As the Rotary Club of Haenertsburg, we are dedicated to making a positive impact in our community and beyond. By assisting our communities through our Community Outreach programmes and our various Projects we are living up to our vow to create positive, lasting change in our world.
Refurbishment of Appel Combined School
What is a Global Grant?
In short: a project initiated by one club with funds they have raised, topped up by their own district (in our case most of the 'Old Transvaal, Swaziland, Botswana and Southern Mozambique) and in partnership with at least one international partner club and district. This is then matched by The Rotary Foundation. The result is that funds we raise are geared way beyond what we could raise ourselves.
One of our very successful projects was the Community Garden project.
Makgeng Hiking Trail (Community Project)
Wins Award for Best "Supporting the Environment" Project in District 9400 May 2024
Our Club is thrilled with this Award, one of 3 such awards handed out to Clubs in our District at the District Conference held in May 2024.
The handing over the Award from President Keith to the tireless Makgeng Trail project leader, Rod Harman, with amazing assistance from Betty Ramaselela.
This Trail has been developed by the Rotary Club of Haenertsburg with the assistance and cooperation of the Makgeng Executive Council. The aim of the trail was to develop a project that was beneficial to the local community as well to visitors to the region. The mountain surrounding Makgeng is an ideal natural region that could be preserved as a result of this development.
This is one of the most important projects and Community Outreach Programme for the club as we feel that the preservation of our natural environment and the protection of natural resources cannot be stressed enough. Various projects have been undertaken to assist and educate locals and learners about the importance of our natural environment has been undertaken
The latest one, Planting Trees for the Future, was recently undertaken.
RYLA
RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. Each year our club identifies and selects a number of young leaders, usually from amongst Grade 11 students in the 2 local rural high schools in our area. They then have the opportunity to go on a RYLA camp for a long weekend. These take place twice a year, usually in April and September.
We are very fortunate to have these camps run by Warriors, an organisation catering largely for people wanting to take a gap year to learn lots of different skills, mostly outdoor activities such as skydiving, scuba diving, hiking etc. Warriors Camp is conveniently based in Magoebaskloof, where, on a RYLA weekend, about 100 young leaders from all over the country, Swaziland, Mozambique and Botswana have the opportunity to learn different life skills. The weekend combines indoor and outdoor activities (such as problem solving, climbing and team building exercises). These are life-changing weekends for the participants, who learn new skills, have masses of fun and make new friends with people from all over southern Africa.
Community Police Forum is assisted by Rotary Haenertsburg
The Community Police Forum were assisted by Rotary with the provision of a breathylser test kit which is essential to them being able to legally arrest drivers at their local road blocks who are driving under the influence. The functioning of these kits was demonstrated at a hand over to the Haenertsburg SAPS and then a social thank-you evening was held to recognise Charlie Hartman of the CPF who was responsible for motivating this donation for the local SAPS from Rotary Haenertsburg.
Magoebaskloof Ultra Marathon - 19 March 2023
Rotary Haenertsburg members assisted the organisers of the Magoebaskloof Ultra Marathon event held on 19 March held in the beautiful mountains, lakes and valleys of the Magoebaskloof area. They manned a check point and one member, (Wiam Haddad) ran the 50km!!
The Long Tom Picnic and panoramic view site
The Long Tom Picnic Site is worth a visit! On the Cheerio road past the Wegraakbosch turnoff. The Haenertsburg Rotarians have upgraded the Long Tom bomb site (Boer War 1901) at Feeskop hill so that visitors can reflect on the PAST history of the site when the Boers blew up the Long Tom gun to avoid it from falling into the hands of the British. Enjoy the PRESENT by taking in the lovely views of the Haenertsburg mountains and ponder the FUTURE while watching magnificent sunsets! The Opening function as shown in the gallery below featured Mr Tito Mboweni (former Reserve Bank Governor and Honorary Haenertsburg Rotary Club member) delivering some opening remarks. The official opening speech was delivered by Professor Louis Changuion, historian and renowned author, specialist in the Anglo-Boer War and the history of the Long Tom Guns.
Christmas cheer for social pensioners and community-November 27, 2021
Once again, as a Community Outreach Rotary Haenertsburg organised their annual hand-out of food and good Christmas cheer to social grant pensioners and other local community members. The Haenertsburg SAPS join with Rotary to be visible in the community and to emphasize the promotion of the 16 Days of Activism against women and child abuse. A meal was prepared and they were given containers of pap, chicken stew and butternut, with a cool drink and a packet of biscuits.
