On 1st July 2020 our new Rotary District 9705 became a reality with the merging of the two Districts 9700 & 9710.
At the District Changeover held via ZOOM Webinar, the District Governors for 2019-20, John Mackenzie for D9700 and Peter Ford for D9710 reviewed their years and handed over to D9705 Governor for 2020-21, Dr. Michael Moore AM PhD.
Dr. Michael Moore AM PhD – A short Curriculum Vitae
Personal
• Dual citizenship – Australian and Canadian
• Married with three adult children
Roles Held
• Inaugural Rotary District 9705 District Governor
• CEO – Public Health Association of Australia Inc (2008 – 2018)
• President World Federation of Public Health Associations (2016-2018)
o President Elect (2014 – 16)
o Chair Immunization Taskforce (2019 ongoing)
• Chair and member of series of Boards
o Currently Chair National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University
o Member Soils for Life
o Member: Community Advisory Committee Charles Sturt University
• Company Director – MooreConnections Pty Ltd
o Consultancy in Health and eGovernment / National and International
• Small-medium Business Owner/Manager – Psychedeli Cafe with 18 staff
• Government Minister –
o First Australian Independent to be appointed Minister
o Health and Community Care, Corrections and Housing
• Leader of the House – ACT Parliament
• Member of Parliament – Independent MLA in the ACT for four terms
• Political and social columnist – City News a Canberra weekly newspaper since 2006
• Teaching: Tertiary and Secondary Teacher, Secondary School Faculty Head
Academic
• Distinguished Fellow: The George Institute of Global Health (University of NSW) from 2018
• Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra since 2001
• Bachelor of Arts (Flinders University)
• Post Graduate Diploma of Education (Adelaide University)
• Master of Population Health (Australian National University)
• PhD University of Canberra – Power, Politics Persuasion: The Critical Friend in Public Health Advocacy
• Over 500 articles in peer reviewed journals, newspapers, blogs, book chapters and magazines
Recognition
Rotary
• Paul Harris Fellow (Awarded by the Rotary Club of Canberra in 2010 )
• President: Canberra Club 2007/08 with Presidential Citation
Other
• Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM)
• Sidney Sax Public Health Medal (Public Health Association of Australia
• Life Member Public Health Association of Australia
• Health in All Award 2014 – (University of NSW)
• Justice Gerald Le Dain Award for Achievement in the Field of Law (Drug Policy Foundation USA)
• Aids Action Council President’s Award 2001
| Now More Than Ever, Rotary Connects the World: The 2020 Rotary Virtual Convention will link you with Rotary and Rotaract members from around the world. Sign up now for this free online event that takes place 20-26 June. Our first virtual convention is open to all Rotary members and participants. Come together during general sessions to witness the power of Rotary connections. Learn new skills, explore thought-provoking topics, and discover inventive ways to engage and adapt at our breakout sessions. Visit the convention’s event page on Facebook to connect with other members. And use the hashtag #Rotary20 in your social media posts to share what you’re looking forward to at this year’s convention. Don’t forget to invite a friend from your club or share the convention with your Rotary family. |
Click Here to Donate to Australian Rotary Health
Rotarians Against Malaria
In Australia, Rotarians Against Malaria observe Malaria Awareness Day on 30 April each year, in conjunction with World Malaria Day on 25 April, to raise awareness of the global burden of malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that puts half the world at risk and kills a child every two minutes.
In 2018, these investments saved almost 600,000 lives and prevented nearly 100 million malaria cases compared to 2000 levels. Globally, in 2018, an estimated 1,109 deaths occurred daily as a result of malaria infections. Of 1,109 deaths, an estimated 67% were children under five years.
The global theme for World Malaria Day, ‘Zero Malaria Starts with Me’, emphasizes everyone’s power and responsibility – no matter where they live – to ensure no one dies from a mosquito bite.
Help us END malaria.
Rotary is closely monitoring the pandemic of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, and continuously assessing the potential impact on Rotary operations, events, and members.
Your health and safety are always our top priorities.
In the near term, Rotary International recommends that districts and Rotary and Rotaract clubs meet virtually, cancel, or postpone meetings and events following the advice of national and local health officials.
