2016/17 Year - What we did

AS one of his last acts in office, outgoing president David Somerville named as Rotarian of the Year Dr David Fraser, the club’s retiring secretary but continuing co-treasurer, who had exercised oversight of the club’s charity and Gift Aid accounts while completing his fifth year as secretary. Dr Fraser is a previous winner of the Alistair Brown Trophy, of which he takes custody from last year’s Rotarian of the Year, David Steele.

THE leadership roles of the head boys and girls of Dunfermline’s four high school have been recognised by the Rotary Club of Dunfermline. Awards of gift tokens were presented by President David Somerville after they shared with Rotarians some of the highlights of their respective academic years.
Recipients were: Dunfermline High:

Head girl, Sophie Kay (18), 12 Forman Grove, Dunfermline, who is to study interpretation and translation in French, Spanish andItalian at Heriot-Watt University;

head boy, Sean Malpas (18), 129 Jennie Rennie’s Road, Dunfermline, who is also heading to Heriot-Watt to study geography.
Queen Anne High:

Head girl, Arianne Holland (17), 5 Knockhouse Farm Cottages, Crossford, who is to pursue a degree in veterinary science at Edinburgh University;

head boy, Aaron Jack, (18), 25 Rose Gardens, Cairneyhill, who is to study actuarial science at Heriot-Watt.

St Columba’s High:

Head girl, Rachel Millar (in absentia);

head boy, Craig Moriarty (17), 103 Peasehill Gait, Rosyth, who is to study sports and recreational management at Edinburgh University.

Woodmill High:

Head girl, Emily Nicholson (17), 6 Halketts Hall, Limekilns, who is planning to take a gap year;

head boy, Robbie McLaren (17), 4 Kestrel Avenue, Dunfermline, who is to study medicine at Edinburgh University.

OVER 100 local children with additional support needs did not miss out on the 2017 gala season…thanks to West Fife Rotarians, who have just jointly staged their annual Kids Out picnic in Pittencrieff Park.









The Rotary Clubs of Dunfermline, West Fife and Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay laid on a fun-packed day out for youngsters from High Valleyfield, Forth and Gordon Cottage child development centres, as well as from the additional support classes at Cairneyhill and Pitreavie Primary Schools.





An indoor bouncy castle and ball pit were complemented by a wide spectrum of outdoor entertainment, including performances by Lochgelly High School Pipe Band, Scott Lovat’s magic and puppet show and the balloon artistry of Big Pete’s Magic Treatz. Fiona Horne and handlers from Tapitlaw Riding School, Comrie, provided escorted rides on ponies Monty and Jude, while volunteers from Pets AsTherapy introduced the youngsters to two PAT dogs - a German long-haired pointer and a Shih Tzu.

Many Raine and Gill Baird, the respective community champions of Tesco’s Duloch and Dalgety Bay stores, not only brought put their face painting skills to work, but enhanced the goodie bags with donations of fruit, water and snack bars from the store chain.



A police car and fire appliance also responded to the Kids Out call, and even Pars’ mascot, Sammy the Tammy, put in a special guest appearance.

The Kids Out convener of the Dunfermline club, Rotarian Ralph McCran, explained, “Rotary clubs nationwide have now adopted the Kids Out concept, which aims to bring fun and happiness into the lives of disadvantaged children. Dunfermline pioneered the initiative in Scotland and we and our partner clubs are grateful to all those, particularly the park and pavilion staff, who help us deliver an event which has become a highlight of our service calendar.”

Incoming President David visited Uganda for the unveiling of the plaque. He writes: We are just back from the Rwenzori foothills. On the first day I met with half a dozen ROCDiC members in their office. They looked bit drained from a year of pressure, and were anxious that I might be annoyed or disappointed, especially that the official opening day of the government might be months or more away.



