Foundation Day

The weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy was held at the Dean Park Hotel on Tuesday 25^th October. The tables were filled to capacity with 32 members attending.

President Mark reported that unfortunately Chris Marr had handed in his resignation from the club, the nature of Chris’s business made it hard for him to attend meetings and commit to the Club.

The recent race night was a huge success and raised £4000 in total. PP Brian has procured some new Rotary branded collection boxes and members were encouraged to ask local businesses to display these. PP Ken Kelly passed on details of the RNLI fish supper and musical evening to be held this coming Saturday at 6:30 pm.

Ken Stahly highlighted the Tanzanian project which supports the education of leprosy sufferer’s children, it is at this time of year that we aim to raise the funds for the school and Ken mentioned that we are looking to raise £3500 this year. The project is administered by the Rotary Club of Moshi and regular letters and progress reports provide valuable feedback on this great cause.

PP Iain Gow reiterated that they are looking for potential hosts for the Youth camp and in particular were looking for host families with had 16-17 year old children.

Kath Johnston mentioned that the 6^th form quiz was to be held on the 2^nd Nov at Kirkcaldy High and the Rotary Young musician at Balwearie on the 16^th Nov.

Secretary’s notices included mention that the meeting on the 8^th Nov was an evening meeting. PP John went on to announce the 200 Club winners with PP Iain Gow claiming the top prize.

The speaker was Club member and PP of Leven Rotary Swapan Mukherjee who explained how he got involved in and worked on a renal dialysis project in India. The project was a joint initiative between District 3190 in India and 1010 in Scotland and aimed to raise funds to provide a renal unit in Bangalore India, Bangalore is well renowned as the Capital of Diabetes in India. Swapan explained how he had grown up surrounded by Rotary in India and how delighted he was to become part of Rotary in Scotland. He always wanted to give something back to India through Rotary and after searching for 16 years he identified this project as the one. Diabetes affects 20% of the population of Bangalore and can lead to sight loss, limb loss and kidney problems, dialysis is expensive and many sufferers cannot afford it. They identified Ragadore hospital and set out through a Rotary Global Grant to raise enough to supply 6-8 machines. The fundraising outstripped expectations and in total $111,000 was raised, unfortunately the proposed site fell through, but they soon found an alternative and in May 2015 the centre opened. The centre now has 120 patients and the proposal for 6 machines soon grew to 11 and is now at 15 with the aim to reach 20.

In his vote of thanks President Mark mentioned how lucky we are that if we require medical provisions they are supplied free of charge, and what an amazing job such projects do in countries where there is no public health service.