Tony reminded us that our own Chris Preston brought him on board with Ian Watson, our former member where the passion and commitment arose.
The water projects started in or about 2016 in Sariri PNG. The projects gravitated from submersible bores to concrete wells, which is currently the preferred method.
The village chief Elijah Sarigari (Elijah) leading the charge with his own community was instrumental to the ongoing nature of the projects and securing and protecting assets on the ground as best one can despite the trouble of in fighting between the various tribes within the Sierra District in the PNG highlands.
$ 9000 District Grants annually have been obtained to fund the projects with other designated grants from other clubs with a great success now involving District 5580 in Canada where District Designated Grants have been achieved to an equivalent of $20,000 AUD to continue to support these projects.
This is the work of Rotary Foundation and has been highlighted in previous bulletins and has been acknowledged by our past District Governor John Clue in his annual report that the Rotary Foundation is our charity and the works of the Foundation should not be forgotten or ignored.
The water projects has now morphed into a non-rotary project through philanthropic support by our former member Ian Watson in establishing Oro Cocoa Ltd.
Elijah has donated his own land plot to effectively grow cocoa which is the final product and establish a process and distribution system with the involvement of Ian Watson as co-director with Tony and Elijah as Managing Director.
Given that the Company was established under Papua New Guinean law Elijah is effectively the owner of the Company.
Each planted tree produces 20 to 30 pods of which 50-60 wet beans are produced.
Over 600kgs of beans are manufactured through this process.
Natural drying is preferred but constant tropical rain resulted with a kiln established within one of the containers through Donation in Kind (DIK).
DIK is another Rotary program out of Geelong and Tony is also a District member of this program. He reminded us that the containers provide general overseas aide which is effectively household goods, clothing, books, computers, etc. utilised by schools and broader communities within the Asian Pacific region.
The Cocoa project also is to have their own seedlings and there is over 20,000 in production at the moment which will ultimately be sold and create an income for this project as well as assisting the village farmers to have their own income from their own plantations and through transport to the markets and abroad.
This is a wonderful project and commitment by our own former member Ian Watson in his philanthropic way and for our association to continue.
The water projects are part of the RAWCS program and again Rotary Australia World Community Service. This also is to assist disadvantaged communities and individuals through humanitarian aid projects and deliver humanitarian aid and charitable support not only in Australia but overseas.
In the past we have also contributed to DIK, which something that maybe in future the Club may revisit.
We thank Tony for an informative talk and commitment to the Papua New Guinea projects not only in his own person capacity but also by his own club and involving our club in such a wonderful overseas project.
Our own Glenn Rundell gave us a brief outline of the history for the R100 Centenary Project noting that the Rotary Club in Melbourne was the first Rotary Club in Australia and New Zealand established in 1921.
The Warrnambool Rotary Club was established in 1929 and the sponsoring club was the Rotary Club in Melbourne. It appears the Secretary of the Rotary Club of Geelong during 1928 to 1929, Mr Tom Buchanan, was instrumental. It should be recalled that the Warrnambool Rotary Club was the first Rotary Club in the South West to be established. If you go into the Rotary Club of Warrnambool website you will gather all this information and more. It was certainly one of the earliest Rotary Clubs in Australia, the Melbourne Rotary Club was the first Rotary club.
Please do not forget, we will be doing our vocational trip on 14 December 2022 to the premises of Love and Shared at the industrial estate in Cooper Street, Warrnambool.
It is my understanding that this was one of the projects out of the Leadership South-West Coast Inc.
I look forward to our members celebrating Christmas at the Christmas party at my residence and we should have a wonderful day if the weather forecast remains.
The Board will meet on Monday, 5 December 2022 and we will provide an update of the Bi- Annual Giving Program with the project account funds to the various organisations and agencies resolved by the Board, which our Club has supported over many years.
There will be some new causes to support as highlighted in my previous bulletins.
So until next week, let’s imagine, Rotary!!!
Your President,
Sergio Bacchetti
