Anstruther Rotary was pleased to welcome friends from the St Andrews Kilrymont club to its 14th April meeting. A special welcome was extended to Assistant District Governor Grace Morris.

Speaker for the evening was Mr Ian McKinney, who gave an illustrated talk about the Mwandi Christian Mission in Zambia. The talk was the story of a visit made there in 2013 by Ian, in company with his friend Mr Ronnie Sinclair. They both work as part of a network of local people, who collect and send supplies to the Mission. 

Many in the audience were familiar with the work of the Mission, which is run by Keith and Ida Waddell, originally from Scotland and now with the United Church of Zambia. What Ian provided was very much a personal perspective on the work of the Mission, with many of the human stories that are sometimes lost in more general reporting.

The talk made clear the great gulf that separates our standard of living in Scotland, with that of Zambia. We heard again of the ravages of HIV/Aids and of a generation lost, with children often being raised by grandparents. It was encouraging to see the progress being made with hospitals, clinics, healthcare, schools, hygiene and the programme of well-digging to provide clean water.

As Ian said, perhaps the greatest marker of this progress is reflected in the crowds of healthy smiling children to be seen everywhere. 

A vote of thanks for an interesting and personal talk, was proposed by Derek Mathie. More about Mwandi Mission is at  http://mwandi-mission.awardspace.com/