District Governor Visit 7.30am Wednesday 17th August 2016.
Anne Carey is booked as Guest Speaker for the meeting on 31st August
We are lucky to get her along as she is flying from Perth for the "Women Showing the Way" event later in the morning which Lisa has organised for the
last 7 years. Anne usually charges $2000+ but because she is doing the WSTW is presenting for free for Rotary. Students from Bendigo schools (year 10)
are invited to attend to hear from inspiring women speakers and mentors from Vic police, nurses, politicians are placed on each table amongst the students.
Martin Ruffell
Anne Maria Carey, born in Dublin in 1958, moved with her large Irish Family to Australia in 1969.
Left school at 14 and after 6 years in the workforce joined a missionary order. Studied nursing and
midwifery before going to PNG where she ran a remote hospital in a poor rural district of PNG. After
18 years in the order left to work in health care in remote areas of Australia interleaved with
Red Cross Missions in war zones overseas and completing her Masters in Public Health and
Tropical Medicine. She was a member of the Red Cross team that stayed in Gereida Sudan.
Gereida was the world’s largest refugee camp and had come under armed attack. All the other
agencies including UN abandoned the camp. Subsequent focus of world attention on the plight of the
refugees and the Red Cross workers prevented subsequent attacks. More recently Anne Carey
became involved in the running of the Red Cross Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone. She was
there at the height of the epidemic through to the recovery phase. She received the Pride of Australia
Care and Compassion Award 2015 and is the 2016 WA Australian of the Year.
The Guiding principal by which Anne tries to live is to have the courage to be kind.
Currently as the Western Australian of the year it is Anne’s intention to channel the same energy that
she used to tackle the bully Ebola with to raise awareness and tackle bullying in the health workforce
and unkind treatment of refugees. Anne resides in Esperance with Donald (a doctor) and Rusty (a dog).