Next day I met friend Ericana from Typhoid epidemic days. He is the influential chief inspector of the Department of Health, and lives only 3-4 miles away. He was quite sure the official opening would be soon, following the start of the financial year in August, and said that minor clinics could start immediately, once some furniture is provided. He also asked for a ramping up of the ‘Completion Ceremony'.



A week later the day did not disappoint. There was an attendance of 5-600 (many children) plus VIPs; stone plaque unveiling; banners, tents, dancing, fund raising, speeches, biscuits and sodas, ……….

A master glass in wine-tasting has poured over £900 into the coffers of Cancer Research UK - thanks to Dunfermline Rotary and Golf Clubs. Providing the professional tutorial at their joint charity fund-raiser in the Pitfirrane clubhouse was wine expert Jo Williamson, who uses his grapevine to recruit more volunteers to join him as a CRUK cancer campaigns ambassador.

Jo's commentary on a list of eight diverse wines was informed by over 50 years in the trade with leading vintners and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

The event, which attracted a company of some 70 people, was co-ordinated by Tom Arnott, the Rotary club's immediate past-president.

A new health centre - financed to the tune of £8500 by six Fife Rotary clubs and the movement's charity, Rotary Foundation - is now nearing completion in the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda.





The campaign has been spearhead by the president elect of the Rotary Club of Dunfermline, retired urologist David Lyth, and his teacher wife, Helen, who spent three years in the area during a five-year post-retirement mission to work among the poorest people in Africa.Mr Lyth explained, "Finances and the finishing trades are due to complete the project by early May…in time for Helen and I to attend an opening ceremony, scheduled for 24th of the month."

The Rotary Club of Dunfermline club was the first to commit pump-priming cash to the construction of the Burumbika Health Centre in a populous, hard-to-reach area of the Rwenzori mountain foothills of Kasese District of Western Uganda and additional support was pledged by five Fife sister clubs: Dunfermline Carnegie, Inverkeithing & Dalgety Bay, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Thanks to Rotary's intervention, some 13,000 subsistence-farming villagers will gain access to a permanent, government-run health centre with a medical officer, nurses, and pharmacist. This will provide basic in- and out-patient medical and maternity services, and outreach immunisation clinics.

THE quiz kids of Pittencrieff School were in top form at the Rotary Club of Dunfermline's qualifying round in the 2017 primary schools quiz competition, sponsored annually by Rotary clubs north of the Forth.

By holding off the challenge of four other Dunfermline primaries in the preliminary heat in Dunfermline's City Chambers, Pittencrieff's young quiz masters - Freya McKay, Juliet Wallace, Matthew MacKenzie and Matthew Wilson - secured the Rotary Club of Dunfermline trophy…and a place in the area finals on 29thApril at Balwearie High School.Townhill were runners-up, withSt. Leonard's and McLean in joint third place and St Margaret's fifth.

Event organiser was Rotarian Sean Doran, the club's inquisitor was local solicitor Ralph McCran and the questions were set by fellow Rotarian and retired headteacher John Anderson.

Overall, 500 schools, supported by nearly 80 Rotary clubs in District 1010, are expected to compete in this year's event, with the top two teamsfrom each area final advancing to the district finalat Aberdeen's Beach Ballroom on Saturday, 10 June.

DUNFERMLINE Rotarians have paid silent tribute to the memory of their 82^nd president – West Fife’s former police commander, retired Chief Superintendent Alex Elder – who died on 7^th February, aged 72, in a Kirkcaldy care home.

Mr Elder had been since 1990 a member of the Rotary Club of Dunfermline, of which he was president in 2005-06, and had been closely identified with the club’s entertaining of children from Chernobyl during their annual visits to Fife.

The former commander of Fife Constabulary’s western divisionwas an ex-police commissioner in the Caribbean volcanic island of Montserrat and was awarded the OBE in 1999 for his work as a regional police adviser in the Caribbean.

