Rotary Club of Senlac St Leonards
Rotary Club of Senlac St Leonards
2 days ago
News

St Leonards Rotarian receives prestigious international award

A Rotarian from the Senlac St Leonards Rotary Club has received one of the highest awards that Rotary can present. The award was presented at a meeting held on 23rd April at the Relais Cooden Beach Hotel, Bexhill to celebrate the club’s long standing project in North West Kenya known as the Rotary Yellowmen Project and specifically to honour lead Rotary Yellowman Eddie McCall. Such was the rare nature of this presentation that the District Governor invited some of his District Team to the event.

Mike Stewart presents Eddie McCall (R) with the award

The plan was to present Eddie with the prestigious “Service Above Self Award” probably the highest award that Rotary can bestow on one of its members. Unfortunately, Eddie had been struck down with a serious lung infection following his latest trip to Kenya and was unable to attend the event.

The Rotary Yellowmen team is headed by Eddie on the Medical side, Mike Stewart on Education and Iain Robinson on Building. Fortunately both Mike and Iain were present and Mike was able to deliver a comprehensive illustrated presentation on what had been achieved with the Kenyan Pokot peoples in respect of the medical facilities that are now available and the education programme which is being rolled out. The programme has a holistic approach providing medical accommodation and specifically toilets and showers at the various residential schools backed up by manufacturing programme of washable sanitary products.

Eddie speaking to the nun, Sister Clementine, in charge of Tikit clinic where the Yellowmen project all began some 25 years ago
Eddie speaking to the nun, Sister Clementine, in charge of Tikit clinic where the Yellowmen project all began some 25 years ago Credit: my picture, no copyright

District Governor Brian Dunne explained, “The Service Above Self award has to be applied for at District level recognising Service within Rotary at home and abroad as well as within the recipients local community. These annual awards are only given to 150 of Rotary’s 1.4 million members in over 200 countries so its recipient has to have done something very special. When I was asked to consider this award to Eddie, I was only too pleased to take it forward. Eddie has done such fantastic work in Kenya over a number of years and has made such a difference to the local people.”

Chopotwo Primary School in the Sekerr Hills near Mbara. This school is part of the International Rotary project where work has begun on the toilet blocks
Chopotwo Primary School in the Sekerr Hills near Mbara. This school is part of the International Rotary project where work has begun on the toilet blocks Credit: my picture, no copyright

Brian asked Mike if he would receive the award on Eddie’s behalf and subsequently present it to Eddie at his home which Mike was pleased to do. He reported that Eddie said, “I am quite moved to receive this award.”.

The Rotary Yellowmen project has now been running for over 20 years and recently benefited from a $102,000 Rotary Global Grant which directly impacted a new water supply, fitting out a new maternity unit, showers and toilets as well as education programmes for year’s 1, 2 and 3. This Grant was made possible by a partnership from our own District 1120, Rotary District 2760 in Japan and the RC of Stevenage Grange demonstrating the power of Rotary Worldwide.