One of the major strengths of SVRG projects, she said, is that they are community-led. 

“The first stage is to sit down with the community to find out what challenges it faces and understand their problems. It’s grounded in understanding what the community needs.”

The community is involved at every stage as the projects develop, including training on how to manage and maintain the technology – such as solar panels – to ensure long term sustainability.

Over time communities pay back the costs of the projects from the profits they generate, allowing the money to be reinvested in new projects by the SVRG to help even more people.

Thanking Natasha for her inspiring talk, club president Martin Trepte said the aims of the SVRG matched many of Rotary’s core areas of focus, such as improving hygiene, developing community businesses, encouraging education and protecting the environment.

There’s still time to sign up for this year’s Maidenhead Rotary Bikeathon on Sunday, July 10.

The event has three different routes aimed at cyclists of every age and ability from families to serious club riders. The routes - 15, 35 and 62 miles (24, 50 and 100km) - all start and finish at Maidenhead Office Park in Littlewick Green.
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Organised by Maidenhead Rotary Club, proceeds from the event will be donated to Maidenhead-based charity Alzheimer’s Dementia Support, ​though  participants are welcome to raise sponsorship for their own good cause if they wish.

Organiser Sean Egan said: “The Bikeathon is not a race and the three different routes cater for all ages and abilities. So whether you are looking for a fun family event, are a regular cyclist or part of a club looking for your next challenge, we have a route for you.”

The short ‘family’ route – which is mostly flat – and the medium route follow quiet country roads around the Walthams, Shurlock Row, Binfield and Winkfield Row. The long route heads over to Henley, Christmas Common, then back to Maidenhead via Sonning and Winkfield.

While roads will not be closed for the event, all routes will be clearly marked and there will be marshals along the short route. Refreshment stations are located approximately half-way along each route. Medals will be awarded to all cyclists who complete the event.

Registration costs £15 for adults (aged 18 and over), £10 for 12-17-year-olds, and is free for children under 12. 

Road, hybrid or mountain bikes are all suitable. Electric bikes, child seats and tag-alongs are all permitted. Please ensure bikes are roadworthy and all participants must wear a helmet. The whole event, including registration, takes place outdoors and any necessary Covid-19 precautions will be observed.
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While you can register on the day, organisers would like as many participants as possible to sign up in advance. 

Maidenhead Foodshare will be among the charities to benefit from the second Rotary Open Gardens Weekend on June 25-26.

Half of the proceeds raised from the sale of entry badges to the event will be donated to the charity, which helps people in and around Maidenhead who are unable to feed themselves and their families properly.

Each £10 entry badge (under-16s are free) gives the holder access on both days to the 22 delightful gardens across Maidenhead taking part in the two-day celebration of the British love affair with gardening.

Some gardens will also be selling plants and refreshments to raise money for other charities including Thames Hospice, Maidenhead Mencap Club, and Dementia Research. 

​Open Gardens co-ordinator Janet Perry from Maidenhead Rotary Club said: “Open Gardens is a fantastic community event and also a great boost to local charities. With many people struggling due to the cost of living crisis we thought Foodshare was an ideal charity to support. ​

“Last year we raised a total of £6,500 for charity and we are hoping for a similar success this year. Entry badges are selling fast so please be quick to make sure you don’t miss out.”
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There are eight new gardens taking part this year in a line-up that includes a fascinating range of gardens – large and small, riverside gardens, Mediterranean gardens, gardens owned by plant enthusiasts and those designed to attract wildlife. 

Some will also be hosting live music and showcasing the work of local artists such as Donna White and Martin Dutton, while volunteers from Wild Maidenhead will be offering advice on gardening to support wildlife, biodiversity and sustainability.

Janet continued: “Our garden owners are keen to share their passion for gardening with other like-minded people. It’s going to be another fabulous weekend and we hope as many people as possible will come and join us.”

VOLUNTEERS from a local charity that supports new mums and families living in extreme need were the guest speakers at Maidenhead Rotary Club this week.

Rebecca Mistry, a co-founder of The Baby Bank, and her colleague Lauren Hall outlined the vital work the charity does to prevent families in hardship ‘falling between the cracks’ in our community.

The Baby Bank provides packages of essentials such as nappies, clothes,cots, buggies, toys and toiletries to struggling families. Founded in Windsor in 2015, the charity quickly expanded to cover the whole Royal Borough and beyond, and evolved from supporting just babies to families with children aged up to 16.

