The Bambisanani Partnership says Thank You to The Rotary Club of Aireborough
On 27 February 2024, St. Mary's staff and ex-students joined the members of Aireborough Rotary at Horsforth Golf Club where Rory Southern and Anna Ciesluk, who left St. Mary’s last year gave an enlightening account of their work in South Africa in July 2023.
The evening ended with Mrs Chattoe giving the Rotarians an update on the South African projects they have been involved in. They saw photographs of the final delivery and installation of computers for the Computer Suite at Mnyakanya High School that was funded by an International Rotary Grant.
Mrs Chattoe played a video of the South African teachers giving lessons to the girls on how to use the sanitary kits that the Rotarian members had made and the St. Mary’s team had delivered to the rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal.
A special guest at the evening was the son of the late Aireborough Rotary President, Heather Read. Mrs Chattoe spoke of the recipient of the first ever Heather Read Award for Outstanding Resilience. The Award was presented to Samkelisiwe Ntuli in June 2023. Tim Read and the guests heard how Samkelisiwe Ntuli has lived on her own since the age of 14 after her mother and sister travelled 500km to try to find work in Johannesburg. Samkelisiwe Ntuli travelled 20km to school every day and managed to successfully pass her matriculation examinations. Samkelisiwe Ntuli has now left school and will try to find her mother and sister and would like to study Law at University. Anna read out a message to Aireborough Rotary from Samkelisiwe Ntuli, thanking them for their recognition of her resilience.
Mrs Chattoe said: “it was a lovely evening as it is always great to meet up with the Aireborough Rotarians as they have been supporters of The Bambisanani Partnership since its inception seventeen years ago. We have had a long and very special relationship with the Rotary Club of Aireborough and indeed with Eshowe Rotary Club in South Africa that has enabled many life changing projects to be introduced.”
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Published: 01/03/2024
