More jabs – Brue Valley helping with vaccinations

Vaccinations continue apace at Wincanton Community Hospital and the Community Hall in Bruton. Brue Valley Rotary Club, enthusiastically assisted by over 25 family and friends, have been providing marshals at both centres. The main jobs are car parking, providing directions, sanitising (people and wheelchairs) and generally helping to ensure the process is as easy as possible for those attending.
The good humour and the delight of the general public to be getting their jabs are evident, as is the dedication of the clinical and support staff. In Wincanton, we are marshalling alongside staff from South Somerset District Council, many of whom have become quite familiar to us over the weeks.
The operation in Bruton is also manned by Brue Valley Rotarians and several good friends.
It has been a great way for the club to provide service to our local communities, especially given that our normal community service and fund-raising activities have been so curtailed by coronavirus over the last 12 months. It has also raised our profile in the community and, I think, made us a lot of new friends.

What can you do in lockdown?

Fed up of walking our dogs along litter strewn lanes, rather than moan, we set too with litter pickers and an hour, and seven bin bags, later we retired for a well earned cup of tea.

OK, it probably isn’t the most fun you can have in lockdown, but at least the lane looks a lot smarter!

This could be the start of something good – Brue Valley helping at Wincanton Community Hospital

This week has seen many elderly and vulnerable people most at risk from COVID receiving their vaccinations at Wincanton Community Hospital. Their patience, good humour, resilience and relief that the end is possibly in sight was self evident. In a quiet and understated way Brue Valley Rotarians have helped with marshalling, car parking, providing directions, sanisting (people and wheelchairs) and generally helping to ensure the process is as easy as possible for those attending. Sanitiser, face masks, gel and more serious PPE is available in abundance as are crisps, biscuits, coffee etc provided by Morrisons.

Saturday’s vaccine was the Pfizer one; today’s saw the Oxford – AstraZeneca featuring. The latter is a much quicker process as patients aren’t subject to the 15 minute observation required by the Pfizer one.

To be sure it’s tedious work and the shifts are long; somehow though it all seems worthwhile when Mr Joe Public said today, “Thanks for doing this, your doing a good job”. Shiver!

Vaccinations pause tomorrow (Monday) and resume on Tuesday for seven consecutive days.

RW

Water is now flowing in Kitogani !

In just over two weeks the Tower has been finished and the water tank has been raised onto the top of the tower. Work has started on digging the well and so far 4 metres has been dug. The well will provide a reservoir but more funds are needed in order to drill down to 12 m to provide a reliable water supply. The pump is working to transfer water from the well to the water tank.

Water running out of the water tank !

Mud Mud Glorious Mud? Brue Valley’s Seasonal Stroll

Flanders and Swann’s iconic Hippopotamus Song might well reflect the somewhat unwelcome theme of last Tuesday’s Brue Valley Seasonal Stroll!

The yellow weather warning wasn’t auspicious. It promised sleet, rain and low temperatures. Despite this Anne S, Colin J, Trina, Nicky, Karen, Graham (plus Fleur), Anne W and the writer were all kitted up and ready to leave at the appointed 10:00 am departure time. Missing from the equation though were Mr President and Sandra. The consternation caused by their absence was immense, and only mitigated by information that Mr President had cocked up the timing and would meet us, with Sandra, at a mid point.

To say it was muddy would be an understatement. Despite the difficult walking conditions the 6.5 mile walk via North Barrow, Alford and Dimmer was completed by all. The weather proved the forecasters wrong with the rain holding off until the return to Castle Cary. Not a word was said about the misrepresentation that the walk would take 2h 30.min or so (apologies to all but it was the mud – honest!). Refreshments were taken in a socially distanced way at or near Café Dewsbury; that plus the opportunity to meet and talk with other members of our wonderful Club must have been the highlights of an agreeable Seasonal Stroll.

Kitogani – Taps and Toilets – The work has started !

The Rotary Club of Brue Valley has managed to raise enough funds for the water sanitation project in Kitogani to get started. We would like to thank all those for their generous donations on https://www.gofundme.com/f/water-and-sanitation-project-in-zanzibar as well as the grants that District 1200 and Rotary International have made towards the project. We would also like to thank the Rotary Club of Stone Town in Zanzibar for their cooperation in this project.

This is just a start so we will still need more funds and any further donations will be very welcome.

You can monitor progress at https://hajisimba.wixsite.com/tapsandtoilets/copy-of-the-costs

Less than a week after starting the project, the site has been cleared, the sand and blocks have been unloaded, the 5000l tank has been delivered and the tower on which it will be mounted has started to grow!

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The water tank is now on the tower !