“Our mission is to support children and families living in hardship by providing essentials in a caring, compassionate and sustainable way. We believe that early intervention can reduce the long-term effects of poverty,” said Rebecca. 
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Most of the items it distributes are donated and the charity works with referral partners such as midwives, health visitors, schools, social workers, churches and foodbanks to target those most in need.

​​It is often called upon in emergencies and Rebecca and Lauren gave the recent example of helping an expectant mum who was living in hotel accommodation.

“She had literally nothing and we were able to provide her with everything she needed at short notice. You could hear the relief in her health worker’s voice when we said we could help,” said Rebecca.

​The Baby Bank is now an essential part of the local support ecosystem. Last year it helped 3,251 i​ndividuals. To date this year it has already helped  

​The day was also used to highlight an international Rotary campaign called End Plastic Soup, which aims to stop single-use plastics being dumped into our waterways and oceans by 2050.
 
The Maidenhead clean-up was organised by a team from all four Rotary clubs led by Rotarian Gurdial Singh. 
 
He said: “It was a fantastic day and shows what can be achieved when Rotary Clubs join forces with each other and work with community groups. Rotary would like to say a huge thank you to Maidenhead Sea Cadets for coming on board with the project and providing such invaluable help.
 
“While we picked up a respectable amount of litter from the river banks, many areas were actually reasonably clean so well done to the people of Maidenhead for being environmentally aware and taking their litter home with them. Thank you to everyone for their support on the day.”

President’s lady Amel Alariqi kept her audience spellbound with a very personal talk about her native Yemen when she was guest speaker at the club’s latest evening meeting at Maidenhead Golf Club.

With the help of a fascinating selection of photographs, Amel’s talk ranged from the history, geography, culture and politics of Yemen to her own experiences working as a journalist and later as a communications officer for Oxfam, before becoming a refugee because of the country’s bitter civil war.

Perhaps best known because of the former British protectorate, the port city of Aden, Yemen sits at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman. 

Amel explained that due to its location on major trade routes, over the centuries it has been influenced by Greek, Roman, Indian, Ottoman, Turkish and Ethiopian cultures which have all left their mark on Yemen and its cuisine.
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The north and south of the country were divided until Yemen unified in May 1990 and Amel, who was born and grew up in the capital Sana’a in the north, vividly recalled travelling to Aden in the south for the first time and experiencing its less conservative culture than the tribal dominated north.
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After Yemen’s government failed to condemn the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 its Gulf neighbours, particularly Saudi Arabia, expelled millions of Yemeni workers. Not only did this damage the Yemeni economy but they also brought back with them the more conservative form of Islam practised in their host countries.

“Quickly society became much more conservative. Women had to wear black when they went out, and even small girls were required to be covered up. All my friends started covering their faces,” said Amel.

​​In 1994 a short-lived civil war broke out in a failed bid by the South for independence from the North.
​Amel recalled: “It only lasted about four weeks but I remember the food shortages and hiding in the basement. The most painful memory is visiting Aden after the war and seeing the devastation and the look on the faces of the people there.” 

After finishing university, Amel became a journalist working as a reporter and later managing editor of the Yemen Times, an English language newspaper in Sana’a. 

​She covered many important issues from child marriage and the plight of children in prisons to the impact of climate change. She also came to the UK to study journalism in Oxford on a Reuters fellowship.

​Amel said she eventually decided she wanted to actively do more to help Yemen so she became a communications  officer  for  Oxfam,  travelling  all 

​over the country to advocate for improvements in local communities and to campaign on issues from food insecurity to women’s rights. She often appeared on Arabic TV across the region as a spokeswoman for Oxfam.

​​In 2011 came the so-called Arab Spring, a series of popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa. The new wave of optimism it brought was short-lived, however.

“The situation was not getting better,” said Amel. “Poverty was increasing and security was collapsing as militia and armed groups such as Al Qaeda took over parts of the South and a tribal group called the Houthis started making their presence felt in the North.”

The current civil war broke out in March 2015 and Amel, who was in the UK at the time, has been unable to return home since. She sought asylum and is now a British citizen.
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Already one of the poorest countries in the region, Yemen has suffered much in the intervening years. Protracted armed conflict, widespread economic collapse, and a breakdown in infrastructure has left 80 per cent of the 29 million population, including 11.3 million children under threat of massive food insecurity and famine.
 
Now far from the headlines Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Even before the war in Ukraine, one of the largest producers of food, the World Food Programme was already being forced to cut the rations it was providing for Yemenis on the brink of starvation.

In the past year Maidenhead Rotary Club has raised more than £3,000 for the UNICEF Yemen Crisis Appeal and another £1,000 for the activities of Rotary charity Shelterbox in Yemen.

