Congratulations to Rotary Club of Mount Martha member Jonathan Mayne who was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow + 2 Sapphires at the Rotary Club of Mount Martha Changeover.
Solving real problems takes real commitment and vision and Jonathan continually displays these attributes. Softly spoken and a quiet achiever, Jonathan’s actions speak much louder than his words. His actions have united people to create lasting change in places where it is desperately needed.
Last year, our club had almost $3000 left over from a project when they arranged for water to be supplied to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) village of Komea. The neighboring village of Sigri's only source of water was carried by hand in buckets from a river 2 km away.
Jonathan volunteered to direct and coordinate a water capture project, using the leftover funds from the Komea project.
Our club has a close association with a PNG national Moses Pulop, who grew up in Komea and now lives in Geelong and works as a Registered Nurse. Together Jonathon and Moses planned to paint the village roofs, install guttering, downpipes and piping into 4 x 9,500 litre tanks and then onto taps throughout the village. A PNG government official was impressed by what he observed and provided a fifth tank. Our club put in extra funding for more piping and supplies.
Jonathan volunteered to direct and coordinate a water capture project, using the leftover funds from the Komea project.
Our club has a close association with a PNG national Moses Pulop, who grew up in Komea and now lives in Geelong and works as a Registered Nurse. Together Jonathon and Moses planned to paint the village roofs, install guttering, downpipes and piping into 4 x 9,500 litre tanks and then onto taps throughout the village. A PNG government official was impressed by what he observed and provided a fifth tank. Our club put in extra funding for more piping and supplies.
The villagers brought the supplies from Mount Hagen, then work commenced. All the labour was done by the villagers and for the very first time the village of Sigri had clean running water on tap, in time for celebrations on New Year’s Eve.
This project was funded by Moses and friends, the Rotary Club of Warrnambool Central and the board of Dragon Boats Australia (through Jonathan Mayne and Douglas Sinclair), to bolster our club’s contributions. Thanks to Jonathan Mayne and his diligent organization and his ability to raise funds for the project, the entire operation in Sigri was completed in under a month and cost less than $12,000.
The villagers of Sigri telephoned Jonothan last month to thank him. One of the villagers told Jonathon that his grandmother, who had lived in Sigri all her life, was very excited as she had never seen water come from a tap.
