Following the Welcome to Country, President Jon welcomed members and guests - Joe Campisi, and guest speaker Rob Edwards from the RC of Corrimal.
Toast
David Robertson proposed a toast to the RC of Ulanbatar, Mongolia, a place he visited some years ago. Chartered in 1996, it is the first Rotary Club in Mongolia and is mainly made up of international members. The year 2000 saw its first Rotoract club, and there is an Interact Club at the Music & Dance College. The club supports water purification and education projects, Eye Health and Vocational Training amongst other projects. During Covid it has provided food coupons to those in need.
Announcements
Alan Hession said that there needs to be a trebling of Christmas pudding & cake orders to make this fundraising project viable, and encourages all members to support it by letting him know how many you are likely to order. Don’t forget to ask friends and family if they want to purchase some goodies.
Luke Keighery reported that he attended the Trivia Quiz organised by the E-Club of Sydney held on 28 Aug. The fundraiser raised around $4,000.
Luke also talked about the club's $4,000 donated by club members to ShelterBox. These funds are to be used to support people who have lost their homes in Haiti (due to cyclone) and Afghanistan (due to conflict).
The District Grant for the money for Fiji should come through shortly.
John Garrett spoke about a particular StreetWork case. StreetWork of course if one of the main charities the club supports, and John said we should be proud of our support of it when they can achieve outcomes such as that described in the article below.
A Young Person’s Story
The announcement of the extended lockdown period came as frightening news to 15 year old Kane. Kane was afraid of the violence inflicted on him by his older brother, Jordan.
The brothers had one laptop between them and Kane, who enjoyed learning, needed it daily to attend online school lessons and to submit his homework. Jordan kept the laptop in his room and used it day and night for gaming. Requests by Kane for use of the laptop often ended in Jordan physically harming Kane.
Kane's parents were experiencing financial hardship. Distracted by their own concerns, they ignored Kane's requests for help.
Kane felt that the only solution to his dilemma was to skip lessons and to avoid seeing his brother by retreating to his room during the day. At night, after the family went to sleep, he escaped his troubled home life to drink with friends at a nearby oval. His night time activities brought him into contact with the police, who referred Kane to StreetWork.
Craving attention from a caring adult, Kane willingly enrolled in StreetWork's KickStart program and was matched with his own youth case worker - Tyson. Tyson didn't criticise Kane for not attending online lessons or for his night time drinking. Instead, he listened to Kane and supported him to set and achieve the goals that would turn his life around - an improved relationship with his family and a return to school. Tyson supported Kane to achieve those goals. First, he phoned Kane's teachers and the school offered Kane use of a laptop and contact with a tutor so that he could catch up on the assignments he had missed. Kane's parents were referred to a financial support service and Jordan to a psychologist.
Over the next few months, the family learnt how to resolve their conflict, and
Kane graduated from StreetWork with a newfound sense of purpose. He became confident that he did have choices and that he could access support people to help keep him safe during the isolation of lockdown.