Rotary encourages members and their families to take precautions to protect themselves from contracting the virus by: washing your hands often and thoroughly, putting distance between yourself and others if COVID-19 is spreading in your community, and staying home if you are sick.
I am moved to make this post after reading an article on the number of refugees leaving Venezuela and the situation in Turkey and Europe with a huge number of Syrian refugees. Please read the article on Venezuela. https://www.rotary.org/en/exodus-venezuela
I find this an encouraging move by Rotary in a World that seems to have more conflict and challenging situations than ever before. Peace initiatives within our communities are needed now more than ever.
Rotary’s peace initiatives at a tipping point
Posted on March 4, 2020
Rotarians, Rotary Peace Fellows, Rotaractors, and Rotary Scholars participate in a Positive Peace workshop.
By Chris Offer, Rotary Club of Ladner, Delta, British Columbia, Canada, and chair of the Peace Major Gifts Initiative
Ispent three days in Ontario, California, USA, in January with a group of passionate peacebuilders learning to be Rotary Positive Peace Activators.
The goal of the three-day training was to develop a worldwide network of peacebuilders to support Rotarians and Rotaractors in fostering Positive Peace in their communities. By 2024, Rotary will train 150 new Positive Peace Activators in six global regions, prepared to educate, coach, and accompany Rotarians in at least 1,000 presentations and/or workshops, and act as consultants on projects locally and globally.
The training is the next step in a growing list of Rotary peace initiatives that I believe are pushing Rotary to a tipping point. Our peace programs will begin rapidly expanding and will change Rotary forever as we go from being advocates for peace to something grander: active and effective peacebuilders.
In 2017, Rotary and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) formed a strategic partnership. This alliance builds on IEP’s research into Positive Peace – the attitudes, institutions, and structures that shape peaceful societies – as well as Rotary’s grassroots work in communities globally.
In addition to our partnership with IEP, Rotary’s Peace Centers are expanding, Rotary Peace Fellows are taking on diverse roles, there is an online peace academy, and clubs and districts are increasing their reach with a variety of peace projects. Major positive peace projects occurred in 2019 in Mexico and Colombia.
The 25 activators who participated in the training with me were Rotarians, peace fellows, Rotaractors, and Rotary Global Scholars. We were trained on the IEP positive peace model and on facilitating meetings. We focused on skills that will enable us to lead education programs with Rotary-affiliated groups.
Rotary seeks to create the conditions for Positive Peace by funding and implementing thousands of local and international peace projects. The Rotary Positive Peace Activators will take a lead as advisors to assist clubs and districts.
This is our peace tipping point.
- The WorldSupport Rotary’s work in building peace through your generous gift (select the Endowment-Rotary Peace Centers from the donate menu)
- Read more about Rotary’s partnership with IEP
- Learn about the Rotary Positive Peace Academy
- Contact Summer Lewis for more information on the Rotary Positive Peace Activators
We have all seen the disastrous fires that have erupted, taking lives as well as destroying hundreds of homes and properties across Australia.
Rotary is looking to provide support for families in need. To this end several Rotary Districts and Clubs have established projects which are ready and able to accept donations from you. All of those projects can apply for funds from this appeal. Click to DONATE
The article published in “The Rotarian”, January 2020 tells a story of what Rotary and Rotarians can do to assist those who need assistance: Service above Self
Ski into the heart of Rotary
Guido Franceschetti
Rotary Club of Rome International
The only way to survive was to relax every single muscle and then forget about the body. The pain remained, but I learned to contemplate it objectively, almost like a spectator. After my surgeries, I had to lie completely still, my shattered pelvis held together with plates and screws. I could only use one hand; the other shoulder was broken. Fractured vertebrae and ribs added to the pain.
I was skiing with friends in Val d’Isère, France, when the accident happened. The first two days were glorious: good snow, ideal conditions. On the third day, a dense fog rolled in, so we decided to take an easier route down and stop for the day. The runs were smooth and deserted. I was ahead, so I cut right and looked behind me to see if I could catch a glimpse of anyone. I cut left and looked back again. Where were they?
When I faced forward again, a signpost was directly in front of me. I tried an emergency maneuver to avoid it, but it didn’t work. With the little control I had left, I tried dodging it from the side. But it was too late — I hit the post hard.
