What We’re Doing

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Village Water

We were joined this evening by Steve Evans a member of the Rotary Club of Ironbridge. Steve has long been involved with the development of Rotary’s international programme but had come to talk to the Club about the work of the Village Water charity in advance of World Water Day on the 22nd March.

Billions of people lack access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Village Water provides hygiene education and sustainable water for rural villages in western Zambia. The charity installs protected shallow wells with manual water pumps that allow the people to draw uncontaminated water from underground.

Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of infant mortality in Zambia and a major contributor to malnutrition. Village Water will only install pumps in villages where the community agrees to implement measures to provide for the safe disposal of human waste, and to adopt basic hygiene practices such as hand washing with soap in order to break the cycle of disease transmission for diarrhoea, particularly amongst children under five.

To date, Village Water has succeeded in helping over 75,000 people in 326 villages, each with either a new or rehabilitated well and with around 20 pit latrines for toilets, with hand washing, refuse pits and plate and vegetable racks to keep the food off the ground – and this has had a dramatic impact upon the health of the people. All the sanitation work is undertaken by the people themselves with Village Water providing cement and other materials.

Our thanks to Steve for his work in promoting the work of this very worthwhile charity and rest assured that we shall be supporting its work over the coming year.

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Czech and Mate – Fred Austin

It was fitting on Valentines Day to be joined by Fred Austin and his wife Margaret and to hear their real life love story which is now the subject of a book – Czech and Mate.

Born into a Jewish family in pre war Czechoslovakia Fred was fortunate with the help of a distant cousin in Austria to secure passage to England under the protection of an English school teacher. It was the last that he was to see of this mother and sisters who were all to become victims of Nazi extermination.

Overcoming hardship whilst under the care of his rescuer Fred went on to attend Leicester University where he was to meet Margaret, his future wife. Fred was to qualify as a teacher and eventually to become Head of Dudley Grammar School. On his retirement from the Grammar School Fred became chief officer for Age Concern in Dudley. It is testament to Fred’s character that there is no hint of bitterness as he recounts his past life and as a longstanding member of the Rotary Club of Dudley he has devoted himself to the service of others.

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Club Meeting – Ashley Gray

We welcomed this evening Ashley Gray – a member of the Walsall Saddlers Rotary Club – as our speaker. Ashley is a Rotary Assistant District Governor with responsibility for our own Club and the other Rotary Clubs within our zone.

As part of his role Ashley helps to keep us up to date with whats happening within our Rotary District and the wider Rotary family as well as taking feedback from us on these developments. Mixing these duties with running his own business cannot be easy and it became apparent from talking to Ashley just how much of his spare time is devoted to helping the Rotary movement grow and prosper.

Ashley’s work is greatly appreciated by the Club and we look forward to working with him for the remainder of this Rotary year.

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Club Meeting – Martyn Long

It was a great pleasure to welcome Martyn Long – the recently appointed Headmaster of Tettenhall College – to our meeting this evening. With a history dating back to 1863 the College attracts children from around the world and has a reputation for providing a sound academic education based on traditional standards of excellence within a stimulating and caring environment.

After a brief tour through his own school and university days Martyn updated us on developments within the College in the six months since his arrival.

This is Martyn’s second stint at Tettenhall having previously headed the physics department before leaving to take up an appointment as a deputy head 10 years ago. His affection for the school and its nurturing environment is obvious and we are fortunate to have such a gifted educator to lead the staff and pupils and to secure the College’s future.

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Santa Sleigh

Tettenhall Rotary Club’s Father Christmas Sleigh aims to bring a little magic to children and communities at Christmas and at the same time raise funds for good causes. But as organiser Roger Timbrell said ‘the real magic this year was how the Christmas spirit, generosity and warmth of welcome of the people in the communities we visited shone through the inclement weather’

Although the weather forced some cancellations over £5,000 was raised for Compton Hospice, Midlands Air Ambulance and other Rotary charities. This included £237.29 at the switching on of the lights event at Tettenhall, £3971.81 collected outside Sainsburys at Perton, £366.04 outside the Co op at Codsall and £389.83 during the three evenings that they visited the communities of Fordhouses, Low Hill and Old Fallings. The Club wishes to apologise for not being able to visit Claregate, Blakeley Green, Aldersley and Bushbury as planned on Saturday 18th and Wednesday 22nd December. Heavy snow and ice forced them to have to cancel for safety reasons.

