Like plants that self-pollinate (maize) or spread throughout the whole garden, (mint), or grow a stem and then plant that stem in the ground by itself ( black berry bush), receiving a monetary gift from Rotary is a self-propagating venture and the benefits grow on their own in many unexpected ways.
When you are a “Giver”, that is the way it is!. There is nothing that will change that, sometimes to the detriment of the giver as we often have trouble taking, but none the less, a “Giver” is a “Giver”.
Rotarians are “Givers” and Pickering Rotary members are no exception.
Chairs donated from Pickering Rotary
They have given much more to SEEDS than just a financial donation.
Last year in November 2016 we received a gift from Pickering Rotary that has spread immensely. But before we received that financial gift we received from them, the gift of confidence building.
A respected group like Pickering Rotary believed in what we do! Like the many charities and organizations that they support who believe in the people that they are trying to help, Pickering Rotary believed in What we are doing at SEEDS.
That is half of the battle towards effective positive change. To believe and have faith in those you are helping. That they will succeed or at least move forward!
After the gift of confidence, came the gift of vision.
Instead of concentrating on raising money for our existing projects and prioritizing what we absolutely needed just to get by, we were now able to splurge and buy what we wanted without worrying.
I too am a “Giver” and will always try to help first and figure out where the money will come from after, so the simple fact that I had the money to buy chairs, to go with the table I had purchased the year before, gave me the idea to build a Bed & Breakfast. SEEDS B & B-Mulopo Flats was born!
The rundown empty buildings were already there in Mongu Zambia and now I had a chunk of money to start to fix them up which would allow us to earn a bit of income for maintenance and repairs at our projects, The Silozi Seed Bank & Trees for Elephants nursery and resource gardens.
Pickering Rotary paid for the wooden chairs we use to train farmers indoors during the rainy season, which also serve as dining room chairs for our volunteer groups and guests who would potentially come and stay with us instead of paying to stay elsewhere and have a nice dining room to eat in.
The monies provided by Pickering Rotary also allowed us to buy outside plastic chairs which unfortunately were more expensive than having the wooden ones made- lesson learned- pay the local people to make something for you and avoid bringing in plastic which just pollutes any way. These plastic chairs are used to train farmers outside in the dry season as previously they would sit on concrete blocks and also do nicely for our guests at the B & B.
I had a farmer come to get some seeds from us in April 2017 at around 5pm who had been up at 5am that morning, worked all day in her field and then walked for an hour in 35 degree heat to come and get seeds from us and I was so happy to be able to give her a cool drink of water and a chair to sit in while I explained how to grow the seeds I was giving her.
I had a farmer come to get some seeds from us in April 2017 at around 5pm who had been up at 5am that morning, worked all day I her field and then walked for an hour in 35 degree heat to come and get seeds from us and I was so happy to be able to give her a cool drink of water and a chair to sit in while I explained how to grow the seeds I was giving her.
Thirdly the monies provided by Pickering Rotary also paid for paint. It was originally supposed to be used to paint the room where we store our seeds and gardening supplies but our manager Freddrick used the money to paint dining-room and the bedroom that our first guest from Canada stayed in. So that paint earned us income as the guest had a bedroom to sleep in and a dining-room to eat in.
Limpo carried this full paint bucket on her shoulder
So thank you again so much Pickering Rotary for the donation in 2016!
I am also very excited to announce that we received a donation from Pickering Rotary last Tues. Nov. 21st, 2017 so stay turned in our next blog for how that money will be spent!
This club does some very exciting things every year so if you want to meet an amazing group of people, do some volunteer work and have a great time doing it, get in touch with them by visiting the Rotary Club of Pickerings web site at http://pickeringrotary.ca/.
Thanks and stay tuned for the next chapter!
Pickering Rotary members
