Rotary Albert Park (part of Rotary International) is a group of neighbours, friends, and community leaders providing humanitarian service, encouraging high ethical standards in all pursuits and helping build goodwill and peace locally and worldwide. Our club was established in 1992 and has a long history of service. We have a membership of about 20 with a 50:50 gender balance.
Valerie Browning is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and an Australian nurse who has lived in the Afar region of Ethiopia for 35 years.
She has dedicated her life to the rights, health and safety of the nomadic people of Afar, one of the hottest, harshest and remote places on earth. Throughout Ethiopia, she is known as βMaalikaβ, which means Queen in the local Afar language, for her tireless commitment to her people. She has been described by 60 Minutes as 'Australia's Unsung National Treasure'.
Valerie is the program director of Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA), which she co-founded in 1989. Valerie will discuss APDAβs work in the space of maternal health, covering challenges including female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, obstetric fistula, malnutrition and literacy, all in the context of conflict, extreme weather and political upheaval.
This event is being held jointly by Rotary Albert Park and Ethiopiaid Australia (partner of APDA)
We are so fortunate to be able to be able to meet & hear Valerie speak at this time, while she is back visiting family in Australia. What an amazing lady she is, having devoted her life to this work, as has her nephew, Dr Andrew Browning & others in their family.
The Kyebe Maternity Clinic is located in the Kyotera District of south-western Uganda, and cut off from the region due to flooding for months on end during the wet season. The facility is around 130km from the capital of Uganda, Kampala, and serves a local township population of around 3000, and the wider district of 25,000.
After a 5-hour drive from Kampala they met by community leaders and representatives of the clinic (including the midwife-on-duty), and toured the facility, including the main Maternity Ward and other mbuildings, to learn more about the current state of the facility and itβs needs. Matthew & Stella spent the day with the community leaders and midwife learning more about the challenges of the facility, their current and future needs, and starting the conversation about specific renovation goals and timelines. We inspected the facility in detail, including structural aspects, the equipment being used and (lack of) consumable items. See photos (here)
Our $1,000 was matched by an industrial tools company, Crescent Tools making the Award worth $2,000 to Zeanna.
Each year the Rotary Club of Albert Park makes a number of Award for Excellence presentations to Year 6 students graduating from local primary schools. Recipients are selected by the year 6 teachers on the basis that they have engaged constructively in school learning and other activities; and that they will be commencing Year 7 at a government secondary school the following year. The award is to assist in meeting some of the expenses associated with commencing secondary school.
Members of our Club attend the graduation ceremonies at our five local primary schools to present the awards. As well as the financial prize each recipient receives a framed certificate. We started making these awards in 1994. After presenting 13 winners with awards (with a newly increased amount of $500 each) at the 2023 graduations, our total contribution to this program has reached $75,900.
Our 2023 Award presenters were:
- Albert Park Primary School David Gorman
- Middle Park Primary School Stan & Vicki Teschke
- Port Melbourne Primary School Jim Prokhovnik
- South Melbourne Primary School Lea Ram
- South Melbourne Park Primary School Lea Ram
Albert Park College opened in 2011 with year 7 students and consequently had its first year 12 graduation in 2016. At that first ceremony our Club presented the Inspire Award of $250 (Inspire is one of the three arms of the schoolβs motto β βLead, Achieve, Inspireβ). We have continued to make this award at every graduation since, increasing the award to $500 in 2023. Mark Davies attended the 2023 ceremony to make the presentation.
Jeremy Paton attended the 2023 final assembly to present the awards.
Community Fundraising Officer, Fundraising
PO Box 1284, St Kilda, VIC 3182
OneBall is a free community program designed for young people aged between 8-18 years. The program provides opportunities for young people from CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) backgrounds across Melbourne to play soccer in a social setting and encourages them to:
- be fit and active, and to enhance both their physical and psychological health and wellbeing
- develop positive cross-cultural relationships with others, and
- feel more connected and empowered to make a positive contribution to their community.
- On the third Saturday of each month at the Farmers Market at Gasworks Park (weather permitting). We are located at the rear of Gasworks Cafe, 21 Graham Street, Albert Park
- We also hold a book store on most Saturdays in front of the Holy Trinity Church on Bay Street, Port Melbourne
- And our latest venture is a popup shop in Docklands.