Our guests at today’s Club lunch meeting were five members of the Rotaract Club of Siem Reap, Cambodia, and three members of the Rotary Passport Club of Melbourne who are supporters and advisors of the Siem Reap club.

The President of RPC Melbourne, Aviv Palti, introduced our Cambodian guests and outlined the establishment and work of the Cambodia Rural Students Trust (CRST) which was established by the Palti family 12 years ago to teach English in rural schools and enable young Cambodians to change their lives through education. 

The five Rotaractors, most of whom are completing university degrees, spoke eloquently about their personal journeys from poverty to empowerment. Their stories were moving and inspiring. The appreciative audience was left with no doubt that these passionate young people, and others who get the same educational opportunities, will use education to make a real difference in their lives and the lives of other Cambodians.

A full report on their talk is below.

May Board meeting

The Board held its monthly meeting on 9 May.

Club dues - The Board has decided to hold Club dues in 2023/24 at the same level as the past two years, that is:

·      Active Members $395

·      Family and Country members $100

We have been able to do this because of only minor increases in District costs and the fact we will have a comfortable administrative account surplus going into 2023/24.

Donation to The Rotary Foundation - The Board has approved a Club donation to the Rotary Foundation for the current year of $100 per active member, a total of $4,300.

Schedule of Club meeting next year - The Board has approved a continuation of the current monthly schedule of Club meetings next year, subject to endorsement by the incoming Board at the Changeover Board meeting on 6 June. The monthly schedule is:

·      Club meetings on the first, third, fourth, and fifth (if occurring) Tuesdays of the month, and

·      all meetings at Kooyong except the fourth Tuesday which is by Zoom.

Use of John Carre-Riddell bequest - We have decided to use the late John Carre-Riddell’s bequest of $2,000 to the Club to upgrade and maintain the sensory garden at Box Hill Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. We will arrange for a commemorative plaque to be placed in the garden acknowledging the bequest. The Board believes this an appropriate way to use John’s bequest, and one John would have approved of.

Changeover Board meeting

The Board and Board-elect will meet for their changeover meeting immediately prior to the Changeover Dinner on 6 June. Business at that meeting includes approval of an application for Club membership by Shakilah Wesonga who attended a recent Club meeting in company with Ahmed Tohow our speaker on that occasion. Shakilah is a member of the Rotary SAFE Families Inclusive Communities Initiative, a joint initiative with RC Melbourne to promote awareness and prevention of family violence among Melbourne’s African Australian communities. 

Shakilah is an NDIS local area coordinator with the Brotherhood of St Laurence and will bring to the club a wealth of knowledge about disability services and working with refugee communities. 

Rochester Banket Appeal

Last week I received a telephone call from District 9800 Community Service Director, Lili Teichman, to thank the Club for donating $2,120 worth of doonas and other bedding to the victims of the Rochester floods.  

Lili had recently visited Rochester and found the conditions there were still very bad for people who had been displaced from their homes. The donations had been very well received by affected residents and all the goods donated by District cubs had been distributed within two days.

Anne Scott has initiated a further appeal for blankets and bedding (double or single size for use in caravans), beanies, scarves, gloves, and other smalls items to keep people warm and that can be easily stored in the confined space of a caravan (not larger items of clothing at this stage please).  

If you can assist, please contact Anne on 0407 871 098.

Joint Hosting Dinner

If you have been leaving it to the last minute to decide whether or not to be part of our club's hosting of 100 international visitors on May 29th, don't leave it any much longer. There are fewer than eight tickets left before the event is sold out. No last-minute tickets will be available, so please book now before they are all gone, and be part of this very special occasion.

Book at:  https://events.humanitix.com/convention-hosting-at-kooyong

WhatsApp messaging group for RI Convention

I emailed members last Friday to say that the Club Service Director is setting up a WhatsApp private Club messaging group to enable those of us attending the Rotary International Convention to communicate with each other during the Convention.

So far 11 members have asked to join the WhatsApp group.

If you are attending the Convention, would like to be on the WhatsApp group, and haven’t yet replied to my email, please email me in the next couple of days and provide your mobile number.

