A personal story on Ukraine

We have all witnessed over the past few days the devastating situation including the escalating loss of life and humanitarian hardship in Ukraine.  Many of us have friends in Ukraine and feel helpless as we watch the situation unfold. As one of the world largest humanitarian organisations, Rotary has peace as the cornerstone of our global mission.

District 1040, of Rotary in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, has a long-standing history with Ukraine. Between 2002 and 2012 we worked together to transport medical aid and educational goods to Uzhgorod in the west of Ukraine. Over the years we have transported millions of pounds worth of redundant, refurbished, and discarded NHS equipment together with essential supplies for the local orphanage. All have been well used and saved many lives.

Since 2014 we have welcomed young people from local schools in Uzhgorod to our district, providing accommodation, arranging visits to local schools and museums. The young people have described these trips to the UK as “the best visit they have ever had.”  Plans are well under way for this year’s trip and students are due to arrive here on the 27 March. We don’t know if the trip will be able to go ahead but we do know the people of Ukraine desperately need our help and support now like never before.

As Rotarians and Inner Wheel members we pride ourselves on being people of action. 

For our Ukrainian friends now is the time for us to act.” 

On March 4th there was a joint appeal by Rotary District 1040 and Inner Wheel district 4 (Based in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire in England) to support humanitarian work in Ukraine.

1. What country has the highest life expectancy? 
2. Where would you be if you were standing on the Spanish Steps? 
3. Which language has the more native speakers: English or Spanish? 
4. What is the most common surname in the United States? 
5. What disease commonly spread on pirate ships? 
6. Who was the Ancient Greek God of the Sun? 
7. What was the name of the crime boss who was head of the feared Chicago Outfit? 
8. What year was the United Nations established? 
9. Who has won the most total Academy Awards? 

Isaac is currently taking Physics, Chemistry, Mathematical Methods, and Specialist Mathematics at his high school in Netherby, South Australia. It comes as no surprise that he’s considering physical and theoretical STEM pathways such as mathematics and astrophysics!

“Before the NYSF, I've always thought of going to the University of Adelaide, [because it] has an astrophysics course. But where to from there? Who knows!”

Isaac has a career path in mind, but after listening to the NYSF Opening Event with Lockheed Martin Australia, and attending Dr Karl’s House Party, he is keeping his options open and is now considering adding on some engineering through a double degree.

“The first thing I think I got the most out of was from Dr Karl, where he said “Don’t limit your options”. This resonated with me a lot, and I feel a lot more willing to do an undergraduate degree and just see where I go from there.”

“Before going to the NYSF I was very much, ‘I like maths. I like physics. And I'll leave it at that.’ But now if I want to pursue these passions, I might need a few other skills here and there. In the back of my mind, maybe I do a double degree in engineering? Listening to Lockheed Martin people speak on the first day shows how these can mesh together! As painful as it is, computer science and coding might be useful. The Australian Signals Directorate and Australian National University gave us a cryptography challenge and it’s been driving me insane!”

“I have been learning Python for about 3 days... I'm enjoying a lot more than I thought I would!”

The NYSF saw how much passion Isaac has for physics when he delivered a thank you on behalf of the NYSF cohort to Dr Steven Goldfarb and Dr Muhammad Alhroob from the ATLAS experiment at CERN.

“I’d like to say thank you for an insightful, inspiring, and just amazing presentation hearing about muons and the Higgs Boson, and what particle physics research might hold in the future. I feel like I’ve been to physics Disneyland, and I’m almost lost for words.’

When Dr Goldfarb enquired if that meant he was Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, Isaac, with ever the quick wit, replied, “You’re Walt Disney, right at the top!”

We love your work, Isaac – keep exploring (and good luck with solving the cipher!)

Like Isaac, Xavier is also interested in astrophysics. However, he has a powerful story to tell about how his interests shifted to biomedical engineering after his father experienced a severe accident leaving him hospitalised for several years.

Xavier and his family were confronted at how difficult and financially inaccessible some areas of medical care such as prosthetics were, which steered him away from astrophysics, and down the path of biomedical engineering and prosthetics.

“After that confrontation, I've now switched lanes and spent the last two, maybe three, years working as hard as I could to get towards a biomedical engineering degree.”

After finishing Year 11, Xavier took the initiative to complete a base certificate in engineering and fabrication and also completed a white card industry certificate, which has put him at the front of the queue for engineering courses around the world.

“My dream is to open up a stream or line of clinics across Australia, or even globally, that offer prosthetics to people who are disabled from birth, or trauma-induced patients, and offer those prosthetics to them at an affordable price, so they’re not dying in debt and struggling to get back as a working member of society.”

The determination radiates off Xavier, and the NYSF believes he is destined to help close the gap in medical inequality in the near future.

During the program, Xavier asked Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty, about whether there was a difference in how his research or findings were received before being a Nobel Laureate and after receiving the Nobel Prize, and whether this difference affected his communication between peers.

It was a great question that led to some fantastic anecdotes, including an insight into how long it takes for an idea to become part of the established story, “the original people get forgotten, in fact, when we got the Nobel Prize, someone said ‘oh my goodness, I thought those people were dead!’”

Thanks Melody.

Good morning Presidents and Secretaries

This morning we are waking to a time when many of those living in our District are facing uncertainty.

Our District in this year has already encountered significant challenges – drought, COVID, the isolation of our Island clubs.

Now we’re in the midst of what’s being referred to as  a weather bomb ….. significant rain over a long period …… and more than 75 of our Clubs are in communities in the firing line. This flooding is more than significant.

We are going to need to show the Rotary spirit, the Rotary and Rotaract connections and be there to help our fellow Rotarians, Rotaractors, friends, colleagues and community members.

We need you and your members to keep your eyes open – As a Club you may have already decided to take action and support your community.  If you see someone or something where you’d welcome broader help then let us know.  There will also be a need for general mud army support – and it may be that we decide to focus on particular areas.

We’re putting together a small team to coordinate where we will give some of our focus. We’re aware there’ll be clean up needed in Gympie, we know that there are homes to clean up in Grantham and fences to build, we imagine there’ll be help needed in Toowoomba, in the areas to the north of Brisbane, the south of Brisbane and then Brisbane itself. And that’s not all.

In the next day or two we’ll be asking you to identify situations where we may need to coordinate more help. We’ll also be asking you to give us the names of those ready with some time and personal energy  to join together in a coordinated group to move as Rotarians/Rotaractors.

Most importantly of all though – we ask that you take care of each other. Take the time to make contact with everyone. Ask if they’re OK, ask if their family and friends are OK.

I thank each of you who’ve made contact over the past three days to share thoughts, ideas and just because you needed to talk.

Please start the conversations with your members. Let them know we care

Thinking of you all – you can contact DGE Tim Keeler, DGN Paul Roger, our IPDGs Patrice Robinson and Neil Black or me. Otherwise you can make contact with your Assistant Governor – they’re a resource for you.

This is one of our chances to ‘Serve to Change Lives’

Yours in Rotary 

DG Wendy   (Protheroe)

Smith Family reach out