Raised in Aberdour and educated at Aberdour Primary and Dunfermline High Schools, Mr Elder joined Fife Constabulary as a police cadet in 1961. He rose to the rank of chief superintendent, completing the last five years of his service as commander of the force¹s western division, based in Dunfermline.

He retired from the force in 1995 to take up an appointment with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office¹s Overseas Development Administration, later to become the Department for International Development.

As regional police adviser, Caribbean, based in Bridgetown, Barbados, Mr Elder advised the ODA and DFID on police and justice-system development in the English-speaking Caribbean. He also gave advice to British High Commissions and governors of the British overseas territories and was involved in the development and implementation of the EU Caribbean Drugs Initiative.

At the end of an extended contract, Mr Elder returned in 1998 to Kirkcaldy, where he lived in Ben Alder Place.He was an elder of Abbotshall Parish Church, where a service to celebrate his life washeld after a private cremation on 16^th February.

In March, 2000, Mr Elder returned to the Caribbean on a two-year contract as police commissioner in Montserrat.

Mr Elder was a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a past chairman of its Fife branch. He was also a past chairman of the Association of Professional Institutes in Fife

Mr Elder is survived by wife, Valerie, their daughter and son and one grandchild.

Here are some pictures of the building of the Health Centre. You can also see videos of the work  here and here;





The walls go up - the mortar is made from locally dug clay. After final facing with cement based concrete it should last for 50 years















Delivery of steel for reinforcing the concrete beam which provides protection against frequent earth tremors.









Shuttering for the concrete beam goes on. Also pillars to support the overhanging roof.




The pillars have been cast and their beam made.




































With a roof on it looks almost complete - still lots to do though.

A Christmas bonus of over £5000 for good causes has now been added to the £8000 charity disbursement made by the Rotary Club of Dunfermline from the proceeds of their November black-tie fund-raiser - a gala dinner and casino night in the city's Glen Pavilion.
Two Christmas concerts in Dunfermline Abbey in association with the Band of HM Royal Marines Scotland and Santa's annual sleigh run round local neighbourhoods in tandem with Dunfermline Round Table each poured four-figure sums into the club's benevolent fund.
The concerts' festive notes boosted local and military charities while the Rotary proceeds of Santa's street collections and series of pit-stops at Tesco's Fire Station store were channelled to local families through the children and families arm of Fife Council's social work department, which also received a similar donation from Round Tablers.
Rotary club president David Somerville said, "As well as bringing some Christmas joy into the lives of local children and families, the club's benevolent fund wrapped up the festive season with our annual round of donations to a raft of good causes."

THE Rotary Club of Dunfermline is playing Santa to eight good causes by splashing the cash raised byits Las Vegas-style gala dinner and casino night in November.Christmas bonuses totalling £8000 are on their way to six local charities, as well as the two national causes nominated as the principal beneficiaries of the black-tie fund-raiser in the Glen Pavilion.The British Heart Foundation and Erskine Hospital for Veterans are each to receive donations of £2500 while Rotarians are stuffing cheques for £500 into the Christmas stockings of six local causes. This year's recipients are The Samaritans, Riding for the Disabled Association, the Crossroads (Dunfermline)charity which provides support for carers and their families in West Fife, Macmillan Cancer Support, the Scottish Association of Mental Health's Going Forth employability service and the children and families section of Fife Council social work department.Children's individual Christmas gifts are also being routed by the club through the social work department - donations which again include sacksof presents collected by their surrogate Santa, Jane Russell, from her generous neighbours in Middleton Park, Keltybridge.At our meeting on 15th December we welcomed Name1 of British Heart Foundation and Name2 of Erskine Hospital for Veterans who received cheques presented by President David
Caption: President David Somerville is pictured presenting the charities’ cheques to Karen McBeath (left), from Erskine Hospital for Veterans, and Shirley Stenhouse, from the British Heart Foundation.