My friend Bernard found me first. I was in so much pain and very cold. He put his windbreaker over me and called for help. It was too foggy for a helicopter to airlift me off the mountain, so the emergency response team hoisted me onto a toboggan to sled down to a cable car that took me the rest of the way to a waiting ambulance. My injuries were too complicated for the two closest hospitals to treat, so I was transferred to a university hospital in Grenoble for surgery.
My wife, Daniela, was in Rome at the time. She rushed to France, but by the time she got to Grenoble, I had already been taken into surgery. The operation was expected to be very long, so the staff advised her to return to the hotel. I hate to think of how she must have felt, upset and alone in a foreign place with my situation uncertain.
Back at the hotel, Daniela noticed the Rotary logo; the doorman told her that the Rotary Club of Grenoble-Belledonne met there. In fact, their meeting was about to start. Daniela is also a Rotarian, and the timing felt like a blessing. She needed to spend a few hours among friendly faces, even if they were strangers. She decided to attend.
The club members welcomed her warmly, and when she told them about my accident, they showed us what it means to be a part of Rotary. The topic of the meeting shifted from club business to how to help Daniela. One member offered her daughter’s apartment, which was temporarily unoccupied. Another gave Daniela a ride back to the hospital. When she told me everything later, I was very touched. I could tell that Daniela had gained strength to deal with her fears for my health knowing that she could count on friends, even ones she had just met, to help her.
In the following days, while I underwent more operations, the Grenoble Rotarians helped Daniela settle in. They solved the bureaucratic problems that arose when she filled out the paperwork to authorize my stay in France. After two weeks in the hospital, I was transferred to a rehabilitation clinic in the mountains outside Grenoble. My doctors thought it best that I stay nearby, rather than return to Rome, during rehabilitation so they could monitor my progress and intervene if needed.
I spent four months recovering in France. For much of that time, I was completely immobilized. I was well cared for, and Daniela was able to travel back and forth from Rome to see me, but I was still in a foreign place without any family nearby. The rehabilitation clinic was beautiful, but the road to reach it was winding, long, and not very convenient from Grenoble. Yet the Rotarians never left me wanting for company. Their visits brought me a little bit of the outside world, and for that, I was so grateful. After any of them visited, Daniela would, of course, receive an update.
When I finally started to move around in a wheelchair, I asked my doctor for permission to attend the Grenoble-Belledonne club meeting. Through tears, I thanked them for taking care of me and my family.
It’s now been almost 12 years since my accident. I have healed, and our friendship with many members of the Grenoble club endures. I have always believed that the most extraordinary aspect of Rotary is the potential for friendship all over the world. I’m lucky to have lived a very touching example of that.
As told to Vanessa Glavinskas
At our meeting held 22 October 2019, DG John McKenzie explained how all Rotary Districts in Australia are giving support to Purple House. Here is their story and how you donate on their website. A great cause.
The Purple House story begins with some magnificent paintings…
Thirty years ago, Pintupi people from the Western Desert of Central Australia began leaving their country and families to seek treatment for end-stage renal failure in Alice Springs or Darwin. Far from home, they suffered great loneliness and hardship, and weren’t around to pass on cultural knowledge in their communities.
So they decided to do something about it.
In 2000 Papunya Tula artists from Walungurru and Kiwirrikurra developed four extraordinary collaborative paintings which were auctioned at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 11 November 2000, which along with a series of other work, raised over $1 million. That money started the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, now called Purple House, which developed a new model of care based around family, country and compassion.
Run from its headquarters in a suburban house in Alice Springs, Purple House’s mission is ‘Making all our families well’. Flexibility and cultural safety is at the centre of everything we do. It’s the ‘Purple House way’.
We now offer remote dialysis, social support, aged-care services and runs a bush medicine enterprise. And our services are expanding. Since the opening of the first dialysis clinic in Kintore in 2004, we now run 16 remote clinics and a mobile dialysis unit called the Purple Truck, which allows patients to head back home to visit family, for festivals, funerals and other cultural business. Three new remote dialysis clinics are scheduled to open in 2019.
