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Brighton brightens up lives with sewing machines to DIK
The hiss of a compressor-driven pressure cleaning hose . . . the whirr of sewing machines . . . the occasional “Ouch!” These were the sounds that filled the sewing products shop of Brighton (S.A.) Rotarians Alison and Mark Rogers on a Sunday afternoon. Members of the Rotary Club of Brighton were preparing sewing machines for despatch to the Solomon Islands under the Donations-in-Kind program. The machines were checked, cleaned (hence the pressure-cleaning hose), oiled, checked, labelled and packed. At the end of the day 28 machines were ready for shipment.

The machines had accumulated in the business of Alison and Mark and colleagues over time. Pattern books and sackfuls of material were sent with the machines. Alison, who is the Brighton club’s director of international service, said the machines would go to village communities in the Solomons. Local women would be taught how to use them to create income to improve their quality of life. Some machines would be used to make mosquito nets for the Adopt a Village scheme in the Rotarians Against Malaria program. Brighton has adopted the village of Dabike, Papua New Guinea, undertaking to provide mosquito nets for more than 300 villagers. Hardly had the 28 sewing machines left Brighton when Director Alison announced that she was arranging to gather another batch of machines to be sent to Papua New Guinea to be used at a women’s training centre. – PDG Alan Lawrie.

Christchurch Rotarian is author Christchurch, N.Z., Rotarian, Jenny Haworth, pictured, has published her first novel, Hobsons’ Chance, a romance which mixes historical and fictional characters from the period surrounding the Treaty of Waitangi. She is a widely-published travel writer specialising in fishing and horticulture.

After studying at Auckland University, Jenny Haworth worked as a history teacher in Whangarei, gaining an understanding of Maori culture. Later, teaching at Pukekoe and Tuakau she had further contact with the culture. The idea for the novel came from visits to Treaty House at Waitangi in the 1980s where she was fascinated by the portraits on display, particularly that of Captain William Hobson. He was the man responsible for bringing systems of British justice and administration to New Zealand. Extensive research makes the story as authentic as possible. However, Jenny Haworth chose to write it as fiction, wanting to portray events as she saw them. She sees history as not just facts and dates but as something living. Main characters in Hobsons’ Chance are a lively and determined governess (sister to Captain Hobson) and a journalist. Jenny Haworth is now completing Lost Souls which is set in the Boer War era.