This report from Ivan, our 'Ugandan correspondent'



"I would like to update you for about what we have done so far:





22 November procured items from Kasese

23 November met the Sub county authority to discuss the mobilisation of the community for the communal work



24th November counting the bricks and making payments





25th November setting out the ground plan from the building plan

26th November trench excavations begun





29th November trench excavations finished

28th November beginning laying bricks in the trenches "



Obviously no time is being lost in getting the new building out of the ground. Planning departments here should take note

DUNFERMLINE Rotarians – retired consultant urologist, David Lyth, and his teacher wife, Helen – are “over the moon” on learning that their Rotary fund-raising campaign has secured the major building block in its drive to construct a £8500 health centre in the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda.

David, who is president-elect of the Rotary Club of Dunfermline, confirmed, “In the last few months, five Rotary clubs in Fife have committed £3000 to the campaign and now District 1010, representing Rotary clubs north of the Forth, hasoffered a £3500 Rotary Foundation grant to complete the target budget.”
Since leaving Uganda four years ago – following a five-and-a-half year retirement mission to work among the poorest people of Africa – the Lyths have continued to visit annually and help with various educational and medical projects, especially linked with a charity group in the remote mountain valley of Kyondo, just four miles from the hospital where they lived.
David explained, “Their latest project is a health centre that the Uganda Government is committed to equip and staff, once built by the community. In two years they have raised £2000 but, for the balance, they are looking to outside help.”
The Rotary Club of Dunfermline club was the first to commit a pump-priming £1000 to the construction of the Burumbika Health Centre and additional support of a further £2000 was quickly pledged by four Fife sister clubs: Dunfermline Carnegie, Inverkeithing&Dalgety Bay, Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy.
David added, “The project aims to build the centre in a populous, hard-to-reach area of the Rwenzori mountain foothills of Kasese District of Western Uganda.
“Some 13,000 subsistence-farming villagers will gain access to a permanent, government-run health centre with medical officers, nurses, and pharmacist. This will provide basic in- and out-patient medical and maternity services, and outreach immunisation clinics.”
David and Helen, who spent three years in the area, have personally identified and researched the need for the project.
David explains, “For three-and-a-half years, I was surgeon of the local hospital four miles away, and so had contact with local health centres. We went through a typhoid epidemic that took hundreds of lives, and I was the surgeon who treated four men mauled by a leopard on the track which serves this community of 13,000.I can thus validate and endorse the major impact that this mountain health centre will have when up and running.”
Helen, an honorary Dunfermline Rotarian, was recently installed as president of the Soroptimist International of Dunfermline, who are continuing educational projects in this valley.
She confirms, “Kasese is one of Uganda’s least-developed counties. People in thehills can take four hours to walk to the main road to access the nearest health centre and other services.
“The centre is the latest project by a voluntary group that cares for the disadvantaged. Over the past 10 years, at their own expense, have helped destitute families and various groups in need. With the help of money from abroad, they have also run immunisation programmes and ante-natal clinics up in the high hills.”
A small committee of Rotarians from clubs in Fife plans to work with the charity in Uganda and the Lyths plan to visit the project in the spring of 2017.

Video - Why a Health Centre is needed

PREPARING to bring glad tidings to the many aficionados of ’s favourite military band is the Rosyth-based Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Scotland.

For the Marine musicians have been tuning up at MoD Caledonia for their home-town season of Carnegie Hall concerts and Christmas concerts in Dunfermline Abbey under the baton of a new Director of Music – Captain Matt Weites, who assumed his new command in September

The band launched their popular Carnegie Hall season on 19^th October, with further concerts programmed for 24^th November, 9^th February, 2^nd March and 12^th April.

The band is again joining forces with the to present two Christmas concerts in Dunfermline Abbey – on 14^th and 15^th December.

The programme will have its usual festive focus and this year will feature primary-school carollers from and .

Tickets, priced £12.50, are now on sale from the Carnegie Hall box office and Pink String and Sealing Wax, Bridge Street

Captain Weites said the Carnegie Hall series, alongside the Abbey Christmas concerts, formed the local flagship events for the band.