Central Australia has gone from having the worst to best survival rates for dialysis in Australia. We are getting more and more patients back home so that families and culture can remain strong. As one former-director said, “Anangu like the open space of their land, where they can smell the Spirit, the wildflowers and other plants. They want fire for the smell of wood smoke going through the air. They want to smell the flowers after rain.”
Purple House is entirely Indigenous-run and owned with an all-Indigenous Board of Directors who are elected by our members. We are supported through an innovative mix of philanthropic and self-generated funds, and Northern Territory and Commonwealth Government support.
Purple House is is always willing to share our story and provide advice and support to other communities who want to establish their own dialysis service.
You can see more and donate on their website: https://www.purplehouse.org.au/
6 humanitarians honored for their work with refugees
Six humanitarians who are members of the family of Rotary are being honored as People of Action: Connectors Beyond Borders during the 2019 Rotary Day at the United Nations, which focuses this year on the global refugee crisis.
The annual event, being held at the UN’s headquarters in New York, USA, on 9 November this year, celebrates the vision for peace that Rotary and the UN share. Through Rotary’s long history with the UN, its members have helped people affected by war, famine, and disaster.
Today, the number of refugees worldwide is the highest it has been since World War II. The six honorees — five Rotary members and a Rotary Peace Fellow — are all people of action who have found community-based solutions to the refugee crisis.
Bernd Fischer
Club: Rotary Club of Berlin, Germany
Project: Integration of refugee women into German society
Description: Fischer, a retired diplomat, is coordinating Rotary clubs in Europe and the U.S. on a grant project to integrate 240 refugee women into German society by helping them overcome cultural and language differences that hinder their participation in daily life. The project has already trained 100 women with children and has provided mentoring in their own languages, job training and placement assistance, and child care when they need medical and psychological treatment.
Lucienne Heyworth
Rotary connection: Rotary Peace Fellow (Uppsala University, 2015-17)
Project: Education curriculum in times of emergency, focused on the Middle East
Description: Heyworth developed an “education in emergencies” curriculum to provide instructional materials that can be used in makeshift learning spaces to teach people displaced by conflict. Such spaces create critical safe places for entire communities, where families can fill other basic needs like food, hygiene, and health. Heyworth, who was a teacher before she developed her expertise in providing education in areas of conflict, has focused her work in the Middle East.
Ilge Karancak-Splane
Club: Rotary Club of Monterey Cannery Row, California, USA
Project: Education and integration project in Turkey for Syrian refugee children
Description: After visiting several refugee tent camps in Turkey, Karancak-Splane organized Rotary clubs to provide 1,000 pairs of children’s shoes and socks for families in the camps in 2017. Recognizing that the children also lacked access to schools, Karancak-Splane and her Rotary club launched a global grant project to help educate refugee children.
Hasina Rahman
Club: Rotary Club of Dhaka Mavericks, Bangladesh
Project: Nutrition services for Rohingya children in Bangladesh
Description: Rahman, assistant country director of Concern Worldwide, has mobilized Rotary clubs and partner agencies to raise funds for and construct an outpatient therapeutic center that provides lifesaving preventive care and nutrition services for children and pregnant women who have fled to the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar. The center has screened more than 500,000 Rohingya children and helped more than 7,000 severely malnourished children. Staff members and volunteers have learned about feeding infants and young children, and refugee families have received information in their own language about breastfeeding and proper hygiene.
Ace Robin
Club: Rotary Club of Mataram Lombok, Mataram, Indonesia
Project: Disaster relief and housing for people displaced by earthquakes
Description: Robin has led her club’s and community’s efforts to provide assistance to people displaced by a series of earthquakes in the Lombok region of Indonesia during 2018. She served as the contact person for ShelterBox, aiding in the delivery of 915 units of temporary housing near Lombok. She and her fellow club members brought water, food, and other necessities to people who were displaced and distributed teaching materials, uniforms, shoes, and bags for students. Robin remains involved in the long-term recovery efforts.
