Carin van Vuuren went to the New Hope School this past week. Here is a note from the visit.
Dear fellow Rotarians I had the distinct pleasure to pay a visit to New Hope School, Pretoria, South Africa on Tuesday December 4th to see how they are proceeding since the RI grant and District Grant were awarded to them earlier this. I’m happy to report the they are busy beavers. The laser cutter has been installed and the teachers have started receiving training to operate the design program Corel Draw as well as the laser cutter, so they can teach the students. Although it’s the end of their school year in South Africa there were still some students busy working and I was able to make a short video. Roedolf Smit, Technical Department Head, said the running cost of the laser cutter is between 60 and 80 cents per minute. Ys Visser, our liaison at the Rotary Club of Pretoria, accompanied me and said they will be promoting the products that can be made with the laser cutter to Businesses through their Rotary network. Ys Visser also reported that as a spin off from the relationship with Rotary, the Bowls Division as well as the Young Members Division of the Pretoria Country Club in South Africa, have donated R13,500 (Approx. $1,350) to the NHS. This is in addition to the Rotary Club of Pretoria’s donation of R70,000 (Approx. $7,000) after their bowls day in May 2018. Thank you once again to all the members of the Rotary Clubs of Edmonton Strathcona, Edmonton South, Sherwood Park, Drayton Valley, St Albert, Stony Plain and Nisku Leduc. "