“They provide the band with a fantastic opportunity to entertain ‘our crowd’, and with this being my first concert on home turf, it has an added impetus,” he said. “I am very much looking forward to meeting the audiences during these concerts and to presenting a truly entertaining evening of music during these key events in our calendar.”

Captain Matt Weites joined the Royal Marines Band Service in 1994 as a french horn player. After successfully completing training at both the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal and in Portsmouth, in 1997 he joined the RM Band Portsmouth and travelled extensively with the band to the Far East, Canada, Australia, USA and Thailand.

Thereafter a series of band postings and further musical study saw him rise through the ranks to be selected for commission in 2013. Amongst many highlights were the award of a BMus(Hons) degree from and a six-month deployment to as part of the UK Joint Medical Group. He was awarded a QCVS in the Queen’s Honours List for meritorious service during that operation..

On commissioning, he was appointed as Assistant Director of Music Training at the Royal Marines School of Music and during the past two years he has been studying for a Master of Music Degree in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, in , and has recently graduated with a distinguished pass.

 

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Along with Rotary Clubs all over UK we are filling Rotary Shoeboxes - see why below.


A box can be filled with useful things (and treats), each box aimed at a small boy or girl, a teenage boy ot girl or a houshold.  
As you can imagine this is huge operation with collection depots all over and a lot of volunteers depending on us.  The timetables are quite tight so:-





 The shoeboxes will be delivered to children, families and elderly persons in Romania; Moldova; Ukraine; Bulgaria; Albania; Croatia. Those receiving our shoeboxes will include children in children`s homes; street children;   families living is socially disadvantaged circumstances; and elderly persons. 


Recently I visited Romania as part of a Shoebox group and was involved in the delivery stage of the boxes to  socially deprived families. Our hosts were `Hope and Homes for Children` which as a charity has achieved considerable success in reducing the number of institutions where large numbers of children were receiving inadequate care . Whist HHC is doing sterling work in improving the life chances of children and of families there is much to be done in Romania.





I have vivid memories of visiting one family  ( parents and 5 young children) living in a  one bedroomed flat with a kitchen and living room combined. Some days earlier this family had been living on the streets. The

accommodation was as bad as I have seen. There was for example fungus on the walls a sign of condensation and dampness. Whilst my view of the accommodation being extremely poor for this family it was better than the alternative of being on the street.



We visited several children`s homes which were by UK standards comparable. However the children unlike in the UK are not necessarily placed be the social work services .  They are not necessarily orphans. Many have parents. Due to reasons of poverty they are placed in care by their parents as this is the best option for them.





We saw the best of the children`s homes. In other parts of eastern Europe many of the children receiving our shoeboxes are living in large institutions of  60 plus children. This is the case in Moldova and Albania for example.



A second city we visited was Kluge where  we were hosted by the Romanian Prison Fellowship Charity.

Part of the service they offer is to rehabilitate those in prison.

We were allowed into a woman`s prison. Met with mothers of children. The shoe boxes we sent are distributed  by the Prison Fellowship to the children of the parent in prison with the  message that the shoebox gift is from their mother/father.



Our Rotary visit gave me an insight into the life of those who were socially disadvantaged  and we met those who were very poor.



If we had been there as a tourist we`d have received an entirely different perspective. Kluge for example appears to be a typically European city. There is an aspiring middleclass.

However it is not the middle classes who are receiving our boxes. 

From my visit I was assured that our boxes are being delivered to those who are impoverished. The distribution network involving the charities and the Rotarians we met in Kluge ,for example, implied to me that there is a need for our shoeboxes . 

It’s charity showtime!

DUNFERMLINE Rotarians are urging the public to chip into local and international charities by rolling up to their gala cabaret dinner and casino on 4^th November in the Glen Pavilion.