Vanderlei Lima Santana
Club: Rotary Club of Boa Vista-Caçari, Roraima, Brazil
Project: Humanitarian aid to Venezuelan refugees
Description: Santana has led efforts to welcome and care for thousands of Venezuelan refugees arriving in northern Brazil because of desperate economic conditions in their country. Santana’s club has been working with the government and nonprofit organizations to coordinate the distribution of meals and vaccines to more than a thousand refugees who are living in streets or makeshift shelters in a plaza near the local bus station. They also provide professional development assistance and help the refugees find places to sleep.
Nigeria reaches crucial polio milestone
By Ryan Hyland
Photo by Andrew Esiebo
It’s been three years since health officials last reported a case of polio caused by the wild poliovirus in Nigeria. The milestone, reached on 21 August, means that it’s possible for the entire World Health Organization (WHO) African region to be certified wild poliovirus-free next year.
Nigeria’s success is the result of several sustained efforts, including domestic and international financing, the commitment of thousands of health workers, and strategies to immunize children who previously couldn’t be reached because of a lack of security in the country’s northern states.
“Rotary, its Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners, and the Nigerian government have strengthened immunization and disease detection systems,” says Michael K. McGovern, chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee. He adds: “We are now reaching more children than ever in some of the hardest-to-reach places in Nigeria.”
McGovern says Rotary members in Nigeria play an important role in ridding the country of the disease. “Rotarians have been hard at work raising awareness for polio eradication, advocating with the government, and addressing other basic health needs to complement polio eradication efforts, like providing clean water to vulnerable communities.”
Nigeria is the last country in Africa where polio is endemic. Once Africa is certified as free of the wild poliovirus, five of the WHO’s six regions will be free of wild polio. Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which means transmission of the virus has never been stopped.
Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee, acknowledges the milestone but cautions Rotary members about celebrating too soon. He cites the challenge of making certain that routine immunizations reach every child in Nigeria.
“It’s paramount that we ensure all doors are locked to the re-entry of the wild poliovirus into our country,” says Funsho.
Funsho says to achieve this, Rotary needs to maintain strong advocacy efforts, continue to increase awareness of immunization campaigns, and ensure members raise necessary funds. Rotary has contributed $268 million to fight polio in Nigeria.
“As the first organization to dream of a polio-free world, Rotary is committed to fulfilling our promise,” says McGovern. “Our progress in Nigeria is a big step toward that goal, but we need to maintain momentum so that Pakistan and Afghanistan see the same level of progress.”
Join Rotary on World Polio Day, 24 October, to celebrate our progress. Help us reach our goal of a polio-free world by donating today.
JOHN MCKENZIE
Rotary Club of Orange North
Ph 0402018318 johnmckenzie9700@gmail.com
John joined the Rotary Club of Orange North in 2004 and was President in 2009- 10. He enjoys the fellowship and service opportunities that the club provides. John has a background as an academic in adult learning in Agriculture. Following various management positions in NSW Department of Primary Industry, John set up his own consulting company which operated successfully from 2000 until retirement in 2014. As a consultant, John managed programs for Research and Development Corporations in Agriculture on capacity building for rural industries. In these roles, John was heavily involved in developing programs and projects that improve the capacity of people in the food and agriculture sector to manage change. In addition, John has led overseas development projects in the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
John is married to Fayah with two children and lives at Forest Reefs south of Orange. John’s other interests include scuba diving, cycling, bush walking and flying and he is Chief Flying Instructor and Instructor Trainer for Orange Flight Training. Positions held within the Rotary Club of Orange North and District 9700 include:
2006-07 – Vocational Service Director Orange North (ON)
07-08 – Secretary ON 08-09 – Administration Director/President Elect ON
09-10 – President ON 10-11 to 12-13 – Assistant Governor group 2
10-11 – District Conference Program Coordinator 2011 – member of a small team installing a water supply scheme to a village in PNG.
2011 – GSE team leader to Scotland District 1010 2012 – Awarded PHF by Orange North
11-12 – District Assembly facilitator when District Trainer unavailable
12-13 – Secretary ON 14-15 – Foundation Director ON
15-16 – Secretary ON
13-14 to 16-17 District Grants Committee Chair
10-11 to 16-17 – Food Plant Solutions District Coordinator
10-11 to 16-17 – D 9700 Club Visioning Coordinator
13-14 to present – District IT committee member
16-17 – District Secretary