In June-July 2022 the Sri Lanka English Literacy project changed gears in response to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. The project provided funds to 15 schools to cover the cost of providing a nutritious meal per day for every student for a month. Teachers told us that students were coming to school hungry and in some cases starving. Because the funds went directly to schools and then into local communities, the cost was one-third of much larger donor-led programs channelled from overseas and through Colombo. Thank you to our supporters who donated to this appeal. 

Orkeeswa School in rural Tanzania encourages students to be curious, to learn new skills and to share new skills with others.

Form 4 (year 10) students Naini and Nang’idai learned how to play the trumpet from one of their teachers, then shared their skills with other students and members of their community church. When their teacher left, Naini and Nang’idai took over the running of the school trumpet club. They taught pre-form one students, and helped them to improve their English at the same time. Naini and Nang’idai are developing skills in leadership and teaching through running the club. Naini said that through teaching music, she has connected with many students and improved her relationships with them. Nang’idai has helped her church group to write a Maasai song using the skills she has passed on.

See more youth-produced and inspired stories at Orkeeswa Story Lab

Watch this fantastic video of a recent expedition of the team on a 6 week medical outreach trip around the PNG islands delivering much needed medical supplies and equipment. Our own Wendy Stein will soon be heading to Port Moresby and Alotau to restock their vessel – Kula Spirit – in readiness to expand their much needed services. Wendy urges all Rotarians conducting projects to partner with others, so maximum benefit is given to the recipients and to save huge amounts of donated funds.

Healthy families build healthy nations.

Caring for Our Port Stephens Youth (COPSY Inc.) is seeking expressions of interest for an updated study of the mental health needs of youth in Port Stephens. This is a Rotary project (RABS 12-2021-22) which has been going three years.

We are looking not only for input on the terms of reference for such a study but also for organisations that would be interested in conducting the study.

Rotary E‐Club of Brindabella

Geraldine joined Rotary in 2013 after completing an undergraduate degree in teaching and moving to Wagga Wagga. Since then, Geraldine has held a range of Rotary club and district executive board positions, including club president in 2016‐17 and 9705 district trainer 2017‐19. In addition, she has been involved with several other non‐profit organisations, including being a member of the management committee of the Wagga Women’s Health Centre in 2018 and 19. She has led a number of community events and fundraisers for local organisations.

This article below is one of the reasons I am proud to be a Rotarian – PP John Roberson

Rotary’s strength in local communities and experience fighting polio can help get people who are still vulnerable vaccinated against COVID-19, Nigeria PolioPlus Chair Dr. Tunji Funsho said at a global summit about the pandemic that brought together heads of state, health officials, and philanthropic leaders.

FIRST PUBLIC EVENT IN TWO YEARS

In February “Captain Beryl” compered a fund-raising launch to jupiter. Beryl is pictured above with Astro Alissi who is COPSY’s newest committee member and a jupiter Youth Ambassador (more on COPSY and jupiter below).

Over the last couple of years, it has been impossible to run public fund-raising events. After a few postponements, we decided to press ahead with a major fund-raising event on the 15^thFebruary. It was enormously successful with over 140 people attending, raising pledges worth over $100,000 and educating local benefactors about what we are doing.

One area of our Project: Community Resources

Due to lockdowns in Australia, reduced travel and shipping restrictions our pile of resources continues to grow with the hope we can soon pack it into strong boxes and send it on its way. Donations include medical supplies, high school and primary textbooks and library books, washable sanitary kits and sporting uniforms and equipment.

Where?

They are going to Santa Isabel, a province in the Solomon Islands.  The journey starts in Orange NSW which is the collection point for schools, businesses, community groups and individuals across NSW and the ACT. The journey is rough requiring the sturdiest boxes we can find, using excessive amounts of packing tape with the hope they will hold together until they reach their destination.

We recently received this feedback from a primary English teacher in one of the Lotus Program schools in Sri Lanka.

“My school is situated in Trincomalee district. There are more than 35 children in each classes. I am one and only English teacher in my school. I faced a lot of issues in my teaching career. I am a university graduate but I haven’t had any training for primary teaching. I want to tell something about our Lotus program. I have learned and am learning a lot of teaching strategies from the Lotus program. It’s an amazing experience for me. Every day I learn step by step through this program. I always try to learn new things and I always try to use them with my beloved students. I started my journey under the guidance of PIMD group. In grade 2 I begin by teaching only phonics sound through big books and posters given to us by PIMD. Every day I sing and dance with them and show how to pronouns all sounds. They all were interested. I always follow the guidelines and videos given by Lotus program. They were very helpful to me. In grade 3 I started to give dictations as the students learnt to write the sounds. First I gave them only two or three letters words and then one sentence, two sentence. Now they can write paragraphs. I am so happy about that. My grade 3 students can write long paragraphs as dictations. I tell them sounds and they can identify the sounds and write. It’s an amazing. The Lotus program is a very successful method. After the students start writing dictations I used the story books given by PIMD. Even today I am learning lot of things from this program. I have no words to thank them. My students are learning English very happily and joyfully. I can do lot of things in my school through this program. Thank you very much again and again.”

Rotary shares an interest in protecting our common legacy: the environment.

PP Darcy Geale has accepted the role of representing the Environment in our Club.

We are committed to supporting activities that strengthen the conservation and protection of natural resources, advance ecological sustainability, and foster harmony between communities and the environment.

We empower communities to access grants and other resources, embrace local solutions, and spur innovation in an effort to address the causes and reduce the effects of climate change and environmental degradation.