The black-tie event is one of the biggest social and fund-raising events in Dunfermline’s calendar and this year’s cabaret will be headlined by Dunfermline’s own Clark Stewart, currently in demand as one of Scotland’s top vocalists.Together with costumed showgirls,he will presenta Las Vagas floor show, featuring numbers from the Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble songbook.
Clark has entertained around the world in over 30 cruise ships, including the QE2, on which he was, at 29, its youngest cruise director.He has performed with such stars as Susan Boyle, Elaine Paige and Ken Dodd, and his upcoming home-town gig will follow his current Mediterranean cruise date with P&O.
President David Somerville said, “Our club regularly disburses five-figure sums each year to local and international charities. Our charity gala dinner is our main fund-raiser of the year and with Babcock again as our main sponsors, we hope to build on the success of last year’s event.”
The cabaret will be complemented by a drinks reception, three course dinner and coffee, a casino with roulette and blackjack, a disco, raffle and online auction.








Proceeds will be donated to Rotary charities, as well as the British Heart Foundation and Erskine Hospital for veterans.

Tickets, priced £35, are available from President David on 01383 413436 or 07860804802.

President David Somerville took office on 1st July and at his first meeting in the chair he presented the Club with his priorites for his year of office as follows.

AS the approaches its centenary, its 96^th president has stressed, “The club’s history is important, but it is the club’s future that must be our priority.”

In identifying the challenges needed to re-energise the existing membership and add a new dynamic to its age and gender profile, President David Somerville declared, “The changes we consider now will not only retain our values, but will ensure that the club continues to deliver the fellowship, fun and fulfilment that current and future members want and need as Rotarians.”

In his inaugural address, President David - the recently retired group operations manager of the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service - recalled, “On retiring from the Fire Service, I was concerned that I was leaving an environment which was both challenging and professional but also social due to the interaction of the officers and firefighters.

“When Past-President suggested I come to Rotary, I was impressed with the opportunity to socialise with other professionals and make new acquaintances, and the fellowship I experienced was exactly what I felt I needed – a good fit!”

Althoughhe hadonly been a member of the club for some three years, he said he had been proud to be asked to becomepresident-elect, although he confessed to some concern as the challengehad dawned on him and he faced the task of forming his team for the year.

“My concerns were mainly around the membership of the club - both the gaining of new members to enliven the membership but also re-energising of the existing members,” he said. “It was evident to me, in the short time I have been a member, that although on paper we have a membership of over 60, it seemed that the actual projects our club took on were supported by a lot fewer than 60"¦and indeed it appeared that the same ‘well-kent faces’ were involved in many of these.”

Even attendance at weekly meetings had reduced throughout that period.

“This begs questions of the current format for our weekly meetings, such as: Do we need to meet weekly? Do we need to have lunch? Should we expand the number of night time meetings? Should we consider entering into talks with other clubs on the possibility of merging"¦and so on? It is my intention to discuss these points, and others, in the near future with interested members from our club.

“We have already changed the responsibility for providing entertainment, information and interest to our weekly meetings by inviting the members to take on this responsibility and we will monitor the success of this format in the coming months,” he said.

President David stressed, “We will consider change not only to revitalise our existing club members but also to attract the new members required to provide impetus and drive for the future, but it is important to retain Rotary’s values, priorities and commitments.

“It is important that all members feel that they want to attend and want to assist with the varied programme I do hope to provide through my council officers.”

To address themembership concerns, he said he had decided to reinstate the position of membership secretary within the club council and had been delighted when had agreed to take up the post.

“Tom’s objectives will include altering the age profile of our club to increase the number of younger members - not only to provide energy but also alternative initiatives for our club

“Also it is hoped to increase the number of female members and provide a different dynamic to our club.

There would also be a renewed focus on communication –“to ensure members are informed and given the opportunities which will arise throughout the year to be involved and engaged fully with your club.”

