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From the Bulletin Editor. A short bulletin will be sent out next Saturday Sept. 3rd covering the meeting on Thursday evening. All contributions received no later than Friday night will be included. Thank you.
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President Peter's (Words of Wisdom).
Well what a meeting we had on Thursday 25th August.
Our intrepid, dashing dentist Gavin Sidhu and spouse Lifen Ma returned to the Club to give us an in-depth description of the Ugandan Dental Programme. With financial assistance from the Rotary Foundation (see below), the sum of $90,000 was raised to fund this project. It just goes to show what one person with an idea, determination and who can illicit support can achieve a wonderful outcome. But not satisfied with just one project, Dr. Gavin is thinking of another international humanitarian project; further information on this potential project to follow.
The Rotary Foundation is the preferred charity for all Rotarians. A Global Grant, responsible for the above mentioned Ugandan Dental Programme, supercharged funds raised by this Club and our fellow Rotary Clubs. Just to think, Club and personal donations utilised by the Rotary Foundation for three years, can be returned to the Club at the end of the 3 years to then fund the Clubs domestic projects (e.g. an application has been submitted for a District Grant that shall be used to part fund the upcoming Birthing Kit programme). Perusal of the Rotary Foundation website, reveals that the Foundation has funded projects to improve nutrition for women and infants in PNG, geriatric services in Uganda, help to stop domestic abuse in families in Australia, transforming educational outcomes in Pune India, providing venture capital to a host of small businesses in Fiji, purchasing a state–of-the–art diagnostic imaging platform for the Eye Clinic at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead NSW, improve the exposure to reading and counting in the home environment of preschool children in Yarrabah in Far North Queensland. We are only restricted by our imagination!
Across my desk has come the recent newsletter from Shelterbox Australia. Again a Rotarian in UK, an ex serviceman, from his experience in serving in some of the world’s trouble spots came up with the idea of Shelterbox. Now some 30 years later, Shelterbox has grown to become the world’s leader in providing crisis accommodation. Think of war torn countries in crisis like Ukraine, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mozambique, Syria, Ethiopia and Yemen. These are the current countries where Shelterbox is currently active. Unfortunately Shelterbox mostly serves without media recognition; we see refugees fleeing from strife but do not see mostly volunteer Shelterbox staff distributing a green box containing tent, crockery, cutlery, and stove and cooking utensils and bedding without concern for the refugees’ religion, gender or financial circumstance.
Vale Honorary Rotarian Graeme Lawrie, who passed away last weekend. Graeme was a member of this Club since 1995, previously serving Rotary in Broken Hill. Graeme shall be missed as a dedicated servant to the Barossa community. He was active with other community activities such as Probus, Beef Steak & Burgundy Club of Eden Valley and master engineer building model locomotives for the Roseworthy Model Railway. Graeme’s Rotary legacy shall be Tanunda big shed , housing Tanunda Men’s Shed, clothes sorting shed for Tanunda and Truro Op shops and of course the Club’s storage shed. A minutes silence was held in memory of Graeme.
Last minute note from President Peter
An urgent reminder. All club members are asked to attend the meeting at the Tanunda Hotel next Thursday September 1st. We will have a brief and final Q.& A. to be followed by a vote on Regionalisation. You will have all read the details which were handed out at the meeting on August 4th under the heading 'Creating tomorrow'. A better Rotary for members, clubs and communities.' A new Governance approach' To meet future challenges, it is believed we need an approach that recognises the central role of members, clubs, projects, and programs relative to impact, reach and management. An approach that works with groups of clubs or other collaboration configurations based on affinity, modern volunteering, and leadership expectations. One voice marketing and national partnerships for greater fundraising and membership growth are also envisaged essentials, as is access to the best support available to help clubs evolve and be attractive to both new and mature generations. The time has come to address some of our most persistent challenges in ways that are more impactful, relevant, and attractive to future generations who share our passion for service and leadership. We must do so whilst enhancing what is great about Rotary. How ever you vote it is up to each member to understand that Regionalisation is "Creating a more Sustainable future for Rotary together" The other important part of this meeting will be the Induction of our newest member Steve Ahrens, so please be there to welcome Steve into our Rotary Club.
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Rotarian Gavin Sidhu address's our club and explains the next possible project
What an excellent presentation from our world travelled member Gavin backed up by his lovely wife Lifen, who used her expertise by assisting in teaching the many young children attending school in the areas, whilst the dentists were going about their daily work of educating young children how to clean their teeth and pulling those that they could no longer save.
The following articles were handed to the bulletin editor at the completion of the meeting.
Sergeant Mark welcomes Gavin and his wife Lifen.
