The last week has been a very busy time for your President and our Club.
We had a Board meeting at Jon Gidney’s home and reviewed progress across all our activities. The Global Grant money of US$24,000 was safely received for the water supply to the village of Ermera in Timor Leste. Work will commence immediately which is such a milestone for a project that has been evolving for the last two years.
The $7,200 funds for a blood analyser for Laos approved at the last Board meeting has been forwarded already to the Vientiane Centre and the equipment has been ordered. The analyser will be commissioned as soon as next month. The funds were provided equally by our Club and generous private donors.
Luke and Liz have been working on further grants for overseas projects, one of which is for a Federal Government DFAT Friendship grant for a milk processing plant in Nepal. The work by Liz in particular is enormous and I am so pleased for her that she has been rewarded on more than one occasion by having successful applications.
We also discussed our involvement in supporting the town of Wellington. I have since followed up by talking directly with Daryl Thompson, headmaster of Wellington Primary. He reported that the school is providing breakfast each day for 60 children and working on other wellness projects. He is going to meet with his staff and other schools to see how we can help. He mentioned that he was using the example of our Rotary Club to demonstrate to his students how important it is to have community organisations like Rotary volunteer their time to help others in need.
After discussion, we have agreed to have a bucket appeal in the Plaza to raise more funds to support drought affected communities. Sally has advised that the Plaza is more than happy to help out.
Some time ago we had a presentation on Greatfulness, a program of enrichment for primary school children. The Board approved a project to conduct the program at the local St Philip Neri School. The Headmistress is keen for the project and one segment will be for the kids to embrace one of our Rotary projects. We have nominated the drought in Wellington as a worthwhile cause.
Last Monday night Vicky and I, along with Karin, Derek, Sally, Helen and 300 other Rotarians, went to the Deckhouse at Woolwich for a Gala dinner and presentation by Rotary International President Mark Maloney. Mark hails from Decatur, a small town in Alabama. He spoke with American home spun charm of his origins and his thrill in touring the world as Rotary International President. He then talked to his theme of Rotary Connects the World and how Rotary is an organisation of action, how we have spread around the globe, and the ability we have to take on projects for mankind and get things done. He nominated almost eliminating Polio as a huge achievement and that planning was underway to target Malaria.
On Tuesday night Eleanor, her two sisters, Kim and Michael Bartok squeezed into Kim’s Mazda 3 and attended the Wellington Rotary Club prior to traveling to Dubbo for another Zoo day. Kim reported that they somehow fitted into his car and successfully delivered four more boxes of jelly babies for the kids’ treat bags. Eleanor also generously presented the Club with Prom dresses for the locals’ end of year formals – well done. Kim reported a wonderful visit with an invitation to a Rotarian’s farm and a visit to the site of an aged care home to be co-sited with a day care centre. I look forward to hearing more on Tuesday.
Meanwhile we met in Northbridge on Tuesday night and had a presentation on domestic abuse from our guest speaker, Steve Matthews. After his talk Steve sold 15 copies of his book Skinny Girl. Life is good for many of us, but even in our first world society there is a hidden underbelly of suffering.
Peter Antaw