President David emphasised, “Involvement is essential for the continued success of our club. It is one of my objectives to improve the involvement of members by providing a varied programme of events throughout the year which will include charity events, community events and social events which hopefully will provide every member with the opportunity to support these.”

Council members would be empowered to develop their remits by the creation of their own committees, as they see appropriate.

“This not only will share the responsibility and necessary workloads of each post but also increase the involvement of club members to contribute to the success we all desire for our club.Furthermore, this will give more members an insight into the work required of these posts and facilitate a succession process for future council members.”

President David said, “For over 100 years Rotary has been about Fellowship, Fun and Fulfilment. We get together with our fellow members, we enjoy our activities and we get personal satisfaction from helping others. However, no Rotarian is alone. All our activities take place within the fellowship of our fellow members, on behalf of the club. The act of getting together to plan and carry out any project is an integral part of Rotary.

“I believe regular fellowship, whether at weekly meetings, committee meetings or social events, is what develops a group of individuals into a coherent and effective club.”

He reminded members: “When we joined Rotary we expected to do things to help other people. To see kids enjoying themselves, to see kids drinking clean water, to know that we helped eliminate deadly diseases. To do these and all the many smaller things we do, gives us a buzz and shows that Rotary has fulfilled our expectations.

“To take us forward to our own club’s hundredth birthday we need to make sure that each and every member gets as much Fellowship, Fun and Fulfilment as he or she expected – and more, if they want it. Get these right and the perceived problems of attendance, retention and recruitment will fade into obscurity.”


President David hoped this year would be successful in terms of fellowship and charitable objectives and pledged his council’s commitment to striving to achieve the desired outcomes forthe club.

Several Rotary clubs in Fife are planning to collaborate in a project to build a health centre in a populous, hard-to-reach area of the Rwenzori mountain foothills of Kasese District, Western Uganda.
 13,000 subsistence-farming villagers will gain access to a permanent, government-run health centre with medical officers, nurses, and pharmacist. This will provide basic in- and out-patient medical and maternity services, and outreach immunisation clinics.





Rotarians David and Helen Lyth who spent 3 years in the area have researched the need and opportunity of the project, and have published a 4-minute video on YouTube https://youtu.be/Gj-P-ooH74Y 

David says "I would like to endorse the validity and impact that this mountain health centre will have when up and running. For 3 ½ years I was surgeon of the local hospital 4 miles away, so had contact with Kyondo health centre and others. We went through a typhoid epidemic that took hundreds of lives, and I was the surgeon who treated 4 men  mauled by a leopard in the track shown in the film. (Gory photo available!) So I can endorse this project would have a great impact for the 13,000 community."

Once financial agreements have been reached a small committee of Rotarians from clubs in Fife will work with a local committee in Uganda. The Lyths will re-visit the project.
Projected Cost £8,000 - £6,000 from Fife, and £2,000 from Uganda

Project to build a new classroom for a school in the remote Simien Mountains of Ethiopia 

Progress to date per photographs. Next stage - the locals to infill the wooden walls with mud. 

Project cost £1,375 - funded by District Simplified Grant £675  + Club’s contribution £700

 











 

TEENAGERS and families on the local contact lists of Fife Council social work department have received Easter surprises of assorted toiletries – courtesy of Tesco’s Duloch superstore.

Gift bags of shampoos, conditioners, moisturisers and other beauty-care products – displaced from the toiletry shelves of the Tesco store – were channelled to social-work contacts through the Rotary Club of Dunfermline, who have established links with Mandy Raine, the Duloch store’s community champion.

In her six years in the role, Mandy has formed interfaces with a raft of local good causes and service agencies, distributing replacedproduct lines through such neighbourhood organisations as Dunfermline Foodbank, Abbeyview Day Care Centre and Homestart.

Mandy said, “We are always delighted when our surplus stock can benefit deserving people in our local community. As Tesco likes to say: Every little helps.”