The last two weeks have brought us engaging breakfast meetings, featuring several Rotary videos aligned with this month's theme of Maternal and Child Health. These videos serve as a stark reminder that, in some regions, over 50% of women give birth at home without medical support. Rotary clubs worldwide are addressing this by providing medical and educational assistance to expectant mothers, with our meetings highlighting Rotary initiatives in Nigeria and Haiti.
If you have the time, please click the following links to learn more!
On current Membership, Regrettably, Sue Cassidy has had to step down due to her and her partner David's retirement plans, which include being away for half the year. She's also relishing the chance to sleep in! Sue has been a dedicated member of the Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak since December 2016, and her presence will be sorely missed. Looking ahead, Sue will continue as a friend of Daybreak, eager to volunteer and support the club's fundraising efforts. We look forward to collaborating with Sue again in the near future.
The four Rotary clubs of Warrnambool made a strong showing at the Volunteer Expo on Saturday the 20th at the Emmanuel Centre. Our thanks go to Chris, Janey, Serg, and Geoff for their dedication and time. Janey seized the chance to network with other volunteer organizations and successfully invited several as prospective guest speakers for our upcoming breakfast meetings.
The Southwest Community group is scheduled to have a meeting on Sunday 25th August at the Warrnambool RSL with the aim of discussing collaborative action between the clubs in this group. Further details are still to be announced. The meeting will be directed by the District Leadership Team and District Govenor Lesley Shedden. Lesley has suggested we try to have 2-3 representatives from each club. Please let me know if you would like to attend.
Best wishes
Mehul
Letter of Appreciation from PDG Ian McKay & Sherril McKay
Good afternoon, Chris
We would like to thank your Club for your support of our DG Partner project in the last Rotary year.
We waited until the final donations to Australian Rotary Health for 2023-24 were known before we sent out Certificates of Appreciation to the Clubs that supported this outstanding Rotary program. Collectively more than $60 000 was donated from our District for which we are very appreciative.
Good mental health is essential for a child's overall wellbeing, including their physical, educational, social, emotional and cognitive development. Half of all adult mental health problems start in childhood.
Children and adolescents who have good mental health will likely carry it with them through their life. Researchers believe early intervention should be targeted at primary school-age children (and even earlier).
Through our professional careers, we have both observed increasing mental health concerns in children over the last 20 years which is why the work of Australian Rotary Health researching mental health 0-12 is so important to us.
The contribution of your Club will support this research and will contribute to further positive outcomes in our communities.
We hope that you share our pride in the work of Australian Rotary Health and that your Club might continue to support such important research in future Rotary years.
Please accept our grateful thanks for your support of Sherril's partner project in 2023-24.
Kind regards
Ian & Sherril McKay
Pictured with Past President Barry Moran is Matt Porter - our guest speaker on July 31st -
Matt spoke passionately on The Neil Porter legacy program.
Neil had a passion for helping students enter careers that matched their interests. He realised the many positive outcomes that eventuate when industry and educators work together and this partnership was a constant feature of his teaching career, much to the benefit of everyone.
The Neil Porter Legacy is making career education a priority with a locally focused and action-based approach in the south-west of Victoria. They are a not-for-profit that’s committed to exposing students to a variety of careers throughout their schooling.
To read more on this amazing program, and how to get involved CLICK HERE
Pictured with President Mehul Patel is Sue Amos from the Lions club of Warrnambool.
Sue was the guest speaker at our club meeting on July 24th. Sue spoke at length on the Lions International eye Health Program in Schools.
The Lions Eye Health, children’s vision screening program is the most comprehensive screening initiative available in Australia. Screening is conducted free of charge to any school, sporting club or community group. It is conducted by fully trained, insured and working with children accredited Lions volunteers. The program is funded by generous grants received from Lions Club International Foundation and voluntary donations received from various Lions Clubs throughout Australia. Technical support and guidance is provided by the Centre for Eye Health.
The members present interacted with Sue and audio/visual aids as she explained how this amazing program interacts with and within our local community.
Eight members of Daybreak and their partners celebrated with an evening of camaraderie, honoring 26 years of dedicated service to our community on July 29th.
We’re celebrating National Science Week by opening our Warrnambool Water Treatment Plant to the community. Family-friendly fun-filled sessions of learning and exploration. Read More
Leaders of Zone 8’s new membership teams share their insights
By Etelka Lehoczky
Innovation is a guiding force in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific, where energetic Rotary members are starting dozens of new clubs and reviving struggling ones. The leaders of four new membership teams have started 27 new clubs since July 2020. Their goal is to start 15 more, and rejuvenate 100, every year. To find out how they’re doing this, keep reading.
Start new clubs to attract new members
Andy Rajapakse
Rotary Club of Burleigh Heads, Queensland, Australia
Membership director for Zone 8’s Regional Council
“Forming a new club is easier than reinventing an existing club. New members find the new clubs to be flexible, accommodating, and rich with leadership opportunities. In an existing club, a new member will find it hard to become the president or secretary. But in a new club, you can get a leadership opportunity right away. In the new clubs we’ve started, 58% of the people who joined were female and 28% were under the age of 40.”
A new tool to end cervical cancer brings a promising screening technology to Kenya
By Rotarian Dr. Richard Godfrey
I'm parked on the side of the road in western Kenya in pitch-black darkness, completely lost. Kevin, my local friend, lent me his car, but in remote Siaya County, there are no road signs, lights, or any sure way to locate his house, and taking a dirt-road detour can deliver one into a ditch deep enough to swallow a car. So I wait for him to find me.
As a retired surgical oncologist, I’m in the region to deliver a new screening program that detects cervical cancer in its early stages and to perform surgery at Matibabu Hospital in the Lake Victoria region. My visit is part of a Rotary project to prevent cervical cancer, the most common cause of mortality for women throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Enhance Work Experience (EWE) program is part of the District 9780 YOUTH SERVICES suite of programs. To learn more about this program, or to get involved Click Here
Saving Mothers & Children
Rotary provides access to healthcare for vulnerable mothers and children, enabling them to lead longer and healthier lives.
By Joe Otin, past governor of Rotary District 9212 (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan)
I gravitate naturally to statistics despite the negative feelings some people have about them. I think that information is the fuel that our world runs on and without it our systems will sputter, stall, and shut down. That is because statistics are significant in decision-making.
When I joined the Rotary Club of Nairobi East, Kenya, 24 years ago, I was told that good Rotarians were defined by the regularity of their attendance, the frequency of their gifts to The Rotary Foundation, and most importantly by their ability to introduce new members to the club.
In my quest to be a valuable member, I turned to .....
