Members of Swaffham Rotary Club were busily manning their Christmas Prize Draw stall in the Market Place on 5th December 1998 when a distressed pensioner stopped to tell of her plight.

She was 82 year-old Joan Hambrook who had fallen foul of cowboy builders. They had offered to clean out her gutters for a fiver but, having been asked to do this, they proceeded to remove her kitchen roof and then demanded £4000 to put it right. Fortunately, she stood up to them and got them to leave although this meant she had to endure overnight temperatures down to -6 degrees centigrade without anything between her and the stars.

The Club, led by President John Green, immediately arranged to help clear up the mess on the Monday, having viewed the damage on the Sunday. Retired butcher and Rotarian, Dermot Impson said "We were raising money for service to the community and this was something we could do".

Rotarian Chris Parsons, a member of the Chartered Institute of Building, offered to co-ordinate and plan the work to put her roof back on and offers of assistance were now flooding in from the building trade as the case was featured in the Eastern Daily press and on television news.

Eventually, Breckland District Council got in touch and indicated that Mrs. Hambrook would probably be eligible for a 100% grant for the repair work. This was rather useful, as Chris has determined that, not only did the roof need replacing, but also the entire kitchen needed rebuilding. The Club encouraged Mrs. Hambrook to apply for the grant and arranged for some temporary accommodation in the intervening period although she ultimately decided to stay put. The new kitchen is now being built - a far better job and in her long-term interests.

As Chris Parsons said, "This is just what Rotary should be involved in".

Photograph courtesy of Eastern Counties Newspapers

Mick gets to grips with the mains supply in Albania.
Below - The Clinic where Mick worked.

On 26th April 1999, Diss Rotarian and Electrical Contractor Ken Chapman received a telephone call from the Ipswich based "999 Kosovo" organisation asking if he could possibly help by providing an electrician to join a party going to aid the re-furbishment of a medical relief station in Albania and leaving on Sunday 2nd May.

Despite the fact that the cost to his company would be around £1500, Ken immediately located a volunteer in Mick Hill and made arrangements for him to be on his way together with the equipment and materials required.

Mick flew to Athens and then, via small plane and taxis, crossed the Albanian border to a town called Korce where they were to work on a clinic that had been partly destroyed in the uprising of a few years ago. He worked from 8 am to 6 pm each day to rewire the building so that it could become a home to some of the refugees that were flooding across the frontier. The home will be run by Roman Catholic priests although the building apparently has to be guarded by the Albanian Mafia, to whom protection money has to be paid.

Mick stated that he was shocked by the conditions he found, not only for the refugees but also for the average citizen. The water supply was routinely turned off shortly after 6 in the evening, electricity supply was sporadic and he was warned not to leave the compound, as it was quite likely that he would be shot. All ordinary items such as soap were available but at prices the average person could not afford.

"I'd certainly go again," said Mick, "The need is so great". 30,000 people were due to come into the town on the day he left, to join the 5000 already there.

Diss Rotary Club has had an emergency "whip round" to raise about £600 and other businesses in the town have made contributions to reduce the final personal cost to Ken. "I have no regrets", he said, "I felt that something had to be done and done quickly".

After 3 years of fund raising, the first Mobile Classroom for Cambridgeshire schools, provided by the Cambs Life Education Trust, is now in regular use.

This is a historic moment for the many Rotary Clubs in the county who have been the driving force behind this initiative. Now the target is to continue to raise funds to be able to get the full complement of four needed to provide all schools in the county with a regular visit.

The photo shows Gill Turner, the LEC Educator, with some of the children who attended the very first session at Colville Primary School, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge on January 1st 1999. In the background are Rotarians Francis Hookham and Roderick Watson from the LEC Trust.

The photo is courtesy of the Cambridge Evening News