The town’s four Rotary Clubs will be teaming up on Saturday (May 7) for a spring clean along the River Thames.
 
Members of the Rotary Clubs of Maidenhead, Maidenhead Thames, Maidenhead Bridge and Maidenhead Rotaract will be collecting litter from both banks of the river between Boulters Lock and the M4 at Bray.
 
They will be supported by Maidenhead sea cadets who will be manning boats to allow Rotarians to also clear litter from the river itself.
 
Meanwhile, a separate team from Maidenhead Bridge Club will be manning a stall in the town centre to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote greener alternatives to help people reduce their carbon footprint.
 
The project is part of a Thames Valley-wide Rotary initiative which will see clubs which cover stretches of the river from Oxford to Windsor turning out to clean up their sections of the Thames.
 
As well as reducing litter and its impact on the environment, the day also aims to promote a major Rotary programme called End Plastic Soup 

which has the objective of stopping single-use plastics being dumped into waterways and oceans worldwide by 2050.

​​Clean-up co-ordinator Gurdial Singh from Maidenhead Rotary Club said: “This is a wonderful opportunity for all of the town’s Rotary Clubs to join forces for the good of our community. By working together we can make a real difference and also raise awareness of important environmental issues.
 
“Last year Rotary added protecting the environment as a new core area of focus so this will be only the first of many initiatives locally, nationally and internationally as we turn the same energy and determination that has led to the near eradication of polio to reducing the impact of climate change.”
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Rotary is the world’s largest volunteer humanitarian organisation with 1.4 million members in 46,000 clubs across the globe. Together they work to make the world a better place is areas such as promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water and sanitation, protecting mothers and children, supporting education, growing local economies and protecting the environment.

Nearly 50 members and their partners attended the event, at Stirrups Hotel in Warfield. Usually held for the new president much earlier in the Rotary year, the lunch had been delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions. 

Current club president Martin Trepte also shared the occasion with his immediate predecessor, Mary Spinks, who had been denied her own lunch in 2020 due to the lockdown.

Martin said: “I am delighted to share today with Mary. It’s only fair. She led us with great strength, humour and resilience through what must have been the most difficult year in the club’s history – with most activities halted and all meetings consigned to zoom.”

​​Martin spoke of how being in Rotary amplifies the good that members can do in society and said that while Covid meant things may never return to exactly how they used to be, the club needed to look forward.

​The club has a busy few months ahead with large events being planned including a River Thames clean-up, its Open Gardens weekend, annual Bikeathon, an International Youth project and a ‘Quadrilateral’ weekend when it will host fellow Rotarians from its twin clubs in France, Italy and Germany.
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Special thanks were paid to Rotarian Tony Lodge for organising the lunch.

Last year Rotary added protecting the environment as its seventh area of focus alongside promoting peace; fighting disease; providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; saving mothers and children; supporting education; and growing local economies.
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President Martin said: “With Rotary’s new focus on the environment, planting traditional English trees was the perfect way to mark the platinum jubilee year. And planting saplings to benefit future generations is a perfect illustration of the Rotary ethos of service above self.”  

​Sixth-formers at Claires Court School have swept the board in the Maidenhead Rotary Club Young Environmentalist Competition.

The students entered the group senior category in the local round of the competition, which is being run nationwide by Rotary to encourage young people to engage with environmental issues.

The teams had to research and undertake an environmental sustainability project on the theme of climate change or carbon reduction that raised awareness of a particular problem and inspired action to respond to it.

The winning entry was ‘The Effects of Fashion on Our Climate’ submitted by Jessica Jones, Sophie Carter, Grace Johnson and Yasmin Paton, who came up with the idea of a swap-shop to reuse unwanted clothes.  They shared the first prize of £100 and each student was given a certificate.
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Their entry now goes forward into the district round of the competition.

The two runner-up entries were a carbon footprint rating sticker by Jess Holmes and Erin Kenton, and a climate change reminder app from Luke Lyons and Aaron Mussel. Both pairs shared prizes of £50 and received certificates.
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Club president Martin Trepte, environmental lead Gurdial Singh and schools liaison lead Malcolm Falconer presented the prizes to the winners and runners-up in a sixth-form assembly.

Martin told the students: “It’s so important young people engage with these issues as you are inheriting the world from the last generation and, to be honest, we haven’t done a very good job of looking after it for you.

“So it’s wonderful that Claires Court pupils have risen to the challenge, embraced the issues and produced such fantastic entries in the competition.”

Maidenhead Rotary Club would like to thank Thames Water for providing the cash prizes for the winners and runners-up.