With the Rotary year quickly drawing to a close, less than two months to go,
I have been reminded in the last few weeks of the great things we do and the
contribution we make to the community.
I have spoken in this column about the Reclink Bendigo Victory Football Club
and our small contribution in running a free BBQ post-game. We play a small
role along with many others to assist this group of all ages and abilities who are
trying to reconnect and rebuild their lives through the comradery of a team sport.
Then on Saturday night the club again took up the tongs to provide food, soft
drink and water at the Bendigo Railway station to the hundreds of people
following the Groovin the Moo concert event. What a great event this has been
for the club and one we should be very proud of. I believe that by our presence,
service, fun and fellowship we have made a significant contribution in keeping
the people safe and calm at the end of a very long day. I know that it’s a favourite
event of many Rotarians as we get an opportunity to connect on a small level with
the mostly younger, extremely appreciative and friendly crowd. Thank you and
congratulations to all those involved.
While registrations have officially closed for the district assembly on May 15th,
they still have some spaces available but you need to book fast. Assembly
starts 8.15am with registrations for 9.00am start and will conclude at 1.30pm.
It’s a great opportunity to not only learn more about Rotary but also gather
some great ideas which could help our club.
Thanks to Maurice Woodburn along with Wayne Gregson who recently
attended the Disaster Aid Australia conference in Melbourne,
Maurice’s has provide a report on the program and conference which is attached.
A number of members are putting together a proposal for the club to purchase a
vehicle to donate to East Timor to be managed by the sisters to support the work
they do, including the meals program and other community health and support
projects. This would be a significant project financially for the club, that would
be supported by a district and international grant. The team is working on the
paperwork and logistics for the project and the plan is for them to present at the
next official meeting on the 18th of May.
The board recently discussed the possibility of introducing some internal awards to
acknowledge club members for the contribution they make in any given year.
This would not replace the District or RI programs such as the Royce Abbey award
or Paul Harris fellowship. We are seeking your ideas and potential awards. Please
forward your thoughts by email to John Cannon or myself by the end of May.
We are missing a couple of items form the club and if you can help locate then, there
may be a small reward. The clubs second Money Spinner was provided to District
Conference to be used in the foyer, you may have seen it, but apparently nobody
has since. Its hard to miss at around a metre in diameter with the top a bright
yellow on a big red base and the money roles down the arm at the side and makes
its way into the pit in the middle. The other item is the club pull up banner, it’s the
generic black with the pictures across the top and our name in the middle.
We look forward to their safe return.
The date has been set for club changeover, please mark in your diaries Wednesday
evening 6th July with full details to follow.
WINTER IS COMING and I know a lot of members make their way north or overseas
at this time. We may look at altering meetings over the months of June/July if numbers
are low. Please email me if you will be away during June, July or August and the dates
so we can get an idea of numbers at this time. Thanks for those who have already done so.
Our next meeting is the coffee morning, 7.30am at Vahlands café on the
Hargreaves Street side of Bendigo TAFE.
I will be away in Canberra for work for our next regular meeting on the 18th and
I have asked past president John Harkin to be guest president for the day.
But I will see you all next week.
Paul Henderson
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A report from Maurice Woodburn
Disaster Aid Conference
I attended the Disaster Aid Australia (DAA) conference held last weekend – April 16 and 17 at Dandenong
as a representative from this club. There was another Rotarian from Kangaroo Flat club there also in Liz Durr.
It was great to catch up with a couple of former colleagues from Ambulance that are now involved with DAA.
For those unaware of the origins of Disater Aid, The Rotary Club of Endeavour Hills started it as a project
following some disenchantment of the administrative costs involved with “Shelterbox”, a UK established support
system to assist in provision of shelter following disasters.
Disaster Aid commenced around 2010 and has now grown to have affiliates in Malaysia, New Zealand, USA,
UK and Ireland under the larger banner of Disaster Aid International.
The main aims of DAA are presently “Water, Training and Disaster response.”
One of the main issues around what was happening with disaster aid was that the aid that was being provided
was not what the communities effected really needed. Mainly in that the communities could not use the devices
provided in Cookers etc. Tropical conditions meant tents were not being used. And they really wanted a hand up
to recovery rather than a “hand out”.
Disaster Aid has taken this on board and is investing in the provision of Disaster mitigation and preparedness
training of personnel sent in as the “Disaster Aid Response Team” (DART) and what they do is assess the
requirements of the communities effected and use the local rotary clubs as a source to influence the sourcing of
local materials to provide the initial shelter and ongoing repairs with the assistance of a “home repair kit” with
the aim to Build back Better. This also helps the local providers return to normal earlier. Interestingly this links
in very similar to what I have been involved with in Emergency management within Australia and uses links to
project management and risk assessment processes.
The other thing that has been high on the aims of DAA has been the provision of safe drinking water solutions
around the world an into disaster effected areas. You would have all seen the “Skyhydrant” water system recently
at Easter on the site next to the Barbeque.
Several of these have been provided into the Phillipines in response to what is really needed and the presentation
from Rhett Butler, the founder of the Skyjuice Foundation mentioned that the real problem of provision of safe
water to the world’s population that presently does not have that would require about 20,000 people per day to be
provided safe water options if it was to be achievable.
Some of the DART’s spoke of recent deployments that they had attended in Nepal (Earthquake) and Fiji and Vanuatu
for recent cyclones.
I believe that there is certainly a chance for our club to be more involved with this project. I encourage you all to visit
the site and like and share the Disaster Aid Australia site on facebook.
Liz Durr is interested in becoming an advocate within our cluster for DAA.
Websites for DAA website and Disaster Aid International are:
www.disasteraidaustralia.org.au
www.disasteraidinternational.com
Some costs for the equipment that can be distributed are:
Home repair kit - $290
Sawyer Filters (bucket and filter system to provide a family with safe water) - $75
The Sawyer filter is a low cost all-in-one water filter ideal for providing emergency drinking water.
Maxi Skyhydrant (provide a community with safe water) - $5,000
- The SkyHydrant water purification unit produces safe drinking water without the need for power or chemicals
- The SkyHydrant is a low cost, lightweight (16 kg) portable and easy to deploy in the field
- The UF membrane is robust, cleanable and has a service life of 10 years
- Operating functions are simple and manual, with virtually no consumables
- Safe water for less than $1 per person per year
- Designed to produce water for 500-1000 people as stand alone unit, or can be configured for larger capacity.
- A single unit can produce up to 1000 litres per hour.
- Clean drinking water can be produced from the majority of non-saline surface and ground water.
Maurice Woodburn
