and key workers. The LSE colleague donated £10,000 and very quickly public donations built up. By June, 130,000 meals and drinks had been ordered online and delivered in England, Wales and Scotland. At this point we lost contact, but Arif Anis Malik's full presentation promises to be  an inspiring story of how a few people can make a big difference in these difficult times.