Volunteers needed for this Friday's Bunning BBQ

 
If you can spare a few hours this Friday (3rd May), and want to raise a bit of cash for the local Community causes, please let John M know, as we are very short of sausage swirlers, onion observers and saucy servers for our Maroochydore Bunnings BBQ. Positions are available morning and afternoon shifts. Wages aren't that flash but the company is good. 
 
 

Amy and her travels

 
Our very own exchange student Amy, is certainly experiencing a lot of Australian culture, from family holidays to theme parks with 65 year olds. Amy gave her regular update on Friday and it was great to hear of her experiences with host family and friends around the state and in NSW. 
 
Youth Exchange student program was also on the mind of the district presidents, and Mike explained that the cluster has decided to "band Cluster together" so that we take incoming Youth Exchange Students, and receive inbound students as a cluster commitment and not as a club. This will allow us to offer a better experience to inbound students, with more host families available to accommodate the inbound student. Alex Rotary has also reached out to the Rotoract Club at USC who have shown interest in helping with social activities for inbound students. Alex Rotary is also supportive of increasing financial support to host families who do so much to make this a really great Rotary program.
 
Now ...who could this be?
 
 

Chloe in Brasil 

Meanwhile our outbound student Chloe is having her own experiences in Brazil with wildlife adventures and river trips. Check her activities out on Facebook.
 
 
Follow the adventures of our outbound student Chloe on her facebook page on the link below..
 
 

Who Knew?

Also on Friday our very own Tony was called upon in questions without notice, to tell the club something about himself that we wouldn't know! Well, we thought this will be interesting given Tony's involvement in Rotory for over 18 years, did anyone else know of Tony's journey in ladies undergarments?. It turns out there is quite a lot we didnt know about Tony including some scientific gardening exploits, reminiscent of Gregor Mendel (look it up Stuart & Bob frown) and Marmalade exploits. 
 
It was pleasing to see Tony rise above the schoolboy humour of certain questions asked by certain elderly club members smiley Dave, really... meatpacking!!  Thanks Tony, very well done. 
 
Also in an unexpected twist Mary Queen of Scots, and her fondness for orange jam which later became known as Marmalade (Mama est malade) made it into the post talk discussion, much to he edification of club members. (who strangely did not seem all that impressed. ed. )

Speakers Night

Invitations have gone out, members have in their inboxes, please pass on to interested community minded businesses, couples, parents with teenagers, etc. as there will be an emphasis on Rotary Youth Programs which the club will be supporting this year. We're hoping for a great turn out. Drinks and nibblies provided, and some great speakers. 
 

So

 

Solstice Swim Sunday Morning 7th July

 
Invites have also gone out to schools and swim clubs for the annual Solstice Swim. If you know of keen swimmers who may be interested in joinging in, please pass on the invite below.
 
 
 

Care Garden Working Bee washed out

 
So we had to postpone the planned Saturday morning working bee for the Crisis Care Home garden. We're nearing completion on this fantastic project with "only" the garden beds and teenager retreat to be done.
 
The teenage retreat has been contracted out (too big for our volunteers) but we're keen to put up the raised garden beds and gravel work that Buderim Mens shed made for us, and get the plants in from John W at Central Rotary, and to put the surface coat on the basketball / netball court that we've installed. 
 
So stay tuned for the revised date  and get those gumboots ready!
 

A Rotary Story on REALLY "making a difference"

Rotarians get involved in all sorts of Community improvement programs, and on Anzac day we noted the Rotary clubs in Poland that were doing much to help the youth badly affected by the current war in Ukraine. Fortunately here in Australia we are far removed from war, and indeed Australia is seen as a refuge for many people, accepting 20,000 refugees per year, and over 850,000 since WW2.

If you want to know more check out Rotary Down Under. Especially an article on the Karen community from Myanmar and how Rotarians in W.A. helped them settle and contribute to that small community. 

 

There are some useful information on the differences between refugees and asylum seekers in the article, and this brilliant article on the Rotary Club of Nhill and their input into refugee resettlement. It concerns refugees from Myanmar, and you'll recall that your club was also able to support the women causes in that area, earlier this year through the local " Yes, she matters" group led locally by Gary Bradford, who came and talked to the club about the impact of war and violence on the women in the border area between Thailand and Myanmar.  

Here's some of the article...

Nhill is a quiet country town in Western Victoria, close to the Victorian-South Australian border, halfway along the eight-hour drive from Adelaide to Melbourne. It’s the unlikely site of one of Australia’s greatest refugee settlement success stories, and Rotary Club of Nhill member, John Millington, is responsible for much of that success.

John joined Rotary 30 years ago, during which time he’s served as club president twice and once an assistant governor. However, it was a problem that emerged in his professional life that led to his greatest community challenge of all.

In 2013, John retired after 30 years as the general manager of poultry producer Luv-a-Duck, Nhill’s largest private employer and one of the two largest providers of duck meat to the Australian market. John’s wife Margaret was also involved in an administrative role, and during John’s 30-year tenure, production had grown

from 6000 ducks per week to 100,000 ducks per week.

In order to produce such a volume, a steady and reliable workforce was required. But they were struggling to fill vacancies due to the declining and ageing population, hampering the company’s expansion plans.

Previously, the company had spent thousands advertising nationally in the attempt to attract workers, but hardly anyone wanted to move to a remote location like Nhill. A few positions had been filled by people from South Africa and Zimbabwe escaping the dangerous living conditions in those countries. Luv-a-Duck was the first company in the region to use the 457 Visa process to employ overseas staff. Many of those staff are still employed in Nhill or have started their own businesses.

“If we in the town didn’t do something, nobody else would,” John said. “No white knight was going to ride over the horizon to help us.”

 

ROTARIANS HELPING REFUGEES

Over the past nine years, close to 300 Karen refugees have resettled in Nhill and the wider region, attracted by jobs offered by local poultry producer Luv-a-Duck and 17 other businesses in the area.

This eventually led to an invitation from Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) to give advice on how to settle people from other cultures in regional areas. Prior to that meeting in 2009, Margaret said neither she nor John knew much about the Karen, a small ethnic minority group from Burma (Myanmar).

“We learnt that over 500,000 Karen had fled from Burma to escape persecution by their home country’s brutal military dictatorship. They went to the refugee camps along the Thai border,” Margaret explained.

 


Many younger Karen have no memory of village life before the camps, when their families lived as subsistence farmers. Some Karen families have been displaced for over 20 years, trapped in refugee camps without employment or freedom.

As part of Australia’s annual resettlement program, many Karen refugees were invited by the Australian Federal Government to move to Melbourne and housed predominately in the western suburb of Werribee.

Assisted by AMES Australia, John and Margaret travelled to Werribee to present two PowerPoints to 120 refugees on the employment opportunities at Luv-a-Duck and a snapshot of the Nhill township. They presented to two groups and before they finished their first presentation, the clipboard they had brought to register interest was already full.

There were a few reservations – mentioning Nhill was near the Victoria-South Australia state border provoked anxiety in the audience as they thought the border referred to was the Thai/Burma border, which to the Karen, meant the constant threat of military violence, not vast expanses of dryland farming country.

ROTARYDOWNUNDER.ORG

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ROTARIANS HELPING REFUGEES

 

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ISSUE 615 APRIL 2019

A few weeks later, a bus was chartered to Nhill, with 20 refugees taking a tour of the town and the Luv-a-Duck premises. The Karen met many of the locals, including the local hospital, schools, churches, police and, importantly, the volunteers at the Nhill Neighbourhood House (who were to become pivotal in the settlement).

Now that's making a difference...!!!