Our thanks go to Stratstone Land Rover in Wolverhampton for loaning the tow vehicle for the Father Christmas Sleigh and David Gregory, the manager of Sainsburys Perton for his support and for donating sweets. In addition, Blakemore’s Cash and Carry and the Co-operative also kindly donated sweets for Santa to give out to children.

We are also grateful to the school choirs of Codsall High School, Bilbrook Middle School, Perton Middle School, Perton First School, Perton Sandown First School and Smestow School who sang carols around the sleigh outside Sainsburys, Perton, throughout the day on 10th December.

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Christmas Charity Carol Concert

We were delighted this evening to be entertained by the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble – which is made up of players from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – who performed a programme of seasonal music supported by the choir of St Dominic’s High School for Girls in Brewood. As is usual there was plenty of opportunity for the large audience to sing along with a number of traditional carols and to partake of mince pies during the interval.

Over the 15 years that the Club has staged this event over £20,000 has been raised in support of local good causes.

The proceeds from this years concert were raised in support of Compton Hospice to help them to provide clinical and support services for people with life limiting illnesses. The annual running cost of the Hospice is over five million pounds and with Government funding only meeting one third of this the Hospice depends on the support of a number of local fundraisers.

With snow falling as the concert came to an end this was a truly magical start to the Christmas season and our thanks go to the Prince of Wales Brass Ensemble and to the staff and girls of St Dominic’s for their performances, to the University of Wolverhampton Science Park who kindly allowed the use of their Auditorium, and to Rotarian Peter Maddox and his family who organised the event.

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New Member – Jag Gill

There are few happier moments for a Club than the induction of a new member and this evening I and the other members of the Rotary Club of Tettenhall were pleased to welcome Jagjit Gill to our number.

Jag runs a successful company specialising in the laying of roads, car parks and driveways and the installation of groundworks. In joining our Club Jag has committed to the Rotary Objects to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;

FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

We alll welcome Jag to the worldwide family of Rotary and look forward to working with him.

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Club Meeting – Battle of Britain

70 years on it was appropriate this evening that we should be joined by Squadron Leader Richard Painter to talk to the Club about the Battle of Britain and the recent reappraisal of the debt owed not only to those famous few of fighter command but to the many hundreds of bomber command and of coastal command who also gave their lives during this period.
It was apparent from Richard’s talk that the victory over the skies of Britain in 1940 owed much to the visionary leadership of a few key individuals and to the detailed air defence preparations which they gave birth to and which culminated in a unrivalled defence network depriving the Luftwaffe of the air superiority which they had enjoyed over mainland Europe. Richard clearly has a great understanding of his subject and his presentation greatly moved the members of the Club. Our thanks to Club member Les Bouts for introducing Richard to us.
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In Memory – Remembrance Day

The motto of the Rotary movement is ‘Service Above Self’ and it is today sobering to reflect on the meaning of such words and on the sacrifice of the hundreds of people in Wolverhampton who gave their lives in the service of others.

Each year the the Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton come together at the City’s Civic Service of Remembrance to honour the fallen. The service brings together representatives of organisations and communities from throughout the City in recognition of the sacrifices made and which continue to be made to preserve our freedoms.

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condem
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.’
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Club Meeting – Sammy Chung

Rotary is a great way to get to know more about people and this evening we had the pleasure of learning more about one of the Club’s newest members Sammy Chung.

Originally from Hong Kong Sammy trained and qualified as a chartered surveyor in the UK before working on projects both here and in the far east. Now a senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Engineering and the Built Environment and an Honorary Professor at Shenzhen Polytechnic.

As well as exemplifying the Rotary motto of service above self through his vocation Sammy also serves the community as a magistrate on the Wolverhampton bench.