Nakivale Refugee Camp School
Uganda provides an interesting insight into what happens in a safe and stable environment when the government can not or does not provide adequate services to its population. The community steps in, with community members volunteering time, money and expertise to create schools, orphanages and health services that provide free or subsidized services to those in need. People rally together to improve the lives of others in a manner that puts into action the Rotary motto of ‘Service Above Self’.
Whilst in Uganda working on the Dental project, I became aware of many community run projects that could use assistance to increase the number of people they helped and improve the scope and quality of services they provided. Discussing with community members as well as Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Mbarara East and Rotaractors from the clubs of Nakivale and Mbarara City, we have decided to investigate the feasibility of a Global Grant to assist the Shabani Social Program Initiative in the Nakivale Refugee Camp.
We ran a dental education day at the school on the 16th of April, an event organised by the Rotaract Club of Nakivale which had pre-existing ties with the school. I was impressed by the general intelligence and the level of English of the children in the school, with one child even knowing how many teeth adults have in their mouth.
Nakivale is the second largest refugee camp in Uganda (8th largest in the world) housing 109820 refugees, 47.2% (51835) being children from countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia. Schooling is a privilege in the refugee camp with the majority of children not receiving formal education, often as a result of being forced into child labour to put food on the table, especially in cases where they are the head of the family after losing parents in the conflict their family fled from. These children, especially young girls, are vulnerable to physical, emotional and labour violence, teenage pregnancy, child marriages, unsafe abortions, increased child trafficking, and other life threatening conditions such as HIV acquisition, mental health among others. For these children, education represents not only a possible route out of their situation, but, crucially, hope for a brighter future.
Rotarians and Rotaractors in Uganda are currently working on a proposal to present to Australian Rotary clubs for a Global Grant to improve the lives of these children through education, and when I have the final draft, I will forward this to you all and hope our clubs can once again come together to improve the lives of African children.
President Peter gets the meeting underway
PROJECT DETAILS:
Project Summary.
The situation of children in Nakivale refugee settlement Isingiro district in southwestern Uganda is worse than expected. Child labour is a major activity in these communities as a result of the lack of education facilities in the area. Averagely, these communities have a total population of 109,820 refugees with 47.2% (51,835) being Children with only two primary schools where the existing structures are in poor repair, very congested, unhealthy, dangerous, and not able to accommodate a large number of children in this area. As a result, most children miss a chance to attain education. The implication is that a lot of Children in Nakivale refugee settlement from countries with conflicts like Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, DRC Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Southern Sudan, risk not attaining education, this increases their vulnerability thus increasing child labour because most children are heads of their homes and bread earners of their families as early as seven years of age since most parents of these refugee children died during wars/conflicts from their home countries, or lost contact with their parents.
The Rotary Club of Mbarara East realized the need for improving the already constructed temporary community founded school and adds on a number of classes in a Community Primary School in the area to improve the social wellbeing for the many underprivileged Children and less fortunate orphans in the area. The need for a community School was seen by Rotary Club of Nakivale refugee settlement to be a vital drive that will give the community a go forward to establish sustainable education for the underprivileged children in this area if supported.
The project will construct four permanent classrooms, and two latrine school blocks for Shabani social progress initiative nursery and Primary school in Nakivale Refugee resettlement Isingiro district, southwestern Uganda.
The project will improve SSPI capacity to comply with the national education requirements and offer Standard primary education environments for both refugee and host community pupils. This will lead to increased enrolment and retention, will improve the integration of girls and children with special needs, improve learning outcomes, protection, and ensure safe and sanitary learning environments for children.
The estimated project cost is $55,000
Bulletin Editor has the Link to a video if any of you wish to watch it.
Some of the gathering to hear from Gavin and Lifen.
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Hello Area 5 Presidents,
Please share the below from Ian Howlett, regarding Maitland RC's project to upgrade two homes at Mount Serle Station north of Leigh Creek.
Some of your club members might be interested in the work week from 3rd to 8th October.
Thanks and regards,
Bill Simons
Rotary District 9510 Area Governor, Area 5
Past President Rotary Club of Barossa Valley
0409 851 730
THE NEXT ‘WORK
WEEK’ AT MOUNT SERLE STATION.
The next Mount Serle Station ‘work week’ will be held October 3rd to October 8th i.e.
IN on Monday 3rd and OUT on Saturday 8th, although it is
planned that someone will be on site from Saturday 1st. At time of
writing one of the two ex-Leigh Creek houses is fully operational and it is
anticipated that by the conclusion of this October ‘work week’ the second of
these houses will be like wise fully operational.
