Club Meeting

On 2nd June Rotary South Queensferry met at Conifox in Kirkliston. Other members and guests joined on Zoom. President Derek Clark gave a special welcome to Virginia Miller-Cavanagh, President Elect for Rotary Durango, Colorado, USA. Virginia and her friend Lora Woods are touring Britain. After Virginia heard Gordon McInally speaking at her president's training, she contacted the club to attend a meeting.

The night's speaker was Dr Pota Kalima, a micro biologist who works at the Western and Edinburgh Royal Hospitals. Dr Kalima, who has lived in Queensferry for twenty-two years, visited his father's home town on the upper Zambezi flood plains in Zambia. The only clinic in the area was a very dilapidated structure from the eighteen-hundreds built by French missionaries. During the rainy season, the old clinic was being gradually washed away. Dr Kalima resolved to raise funds to build a new clinic above the flood plains. He obtained government permission and his efforts began by cycling 634 miles from the north of the country to Lusaka, raising awareness and local support as he went. A chance conversation with his neighbour, Rotarian Neil McKinlay, resulted in Rotary South Queensferry's International Team raising funds for the project. Work began in September 2019 and the new clinic will be handed over by October or November this year. The club also supplied a small boat to help with the transfer of patients.