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Vale – Geoff Basser OAM, PHF

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A very fine Rotarian, Geoff Basser, died peacefully on 1st January aged 95. He leaves his wife Nanette, four children and nine grandchildren.

Geoff was born in Lithgow where he joined Apex at the age of 18 and remained there from 1947 to 1969. He said Apex “gave me the basis of what I became as a man”. He was an original member and past president of the Lithgow Rotary Club.

Mr Durie, who succeeded Geoff as President of the Lithgow Club has always been particularly impressed by Geoff’s entrepreneurial approach to his voluntary community work: “It was he who named the Lithgow “Festival of the Valley” and it was he who convinced the Rotary Club of Lindfield that it should conduct a Fun Run for the citizens of Lindfield , including children, to raise funds and also persuaded a local newspaper to support it financially”.

Geoff was a Apex District Governor in Central West and Blue Mountains and later again for Apex in Sydney and Inner Suburbs.

He went to Sydney in 1970. He helped set-up the Kur–ring-gai Youth Development Service (KYDS) in 2004. Geoffrey inaugurated the annual Lindfield Fun Run; which continues today raising funds for KYDS. The success of KYDS inspired his creation of jupiter – a space to talk under the registered charity Caring for Our Port Stephens Youth (COPSY) in 2015. Both jupiter and KYDS services provide free services to youth and were amalgamated in November 2024.

In 2003 he moved to Port Stephens where he was an active member of Nelson Bay and then Salamander Bay Rotary Clubs, where he again worked tirelessly to extend the reach of Rotary participating in many local community projects and cooking many more than one sausage in his day! Unlike many he understood one sausage sale was one more polio vaccine.

Geoff worked tirelessly to get support and community engagement for COPSY with every man, women and child that would listen to him. It was hard: “When our lights faded, he would ignite the passion once again, and he just didn’t take no for an answer. That’s just the kind of legend he was” (Julie Agnew, a founding member of COPSY).

In 1989 he awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship

In 2017 he was awarded the Port Stephens medal by Port Stephens Council in recognition of his service to the community and in 2021 the Commonwealth awarded him the Order of Australia Medal for his achievements.

In 2021 he joined the E-Club Serving Humanity; which adopted COPSY’s youth charity as a Rotary project. This project was his passion in the last years of his life. Under the banner of jupiter – a space to talk it serves the youth of Port Stephens aged 12 to 25.

“Geoff was a force of nature who leaves a lasting legacy on our community and the lives of many” (Kate Washington, the State Member for Port Stephens).

Orkeeswa Impact – 2024

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Orkeeswa Secondary School, in a rural-remote Maasai area of Tanzania, opened with around 40 students in April 2009. I was Orkeeswa’s only non-teaching volunteer in the first year. Orkeeswa today has around 400 students at an increasingly beautiful and well-resourced campus.

In September 2024, I returned to Tanzania to witness Orkeeswa’s growth and impact.

Here’s what stood out:

  • Locally staffed – no more western volunteers.
  • Teacher and support staff qualifications are world class with evident passion for their posting.
  • Alumni returning to their community with relevant qualifications and experience.
  • Permaculture and paving replacing mud and dust.
  • School garden now producing enough fruit & veg to feed the whole school in the wet season.
  • Integrated life skills – small groups of students were deep in discussion daily in gardens, pavillions and classrooms.
  • Orkeeswa Outreach – student and alumni volunteers teach life skills, academic and sporting curriculum in 9 local government primary schools supported by paid counsellors.
  • Orkeeswa Incubator – supporting students to achieve their post-secondary goals. I met with student Bariki, whose Maasai family traditionally keep bees. Bariki makes his own hives, uses a pushbike to transport them 20km, and was selling raw honey on a small scale in cut-off salvaged water bottles. Orkeeswa helped Bariki with surgery to correct impaired mobility, and the Incubator program is supporting him to develop viable boutique honey production.
  • WAEV (Women’s Agri-Enviro Vision) founded by Saing’orie Sangau from Orkeeswa’s first year in 2009. Along with women’s economic empowerment and literacy, WAEV is proving women, villages and schools can establish trees (nearly 150,000 planted) and food crops for shade, regeneration of severe erosion, improved soil nutrition and food security.
  • Deputy Head of School, Hosea, was also from the first class in 2009.
Can you glimpse the colourful classroom peeping out behind the permaculture?
Holistic education with a wide variety of subjects such as electronics & robotics. Students create and participate in after school clubs of their choosing. Art, media, debating and photography programs encourage creativity alongside a rigourous academic curriculum – all with small class sizes.
Sang’orie Sangau demonstrating homemade gravity feed irrigation at WAEV research site. Local hardwood is also being grown to feasibility test sustainable reintroduction of exploited species for quality furniture.
Student Bariki proudly demonstrating his new extractor provided through Orkeeswa Incubator. Incubator supports Bariki with a local female apiarist mentor, and equipment including produce jars. Bariki has a 5-year plan to move his hives and expand his bee products.
Bariki and siblings at his boma with homemade beehive. The hut behind is Bariki’s bedroom on one side and honey equipment on the other. Bariki showed me his meticulous handwritten records of his hives and honey production.
Orkeeswa sporting prowess nationally and internationally! The headmistress told me they have won more trophies now than they can find places to display 🙂

Orkeeswa location in context with an insert of the campus – thanks to Google maps.

PIMD – RAWCS Project 18-2005-06

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In July the PIMD team travelled to Sri Lanka for meetings with the Ministry of Education, Provincial authorities in North, Eastern, and Central Province, as well as running two Phonics Implementation Planning workshops in Gurudeniya for Central Province and Akkaraipattu for Eastern Province.

Any donation to assist would be appreciated.

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Meet our President 2024-25 – Rosie Dunnett

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Rosie is a versatile and adaptable Service Manager with Uniting working in a Residential Aged Care facility.
She has diverse experience across administrative support, training and assessing, vocational education, strategic planning, HR, finance, IT, management and leadership which i have transferred into the amazing Aged Care space.
Rosie has a passion for improvement and collaborative work across all stakeholders with a positive encouraging perspective.
Rosie is married to Mal Dunnett who is our President Elect for 2025-26 and they work together on their project – Community Development & Education Assistance, Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands .