Your district could earn a visit from Rotary International President-elect John Germ by contributing district designated funds (DDFs) to support the Miles to End Polio fundraising goal.
On 21 November, Rotary General Secretary John Hewko and eight Rotary staff members will ride in El Tour de Tucson, an annual bicycle race in Arizona, USA, to raise funds for PolioPlus. The team’s goal is $3.4 million, which will be tripled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for a total of more than $10 million.
Last year’s team raised over $7 million, and DDF contributions from districts were a big...
In Syria, where a civil war has been raging since 2011, more than 6,000 people flee the country every day. As of September, more than 4.1 million people have become refugees, and 7.6 million more have been internally displaced.
“The plight of Syria’s refugees is a litmus test for the world's compassion,” says Rotary International General Secretary John Hewko. “Rotary members worldwide are profoundly disheartened by the refugee crisis now unfolding in Syria and other parts of the world,” which the United Nations has described as the worst in decades.
“Rotary is following the situation closely...
RI President K.R. Ravindran officially declared Ian H.S. Riseley Rotary International’s president-nominee on 1 October.
The nominating Committee for President of RI selected Riseley, of the Rotary club of Sandringham, Victoria, Australia, in August. He will be formally elected at the 2016 RI Convention in Seoul, Korea, and will become president on 1 July 2017.
Read more about Riseley
Find new and innovative ways to improve your community by attending one of five presidential conferences this year, hosted by RI President K.R. Ravindran and Foundation Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith. The conferences, to be held around the world between January and March, will highlight Rotary’s areas of focus. Use these links to learn about each of the programs and to register to attend:
Peace and Conflict Resolution, 15-16 January in Ontario, California, USA
Disease Prevention and Treatment, 19-20 February in Cannes, France
Economic Development, 27 February in Cape Town, South Africa...
Rotary and ONE, an international advocacy organization, joined other event partners in downtown Chicago on 24 September to demonstrate a commitment to ending extreme poverty and inequality and to promoting action on climate change on the eve of the United Nations launch of its Sustainable Development Goals.
The 17 ambitious goals constitute a road map for finding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, and dovetail with Rotary members’ work to create positive change in their communities and around the world. As dusk fell over Chicago, participants in the Under One Sky event held up...
Club Information
Welcome to our Club!
Service Above Self
We meet Tuesdays at 6:15 PM
Warrnambool Football Club
Cramer Street
Warrnambool,
Victoria 3280 Australia
President Steve Giddens was held up by work meetings, so Anne Adams opened the meeting and welcomed visiting Rotarian Ian Watson, Rotary guests Dallas Armistead and Joan Austin, and Club guest Anton Van Doornik OAM, guest speaker from Rotary Geelong.
Carla was presented with her Club badge so she wouldn't forget her name.
Welcome back to Duncan Stalker after being away on holidays.
Anne advised that the AGM will be held on Tuesday 3 November at the beginning of the meeting. Nomination forms are available for next year's Board members. See Anne if you have any queries or would like a nomination form.
Thanks to John Nisbet who put up the defibrillator which is now located on the wall near the fire extinguisher behind the sliding divider doors to the next room.
Anne asked if anyone had been in contact with Rob McNally who had surgery last week. Judy advised that she tried to call him without success and will try again. Our thoughts are with Rob and we hope he makes a speedy recovery.
Ian Cairns, President Elect, advised he is trying to get a committee together for next year's Board, as some existing Board members will be stepping aside. He encouraged anyone who is interested in doing a job to get in touch with him.
2015 Warrnambool Show Launch - Thursday 29 October @ 6:30 pm
A night of celebration to launch the 2015 Warrnambool Show. This is something new which the Show Committee hopes will revitalise the show and encourage people of all ages to attend.
Tickets are still available and Svet will bring them along next week.
Lunch at Images
Judy advised that everyone had a great day on Sunday. 23 people turned up at Images, although Keith stood us up for a younger woman - his daugher! Judy is now working on an activity for November, possibly a bus trip to Timboon on 20 November with strawberry picking, a winery visit, chocolate factory visit, with lunch at the distillery. An initial show of hands was promising. More details to follow.
Inner Wheel Conference
Thanks to Brian and Keith who offered to put chairs out on Saturday for the Inner Wheel conference. Brian and Rachel will be putting the chairs away on Sunday.
Hat Orders
Judy still has some hats which were ordered a couple of weeks ago.
District Conference 2016 - Information packs can be obtained from Rachel.
Following Alan Bowes' fines session last night, the Treasurer was up till the wee hours counting the takings. Not many escaped with Jim Hanrahan bearing the brunt with numerous fines for being part owner of the Capitol Theatre, involvement with the election, and 39 years in Rotary - congratulations Jim!
Others were Judy Ross for telling Alan that if he went to the Sunday lunch, she wouldn't go! John Stuckey for the long meal wait, John Nisbet who went to Colac to get away from Alan, Keith for confusion over change given for swindle tickets, Eric and Keith for sitting in the back row at the movie Oddball, Eric Williams for turning 95 years of age - congratulations Eric!
Robert Cuzens for getting a good deal for his choppers, Andrea for her daughter's wedding, something about Anne Adams and a wedding dress, Duncan for being on holidays, and Tony Austin for turning up in a suit and tie.
The Chair Tony Austin introduced guest speaker Anton Van Doornik OAM.
