Welcome to this week's Musings. Thanks to Kemi and Sparkey for joining us via Zoom, and good to see new members Bernie, Tania, Rob O and Yvonne enjoying the evening.
The meeting was another beauty, with our speaker Dr Vivienne Nicholson (Oral Historian with Telling Tales Project https://tellingtalesprojects.com.au) illustrating the powerful benefit of giving senior Australians not only a voice to tell their (always interesting) stories, but also providing the opportunity to present them in a theatrical setting to a live audience. Benefits are wide ranging, including confidence building, social engagement and overall mental health benefits.
Vivienne described the work of the Telling Tales Project with stories of a select group of people, and two really struck a chord with me. Firstly John Atkins, born in England in 1919, loved the concept of flight as a boy and got his wings when he was 17 at the beginning of WWI, participated in the Dunkirk evacuation, learned to land on aircraft carriers in 1941, was shot down and wounded later in the war, after the war married and moved to Australia, and presented his story at the age of 96! Secondly, I loved the story of Adele Meredith: born just after the war in 1946, her mother previously was chosen by the SS to be part of the Lebensborn (Fount of Life) program. She and her mother came to Australia in 1950 where Adele was separated from her mother, and subsequently spent time in orphanages in Essendon and Abbotsford. She was then fostered to a Maltese family where the father played harmonica - and as a farewell gift gave Adele his harmonica. And that started a lifeline involvement as a musician in blues bands, and Adele is known now as the Harpin' Momma! And she was reunited with her mother in 1984 and was with her for the last months of her life. All the stories were equally moving and inspiring. Thanks Vivienne.
We acknowledged the passing of Yvonne Brown, the wife of our dear departed founding member Les Brown - sadly Yvonne was the last link to the original group of members that charted our Club on 2 November 1956.
I was pleased to advise the Board, via an e-Meeting, who accepted the official Nomination of Patrick Docherty as President Elect, filling the casual vacancy caused by Vijay Susarla's withdrawal from the position. Patrick was a terrific President in 2017-2018, and will bring his unique style to 2021-2022. Fabienne and I have promised to give him our full support, and I ask all members to do likewise. In our Club it's a big ask to do a second Presidency, so thank you Patrick for stepping up.
Another reminder to fill-in the Art Show Volunteer schedule without delay, indicating those (very few, hopefully) days where you are NOT available. The Committee Roster team will then allocate you to a fair number of Shifts, taking into account your abilities and areas of interest.
And finally thank you for putting up with all the emails from me as we sort out the bulletin distribution problem. I am now confident that The Camberwell Rotarian is going to at least 90% of members and I am working directly with the handful of non-recipients to fix the last 10%. Bear with me, and remember the problem was in no way the fault of our Editorial team of Josie and Kemi.
At the recent Victorian Multi-District Conference held at the Hyatt Essendon Fields, our own Rotary Outreach Myeloma Project (ROMP), one of the Club's R100 Projects, won a coveted District Recognition Award, one of only two awards in the category Community Service.
This Recognition speaks volumes for the hard work and dedication of the ROMP team: Chair Don Jago OAM, Peter Allen OAM, Adrian Campbell and Lyndon Joss. This is certainly a project that all Club Members can be proud of. Congratulations.
Refer to your Club Directory if you are planning an event to correlate with the Rotary Calendar.
May is also National Myeloma month in Australia.
May is National Myeloma Month - and for the Rotary Club of Camberwell, our ROMP project.
ROMP - the Rotary Outreach Myeloma Program - is our Club's Centenary year project, in collaboration with Myeloma Australia. Myeloma is an incurable blood cancer, of no known cause, which affects approximately 2000 Australians every year.
This RC100 accredited project is designed to provide access for all people diagnosed with Myeloma in Victoria to have easy access to a Myeloma support nurse and support group, run in-person or via virtual means. Our club ROMP committee are pleased to report that all 9 jurisdictions across Victoria, supported by local Rotary clubs, are now linked into this excellent program. And this week, their "38mate" program was launched - checkout the photos below!
38 Australians are diagnosed with Myeloma every week - every myeloma patient, their family and regional myeloma communities deserve ready access to specialist myeloma nurses, information about evolving myeloma treatments and advice about living with myeloma.
If you haven't yet received your copy of the ROMP newsletter, ask Adrian Campbell or Peter Allen for a copy.
(from Lyndon Joss, chair of International Service Committee)
The Cambodian Water Well Project team, supported by the Rotary Club of Camberwell and a District 9800 Foundation Grant, has successfully completed Project No. 10 comprising the construction of a block of two new toilets and the repair and maintenance of a block of three old toilets. Hand basins were installed to encourage hand hygiene. Running water was also connected to the toilets and hand basins.
This ensures greater sanitation and hygiene for the staff and students at this school. In turn reduces school absences due to disease. Girls can also attend school more readily during menstruation. This accords with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number 6 that strives to ensure access to water and sanitation for all humans.
There are currently just over 200 students at the school. Experience has shown that more children attend school and they attend more often when adequate toilet facilities are provided.
We expect the number of students at this school will increase as a direct result of this project. This project has ongoing benefits for the students of this village to increase their educational standard thereby helping liftthemselves and their families out of poverty.
A further report in one year will be provided after visit to ensure the facilities continue to function. This will enable carrying out any repairs that are needed. The funding for this ongoing work is critical for sustainability and improved health and welfare of village children.
Please send your contributions or any general feedback to your 2020-2021 RCC Bulletin Editor Josie Tramonte (lulutramonte2011@gmail.com) or Co-Editor Kemi Shombowale (oluwakemi20shombowale@gmail.com)