Greater Springfield Rotary has once again held a highly successful Annual High Tea, and on this occasion $5000 was raised for the new Westside Transformations project that will be kicking off soon in Camira. 

 

This year's High tea involved a guest speaker presentation from Diane McKendrick, a Life coach, and was sponsored by EQ Technologies.  The event was sold out with 96 attendees and everyone enjoyed a great high team and got involved in the raffle and silent auction that help raise funds. 

 

The transformations program is a national program that helps people regain control of their lives after suffering addiction and homelessness. the Camira program, when operational will be the third in Queensland with successful programs already operating on the Gold Coast and Hervey Bay.

Earlier in the year when several suburbs of Ipswich were inundated with flood water there was an excellent response from the community and local authorities. But as months have passed and the cleanup has been completed life has not returned to normal for the many victims that either lost their homes or suffered significant damage, Repairing of homes in ongoing and for those who were renting, or who had no insurance, finding a new place to live and replacing lost furniture,  household items and clothes is an ongoing challenge.

 

In addition to helping with the initial response and clean up, Rotary has continued to seek out and assist those who remain most in need. Drawing on funds raised by the clubs and through Rotary disaster grants, the clubs of Greater Springfield and Ipswich City have been visiting flood victims and those most in need have been receiving assistance in replacing lost fridges, washing machines, and other key household essentials.

 

As Rowarn Luder of Ipswich City Rotary observed “Many flood victims remain unable to return to their homes. Repairs are taking a long, long time, and those that were without insurance are even worse off”. “We have visited people sleeping in friends’ garages, sleeping on friends’ couches, or living in their homes with no fridges, washing machines and limited furniture and bedding”. “Basically, these people lost everything in the floods and are having to start from scratch to rebuild their lives.”

Paul Roger, who was President of Greater Springfield Rotary at the time advises, that the current recovery project is focusing on identifying those most in need and helping them with white goods (fridges/washing machines) purchased from Rotary funding and getting them Rotary debit cards and GIVIT vouchers for purchasing bedding and other essential supplies. “We are visiting every potential recipient and doing appropriate due diligence to ensure we get them what they most need”. “The people we have helped so far, have been extremely grateful, not only for what they have received, but because Rotary did not forget them and spent time visiting and listening to them to understand their needs”.

The flood recovery project remains ongoing, with funds still available. The Ipswich clubs have developed an excellent working relationship with Ipswich City Council and GIVIT, and all the flood victims identified and assisted by Rotary have also been referred to the council for additional support services.

Here are a couple of photos of two of our happy recipients of white goods. Both recipients in the above photos gave their permission for the photo to be taken and used in Rotary articles.

 

 

    Thank you, Rotary. ‘Living in a garage,

     but now I have a fridge for when I find a new home’. 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many would know Charis as a very active lady, working for our community and often visible around the Greater Springfield area, but perhaps not know so much about the lady behind the political duties.  On Thursday we offered Charis the opportunity to put aside her political duties and talk to our members about her life and her Greek heritage and how she learned to adopt Australia as her home having arrived at the age of 7yrs and unable to speak English.  A very interesting talk and of course lots of questions. Not to miss a photo opportunity we managed a quick picture of Charis with our our President Paul.  

On September 9, 2021,  Principal Fleur Watson and Deputy Principal Kali Harris, from the Goodna Special School were guests at out weekly meeting and spoke to us about the great work that the school does for children with special needs.  The school covers a large catchment area which includes all of Greater Springfield and is thus an area of interest to the club and members.  Members enjoyed a very informative presentation by Fleur and Karli, supported by PowerPoint slides, and we gained a good insight into where Rotary might be able to support the school.

 

The school encompasses a wide area across 21 suburbs from Redbank Plains, Springfield through to Ipswich. All students have an intellectual disability which includes impaired vision, hearing difficulties as well as physical and mental issues. 20% have an Aboriginal background and the age range is from 4 to 18 years.  The school is growing and in the future there will be over 200 students attending.  

 

The school encourages students to feel that they are an important part of the community, and in promoting this, the school has partnerships with Ipswich Jets players who interact with the students as well as family days.  Students are provided with skills and a plan to support development and their transition to life after school. Working closely with parents/carers enables individual curriculum plans to support student access to the Australian Curriculum.

 

While there are many challenges, building student communication skills is a priority at the School, with  staff needing to know how the students are feeling and what they may need. Staff work with a team of therapists to embed individualised communication programs into all areas of learning. Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display (PODD) books and IPad apps, Auslan (sign language), communication devices and core word boards are in use around the school to support the success of every student, by facilitating communication.  PODD is normally a book or device that contains symbols and words to support communication between people with complex communication needs and their communication partners, whether that's carers, family, friends or support workers.