Rotary Club of Waimate recognises the tremendous work and commitment that Robin and Margaret Aim have been doing in Africa for at least the last 10 years, by awarding the Paul Harris Fellow.
The Paul Harris Fellow recognition was established in his honour in 1957 to express appreciation for the contribution to the humanitarian and educational programmes of The Rotary Foundation.
In 1982 Robin and Margaret sold a successful meat processing business in New Plymouth, and embarked on, what has proved to be a 37-year adventure, changing their lives and many others.
During the first 10 years, Robin travelled extensively throughout East Africa, holding leadership seminars.
In 1993, they started working with a church in Kibera, one of the biggest slums in Africa. Over the next 10 years, with the assistance of the New Zealand government (NZAID) and well-wishers from all over the world, a children’s centre, a school including a kitchen, a church and a vocational training centre were constructed on what was once a rubbish heap.
The transformed the lives of idle and needy children.
In 2003, after identifying that street youth needed assistance to create a future, Robin and Margaret received funds from a New Zealand donor to buy a farm. Rotary assisted them to sink a borehole which made this land productive. A member of Waimate Rotary supplied the first pig! This farm was developed as a market garden but was later sold for a smaller, more accessible farm nearer to Nairobi.
Robin and Margaret, with colleagues, friends and partners, have developed a 2-year residential training program including basic education, counselling (both individual counselling and group therapy), and training in agriculture to local at-risk young men.
I am not going to go into the detail of how this all works but they command a 72% success rate of intake students completing the 2 years of training and rehabilitation, 100% of graduates obtaining jobs in the agricultural sector.
Other projects include a child sponsorship program helping at-risk slum children who could end up on the streets to attend school. Another programme supplies slum families with 10 - 14 days of food supply when families are facing a crisis. They also sponsor a leadership development course for children’s workers from all over Kenya and some of the leaders are now trained to facilitate the Petra Institute Walking With Wounded Children course, which helps children’s workers deal with children in crisis, dealing with death, rejection, violence and trauma.
The Paul Harris Certificate states that a person is named a Paul Harris Fellow “in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations between the peoples of the world.”
It is expected that Paul Harris Fellows wear the pin to all Rotary events, as a symbol of appreciation for and support of the programmes of The Rotary Foundation.