Anton is a member of the Geelong Rotary Club. In 2000 he joined a humanitarian team to East Timor (Dilhi) to work on the hospital out patients department. In 2001 he led a team to Bacau and worked putting a roof on a house using the steel mill being developed by Melbourne Rotary Clubs.
A few years later he went to Mt Margaret's hospital in Oro Bay and worked there with different teams over the next 3 years, renovating the hospital buildings, installing a new generator, water tank and pipeline.
In 2008, after cyclone Guba, he went on an inspection trip to Sariri to see if anything could be done to assist there. This led to about 5 team visits including this year when Tony Austin was part of it.
Donations in Kind has been going for 14 years and for the past 10 years Anton has been managing the depot in Geelong.
Donations in Kind works under the auspices of Rotary Australia. It actively accesses material goods that are surplus to requirements in Australia. It collects, sorts, packs and dispatches material to areas in need overseas. It actively liaises with those countries to understand and address those needs.
Goods are dispatched from Geelong in 20-40 ft containers. During the last Rotary year, 200 shipments were sent to PNG, Vanuatu,, Tonga, Solomons, Fiji, Samoa, Tivalu, Sri Lanka and Mombasa.
Items dispatched are those which are easily shipped and will help in the day-to-day lives of those in need, i.e. basic hospital equipment surplus to needs here, sporting equipment, good clothes and shoes, computers, VCRs, crockery, cutlery, saucepans, etc, educational books, particularly primary school level, along with paperback novels and school supplies in general such as pencils, rulers.
Sariri Village: For the past 4 years DIK has been supporting the re-establishment of this village, which was destroyed by cyclone Guba in 2007. They have been able to send a sawmill, a 4 wheel drive vehicle, clothing, building materials for houses as well as a school and much more.
Other achievements:
Almost 300-20 and 40 ft containers shipped
4 vehicles
2 boats
Over 500 hospital beds
3 tonne of seed potatoes
100's school desks and chairs and supplies
100's of computers
One mammogram machine, several X ray machines
2 mobile dental surgeries
Huge amount of clothing, crockery ets
Anton showed everyone some great photos of the Donations in Kind operation, from collection and packing of items, to the shipping process, and then the unpacking and transport process at the other end. This is a huge operation which costs $70,000 per annum to operate and send containers away. They average sending 1 container every 2 weeks, depending on what goes into them.
They have been fortunate in the number of volunteers turning up every week and are grateful for the support from Rotary Clubs in the District - without which they could not operate.
Thanks Judy for arranging another great get together on the weekend at Images. This is a great way to acknowledge our Auction donors and have fun at the same time.
The second Australian Rotary International President Sir Clum Renouf (R.C. Nambour) 1978-79, decided it was time for the legion of Rotary clubs around the world to focus less on parochial projects and tackle a big-picture problem that would leave an indelible mark on society.
He had been inspired by the World Health Organisation’s eradication of smallpox and came up with Rotary’s Health, Hunger and Humanity program that would initially see 6.3 million children immunised against polio in the Philippines at a cost of just $760,000.
Another offshoot of the project was providing free tetanus vaccines to 390,000 expectant mothers.
Sir Clem realised there was a real power for good in the form of the ready-made Rotary network spanning the globe so he approached Rotary District Governor Dr John Sever, who was head of infectious diseases at the National Institute of Health in Washington DC.
Sir Clem put the question to him – “was there another disease that could be eliminated?”
D.G. John pinpointed polio, which was crippling 1000 people every day while an oral vaccine could be given for about 10 cents a dose.
After they saw the effectiveness of our campaign in Central and South America, Non-government agencies they came to Rotary and asked us to work with them.
In conjunction with the World Health Organisation, UNISF and Centre for Disease Control, Rotary is committed to eradicating Polio from our world.
This week, WHO removed Nigeria from the list of polio-endemic countries following all samples in the polio laboratory being tested negative for wild poliovirus for a whole year following the most recent case on 24 July 2014. This is the first time that Nigeria has interrupted transmission of wild poliovirus, bringing the country and the African region closer than ever to being certified polio-free.
So, from 160 endemic countries in 1978, through the physical efforts and fundraising around the world by Rotarians, Philanthropic Trusts, Foundations like the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation and others, there are only 2 countries in the world not free of Polio, Afghanistan and Pakistan but numbers there are declining.
So why should be support the effort to eradicate polio?
Because we promised the children of this world, that we would eradicate polio from the face of this earth.
President Steve Giddens was held up by work meetings, so Anne Adams opened the meeting and welcomed visiting Rotarian Ian Watson, Rotary guests Dallas Armistead and Joan Austin, and Club guest Anton Van Doornik OAM, guest speaker from Rotary Geelong.
Following Alan Bowes' fines session last night, the Treasurer was up till the wee hours counting the takings. Not many escaped with Jim Hanrahan bearing the brunt with numerous fines for being part owner of the Capitol Theatre, involvement with the election, and 39 years in Rotary - congratulations Jim!
With only 5 cards left and a kitty of $117, it was a tense moment when John Beks picked a card.....
The Chair Tony Austin introduced guest speaker Anton Van Doornik OAM.
The second Australian Rotary International President Sir Clum Renouf (R.C. Nambour) 1978-79, decided it was time for the legion of Rotary clubs around the world to focus less on parochial projects and tackle a big-picture problem that would leave an indelible mark on society.