Rotary International Convention ‘House of Friendship’ offer

A reminder that Rotary International is offering free passes to the House of Friendship at the Convention from Monday 29 to Wednesday 31 May. The House of Friendship is located at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Wharf, and is open between 9.00 am and 6.00 pm on those days. It is also an opportunity to meet up with our Siem Reap Rotaractor guests today who have a stall there.

Changeover Dinner 6 June

Invitations have been sent out for the Club’s Changeover Dinner at Kooyong LTC on Tuesday 6 June at 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm. 

Please book at www.trybooking.com/CHGJE

Tour of Sackville Grange 13 June

We still need five more people for this visit to go ahead and the Club to receive a donation of $500.  15 people to qualify for this activity.

If you can attend, please contact Terry Kitchen terrykitchen57@icloud.com

Next Club meeting

The Club meeting on 23 May is by Zoom, when our speaker will be molecular biologist and researcher at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, Gemma Moir-Meyer, who will speak on the topic ‘From Bench to Village: Reducing Anaemia’. 

The next Club meeting after that is the Changeover Dinner on 6 June. There is no Club meeting on 30 May due to the RI Convention and the dinner we are jointly hosting for Convention delegates on 29 May. 

Until next week, please stay safe and well.

Thought for the Week

Two international days are celebrated today – International Day of Living Together in Peace, and International Day of Light.

The aim of International Day of Living Together in Peace is to foster acceptance of differences and a willingness to listen to, recognize, respect, and appreciate others, and by so doing to create a peaceful and harmonious world. 

Living together in peace is an aim you’d think everyone would support since it’s self-evidently in everyone’s interests. But humans have proved to be spectacularly inept at creating lasting peace, and there is little sign that we are getting better at doing so. 

The seemingly insurmountable obstacle in the way of a safer, more peaceful world is the inability to accept, respect, and co-exist with difference. We can observe this obstacle in the current civil conflicts in Sudan, Yemen, and elsewhere, in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and, close to home, the recent Neo-Nazi protest against immigration outside State Parliament. 

Whether rooted in religious or ideological intolerance, a sense of historical entitlement, greed, or ignorance, the motivation behind those creating obstacles to peaceful co-existence is a desire to shape the world, or part of the world, in their own image: and not to do so by reasoned persuasion and enlightened debate, but by the exercise of physical, economic, or psychological coercion. 

Enlightenment is also the aim of the International Day of Light, which celebrates the first successful use of the laser in 1960. ‘Enlightenment’ is the state of understanding something, and is the name we give to the period of rigorous scientific, political and philosophical discourse that characterised European society from the late 17th century to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.

As Audrey Azoulay, Secretary-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), says in her message marking today’s International Day of Light:

Without light, our planet would be but a cold and barren place. Indeed, where there is light, there is often an abundance of life. Yet light represents even more for humanity. Light goes hand in hand with knowledge; it is a lens through which to see and understand the world. 

Celebration of the International Day of Light serves as a reminder of how science, technology, art, and culture can help build the foundation for peaceful societies.

The aims of these two international days are closely aligned with Rotary’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and peacebuilding.

As Rotarians, we have a role in promoting peace at home and across the globe. As members of a global network of 1.4 million people, we have a powerful voice. We understand that promoting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture both within our clubs and beyond, is essential to realising Rotary’s vision of a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change.

Two conditions are key to achieving a more peaceful globe - more equitable distribution of wealth, and universal education. When people have the means to sustain a satisfactory standard of living, and the opportunity for education, you have the foundation for more peaceful and enlightened societies. 

The importance of education as a means of lifting people from poverty and overcoming oppression was demonstrated at today’s lunch by the five members of the Rotaract Club of Siem Reap. As our guests reminded us, ‘education is the gift for life’ that is enabling young people in Cambodia and elsewhere to ‘transform poverty to power’.

It is unlikely that we will ever achieve complete and lasting peace in the world. There will always be those who seek to impose their will and beliefs on others by the coercive use of power. But as a force for peace and enlightenment Rotarians can, by working together, help move us a little closer to a more tolerant and peaceful world.

Sources:

https://www.un.org/en/observances/living-in-peace-day

https://www.unesco.org/en/days/light