A small subcommittee of the Youth Committee (Nedlands) commenced researching in the year 2000 for a suicide prevention project for youth in our community. This was following the suicides of three young men known by Nedlands members in a six month period.
We researched many projects, attended several Seminars and spoke to experts in the relevant fields. Most projects were rejected as too expensive or not relevant for our community context. We wanted something simple, a resource relevant to the issues of suicide and to appeal personally to young people.
We were attracted to the idea of giving the young people a card with the phone number of an appropriate Counselling Service. The service needed to be 24-hour and answered by suitably trained personnel who could not only deal with suicide related issues but also drugs, family conflict and any other difficulties encountered by young people. We decided on the Lifeline 24 hour service which is accessed for the cost of a local call anywhere in WA.
An estimated 500 million people worldwide became infected. Many cities closed theaters and cinemas, and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Rotary clubs adjusted their activities while also helping the sick.
Rotary and the United Nations have a shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world.
Every hero has an origin story. “I was 10 years old when the entire journey started,” explains Binish Desai. It began with a cartoon called Captain Planet, an animated TV series from the 1990s about an environmentalist with superpowers. Desai can still recite the show’s refrain: Captain Planet, he’s our hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero! “That tagline stuck in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to do something to help Captain Planet.”