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President's Message
Philip Beasley
President’s Report 3rd March 2024
Hello Members and Friends,
Reflecting on last week’s meeting, I was reminded of the plight of refugees across the world at present. Only a few years ago I listened to a presentation from Diversitat here in Geelong , where the number of displaced people across the world, was in the order of 20 million people at any one time.
Our speaker last week, Amy Hunter, mentioned the revised figure is more like 50 million people today.
Please read Robyn O’Loughlin’s article further on in the Bulletin for more information on Amy’s presentation.
We have an opportunity here to make a difference and Create Hope in the World by supporting the sponsorship of one family into our local community. Stay tuned!
Our meeting this Monday night is online, and our speaker is David Abbey who will speak to us about the Royce Abbey Awards and Scholarships. Please read John Oswald’s update on our Lese Oalai Project in PNG.
There is no meeting on Monday 11th March due to the Labour Day long weekend, equally there will not be be a Bulletin but keep an eye out for any email or texts with updates.
Amy Hunter, our guest speaker at the RCOT dinner meeting last Monday, gave us the insight into a wonderful opportunity to support a soon to arrive Syrian family looking to resettle in Torquay. The 23 year old couple have two preschool age children, a boy and a girl.
Eight experienced folk make up the Welcome to Barwon Group which have trained and worked hard to raise funds and develop a support network to make the transition for the young family from a long term stay in a refugee camp in Turkey to a new life here in Torquay as comfortable and successful as possible. Amy and Steve Richards, another member of the Welcome to Barwon Group, spoke about their motivation for investing so much of their time to the community refugee program.
An absolute priority for the group is to source comfortable and affordable short term accommodation for the family in Torquay or the surrounding area.
Amy shared information about how Rotary can partner with Welcome to Barwon to support this beautiful family to start a new life here on the Surf Coast. Members were keen to ask questions and find out more about the program and how we can help. The empathy for the family was palpable. Let’s all work together to convert our willingness to help into effective action.
Taylor Park-The beautiful green oasis in the middle of our town celebrated its 100th birthday on Saturday24th February, and the hardworking caretakers of the park -The Friends of Taylor Park held a picnic in the park to mark this special occasion.
The Torquay Rotary Club was invited to set up a display of our activities and a number of Rotarians were involved on the day.
Maggie Isom was asked to MC the day, and Rhonda Anchen helped with the Rotary stand as well as activities for the children with the Torquay Community House display.
Robyn O’Loughlin looked after the Rotary display and explained the PNG project to a number of people.
8.30 – 12.00: Daryl Lee, Gerard Hogan, Linda Neale, Ed Hunter food has been ordered by Margaret, to be collected by Gerard. John Oswald to deliver trailer
12.00 – 3.30: Linda Neale, John Oswald, Sue Currie, Martin Duke (return trailer)
Can also use an emergency/someone to give Linda a break
Rhonda Anchen and Bronwyn, President of Friends of Pt Addis picking up rubbish at PT Addis using the fabulous pick up sticks donated by Torquay Rotary at the cleanup this weekend.
David Abbey will be our guest on Monday March 4 and will speak to us about the Royce and Jean Abbey Scholarships. The scholarships provide for practical training and experience in Australia in at least one area consistent with the Rotary Foundation.
The Rotary Club of Torquay is leading an extensive program of work to assist in the education of children in the village of Lese Oalai in PNG. As part of this program Ms Mary Pao, Head Mistress of the Lese Oalai Village School, has applied for a Royce and Jean Abbey Scholarship and has notionally been offered a ‘visiting scholars’ position with Deakin University.
Rotarian John Oswald and I recently met via zoom with the Professor Damian Blake, Head of the School of Education, and Associate Professor Wanty Widjaja, Associate Head of School International Partnerships, to discuss the possibility and the logistics of offering a three-month Continual Professional Development (CPD) Program to Mary Pao.
It has taken nearly three years to finally see some progress. We have been provided with a Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation and from Rotary Clubs, Rotary Districts and private donors from many parts of Australia and from Singapore. The value of this grant is over USD $85,000, and this has now been deposited in the Global Grant bank account of the Rotary Club of Manly. We have commenced ordering from suppliers in Port Moresby and Brisbane. Lucy and Craig will go to Lese Oalai via the LooCube centre in Brisbane (to fine-tune their construction knowledge) to supervise the building of the toilets.
