The Rotary Club of Louis Trichardt recently undertook a humanitarian outreach project to neighbouring Zimbabwe. The Louis Trichardt Club, together with the Rotary Clubs of Haenertsburg, Tzaneen, Capricorn and Pietersburg 100, donated three bakkie loads of foodstuffs, ranging from mielie meal to cooking oil and clothing.

Local Rotarians Johan Gilfillan, Ian Bannetyn, Luke Enslin, Louis Joubert and President Carl Henning utilised their own vehicles and made the trip last week on Monday. The trip was very eventful, with much hustling at both border posts. The Zimbabwean side was, however, chaotic and the Rotarians had to employ local runners in order to speed up the process through customs.

The Louis Trichardt Rotary Club linked up with the Rotary Club of Masvingo via Doug Hill, who is one of the longstanding members of both Masvingo town and a past president of the  the Masvingo Rotary Club, which has 12 active members. The food and clothing donated were to be given to an orphanage and two old age homes, which are ongoing projects supported by the local Masvingo Club. 

On arrival, the visiting Rotarians where shown the orphanage and old age homes by the President of the Club, T Ndige, together with the local Rotarians. All three organisations were well run, the premises were very clean and staff very enthusiastic in spite of the “economic hardships”. One of the most noticeable things was that all the kitchens inspected were without food and they were literally living hand to mouth.

At the formal handing-over ceremony, the president of the Masvingo club expressed his gratitude to the Rotary Clubs of District 9250 for donating the greatly needed foodstuffs and especially to the Rotary Club of Louis Trichardt for bringing it all. Carl in turn thanked the Masvingo club for making their mission a successful one and also the members who hosted the Rotarians during their stay.