So, what is available at
present at Mount Serle Station? For anyone with a van you can hook up to
either of the ex- Leigh Creek houses with 240 volt being provided by direct
line. For those with campervans there are spaces within the Homestead block
with access to toilet and shower facilities. For those without either there are
four beds [two singles in each of two rooms] available in the completed
ex-Leigh Creek house. For those who wish to camp independently, there are some
excellent positions within a few kms of the Homestead block.
So, what do we hope to achieve
during the October ‘work week’? The
completion of the second of the ex-Leigh Creek houses with painting, the
hanging of curtains and some general maintenance. It is also hoped that the
Shearer’s Cook’s quarters will be painted and that renovations will commence on
the main homestead. There will also be the opportunity for an ‘environmental clean-up’
to ensure that items do not end up in the Frome.
Of course it is also envisaged that there will be adequate time for Rotary
fellowship, to discover more about the Mount Serle property and to visit the
Iga Warta Community.
For
further enquiries or to indicate a desire to be involved, please contact:
David Amery President
Rotary Club of Maitland
0455839 885 / 0476 996 882
POBox 40 PORT VICTORIA S.A. 5573
Further reference can be made at The Rotary Club of Maitland Facebook or
Mountserlestation.com
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Rotary support for Solomon Islands
Claims that Australia has failed the Solomon Islands have made headlines in recent days despite a long history of Australian support for that island nation.
Politics aside, one organisation has been supporting the Solomons for many years.
Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) has sent dozens of teams to the Solomons to assist with the building of vital infrastructure and to improve the health of local communities by battling malaria.
In 1998, the Rotary Club of Gawler organised a team to build a physiotherapy clinic at Kilu’ufi Hospital Auki on the island of Malaita. Past Presidents Ron and Ian Sanders were amongst the Rotary team members who generously gave their own time and expertise and paid their own way to and from the Solomons. The Rotary Club of Gawler sponsored and paid for the Team Leader Eddy Van Hensbergen.
The team worked for two weeks in trying weather conditions and with limited access to modern tools. Locals provided enthusiastic help and learned valuable skills from the team members. Whilst the completed building was basic, it was far better than anything locals had ever experienced and is a great example of how Rotary builds goodwill and better friendships.
In 2011, the Rotary Clubs Gawler and Gawler Light along with contributions from Barossa District, Barossa Valley, Kapunda and Clare Rotary Clubs used some of the funds generated by the Gawler/Barossa Tractor Pull to funded a Lucas saw mill for use in the Solomon Islands. This was not a ‘gift’ but a means of helping the community set up a viable business to improve the standard of living and teach locals significant skills.
Gawler Past President Bob Ahrens, together with our Rotarians Bryce Lillecrapp, Brian Helbig, Barry Klaebe and Robert Brookes, and from Gawler Lions Eric Filmer travelled to the Solomons (at their own expense), supervised the installation of the mill and taught locals how to use it. Sawn timber produced by the mill was used to build schools, churches, medical facilities, homes and many other buildings. Timber was also sold to the building industry and retailers. The $12,000 generated by these sales was paid to the contributing clubs and has been used as seed funding to initiate a dental health project in Uganda.
Due to Covid, the milling project has been suspended, but the Lucas Mill has been given a thorough overhaul and is ready to go when conditions improve.
Rotarians together with the locals who helped unpack the Lucas Saw Mill and put it all together.
Comfortable accommodation at Verani
Rotarians Against Malaria is another Rotary project that has greatly improved conditions in the Solomon Islands. Globally, each year more than 400,000 people die of malaria – a preventable and treatable disease. An estimated two thirds of deaths are among children under the age of five. The work of Rotarians Against Malaria has been on hold during the pandemic, but rapid diagnostic tests (similar to Covid RATS) are about to be introduced by Rotarians from District 9510 which covers most of South Australia and parts of New South Wales, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
The latest on Malaria (from PT)
The Covid Pandemic has had a massive toll on the Malaria Program in the Solomons. Whole of country lockdown, no Provincial travel, and then a bad flu outbreak has seen the malaria incident rate explode in many areas. Delays in the distribution of treated bednets, a shortage of treatment medication, a disruption in the house spraying program and a shortage of trained staff has resulted in critical increase in malaria in many areas; some locations returning to the statistics of pre Global Fund and RAM days.
The last visit by the Barossa Valley Club to the Solomon Islands was Eleven years ago in July 2011, when the team named above left for Honiara en Route to Verani to lay 500 metres of PVC pipe from the river to the school and then connect it to a tank that was mounted on to a strong stand. The picture below shows Bryce Lillecrapp (on his knees) connecting the first part from the existing tank to eventually pump water from the village to the school.
