Rotary Exchange Team

Tours South Africa

By Steve Bigham

Newtown resident Ed Osterman returned last week from a five-week visit (March 24-May 2) to the Republic of South Africa as leader of a Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) team made up of five Connecticut residents. The purpose of the GSE program is to further international understanding by providing an opportunity for outstanding business and professional people to study another country, its people, its cultures, and its institutions through personal contacts with Rotarians, their families, and others.

Just before departing in March, Mr Osterman turned on the television to see a 20/20 segment on Johannesburg. The report called it one of the world’s most crime-ridden cities. And the downtown area may very well be. However, the GSE group discovered that the area just outside of Johannesburg was much like a suburban city in Connecticut, except for its six-foot fences, barbed wire, electric wire, and sliding gates.

Since the Johannesburg area in south latitude is about equal to Boca Raton, Florida, temperatures do not get particularly cold. But, at an altitude of some 6,000 feet above sea level, it does not get very hot either.

Each of the six team members stayed with different Rotarian families every five days. The group was taken to museums, factories, the South African Mint, diamond and gold mines, and it spent seven days in game reserves and Kruger National Park where it saw elephants, giraffes, lions, impalas, vultures, wildebeests, rhinos, etc.

During the first week, the GSE group toured what is known as Alexandra or Alex City to the local population. There are approximately 600,000 black residents living there in shacks within only a five square mile area, Mr Osterman said. The US group walked through there under the protection of one of the shanty town leaders.

“You don’t walk through there normally,” Mr Osterman said. “We were invited into some of the homes and were impressed that they were neat and the children and people were dressed nicely. They have little but what they do have they were proud of. The small children were all happy with big smiles on their faces and it made us realize the monumental task this country is faced with.”

For many years, Mr Osterman explained, South Africa ignored the needs of the black community. A lack of education has led to poverty and crime. But times are changing and the nation is fighting for its survival.

  Rotary International is particularly active in South Africa. For example, the Bedford New Rotary Club has a “Book Project” wherein it has made contact with Rotary clubs in England and the US, and with the help of the Rotary Foundation, 20 and 40-foot containers of books are being shipped to Bedford View for distribution.

The Benoni Van Ryn Rotary Club has been refurbishing a number of deserted buildings to be used to teach teachers how to teach. 

The Krugersdorf Club is collecting old wheelchairs to be re-used by those who need them, while the Springs Rotary Club is refurbishing old rooms in an abandoned stone building to house young boys who have been abandoned.

Ed Osterman returned from his trip with a renewed vigor to help those people suffering in Third World countries. For now, he plans to focus on the plight of South Africa and asked anyone who thinks they can help to call him at 426-0530.