Rotaract-Milpera Calendar Project

For the past few months the Rotaract Club of South-West Brisbane has been working with Milpera State High School and local artists to create a unique 2009 calendar to raise money for the HEAL (Home of Expressive Arts in Learning) program at Milpera.

Many Milpera students are from war-torn countries and have lost one or both of their parents. This program uses art and music to help these students deal with their trauma and grief so that they can improve their English and continue their education in mainstream schools.

For $10 you can own this unique calendar featuring the artworks of talented local artists.

For more information please visit www.rotaract-milpera.blogspot.com

Click here to download an order form.

September/October update

It's been awhile since the blog has been updated!

Club

• A big thank you to Merril who has taken over the treasurer position!
• Tonight (Wed Oct 29) we are having a movie night in the auditorium - the featured movie is The Black Balloon
• Our club turns one year old on Sunday, November 9th so we will have a birthday party at the Sherwood Aboretum to celebrate - starting from 1pm
• The club Chrissy party will be dinner and drinks at The Ox (Oxley pub) on Friday, 5th December - this replaces the meeting on Wednesday, 3rd Dec.

Community

• We recently had Jen West from the Zonta Club of Brisbane as a guest speaker - Jen talked about some of the projects that her club has undertaken both large and small
• Anti-graffiti has been continuing - we have one more session on the last Sunday in Nov (30th) before wrapping up for the year - please think about joining our squad of anti-graffiti heroes, even if you only come once every 3 months it will make a big difference!
• The Sherwood Street Festival is on Friday, 28th November - we will be selling bubbles again as well as cleaning up in order to raise funds for a community charity
• The next day (Saturday, 29th Nov) we are meeting at 10 at the Level 2 foyer of the Mater Children's Hospital so that we can decorate the Seven South ward for Christmas

Calendar project

• Emily's idea of producing a calendar featuring the work of local artists is gathering momentum - we are now at the stage of sourcing sponsorship and artwork
• The money raised from this calendar will go towards the HEAL (Home of Expressive Arts in Learning) program at Milpera State High School - this program uses art and music to help these students deal with their trauma and grief
• We will sell these calendars for $10 each at the Sherwood Street Festival, in local art galleries and through our own personal and professional networks
• Local businesses can buy advertising space in the calendar for a cost of $200

International

• Our new members Valmor and Marcelo have spoken to the club about their idea for a joint district/club project to buildan English education and training school in Brazil - we will be discussing this idea further and will present it to the district as a possible district international project
• Amanda had an idea to organise a ‘walk-a-thon’ to raise awareness for the plight
  of refugees who have to walk considerable distances to find safety from violence and
  persecution - the club has tentatively booked this in for April/May next year

Professional Development

• Michelle McDowall of TickTax gave a presentation to the club on individual tax returns
• Our system of a rotating chair, introduced in July, appears to be working well and it allows all members to experience how to lead and run a meeting

Looking Forward

We had an enjoyable meeting on Wednesday night although due to a few apologies (it's assignment crunch time!) we decided not to have club committees but instead talk about projects as a group.

Community Service

* Amanda has to confirm but we have set a tentative date of Nov 22nd to decorate the Children's Surgical Ward for Christmas. It will only take us a few hours at the moment but it will definitely make a different for the children who have to spend time there in the leadup to and over Chrissy.

* The Sherwood Christmas Festival is the week after on Friday 28 November! This is one of our major fundraisers so it'd be great to have all hands on deck! The money this year will probably go to Brisbane Youth Service which works with homeless young people and young families. The festival is a lot of fun and may or may not include a tub of ice-cream and several spoons ;)

* Emily has floated the idea of developing a calendar to raise money for the local community. At this stage members have suggested donating raised funds to the Milpera art and music therapeutic program for refugee students.

* Jen West from Zonta is coming on October 15 to talk to us about their club's work with the Murri Sisters's Safety House.

* Anti-Graffiti will be cancelled in November and December due to other projects in November and the silly season in December! So please consider coming to the ones on the last Sundays of September and October as they will be our last anti-graffiti mornings this year.


International Service
* Jenna finished her bike ride from Bundaberg to Brisbane and she and her two friends raised well over $750 for Polio Plus! Look out for a blog post soon about the ride. Well done Jenna! You're a star :D

* Richard told us that he actually grew up in Malawi in central Africa and he has connections to an orphanage there. He raised the idea of the club fundraising for the orphange there which we all thought was a fantastic idea. We even floated the idea of putting together a trip to visit and do some hands-on work!

* And our friends Valmor and Marcelo from Brazil told us that their club in Brazil is interested in putting together some sort of joint project and everyone at the meeting was very excited about this possibility!

* Emily has been in touch with Ailsa Hay who works in RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) to talk about opportunities for Rotaractors to join in overseas volunteer work (like my trip to Daru, PNG last year) - people should talk to Emily if interested.

* Meryll let us know that the Rotaract Club of South Brisbane is co-ordinating a collection for the Uplift Project which co-ordinates the collection and donation of second-hand bras for women in Fiji, PNG and the Cook Islands. Second-hand bras don't attract import duty and give women access to a necessary and expensive item. Women often suffer from a fungal infection due to the tropical climate and lack of support. Bring along any second-hand bras you can collect to Meryll who will pass them on to South Brisbane.


Professional Development

* Michelle McDowall of TickTax Australia will be presenting a mini-seminar at the next club meeting (Wed 1 Oct) on tax preparation and services. Michelle is a CPA Accountant and Past President of the Rotary Club of Sumner Park. If you have any specific questions you'd like answered on tax please email Cat at catherinemcdowall [at] hotmail [dot] com who will forward your questions on to Michelle.

* Our recruiting stand at the Engineers expo at UQ was a great success so Anthony and Sharon will co-ordinate setting up similar stands at a UQ market day. Thanks guys!

Club Service

* It's just under two months until our first birthday - everyone's keen to have a barbeque and drinks to celebrate!

* On the last Wednesday in October we will have a club movie night in the auditorium.

* Our Chrissy party will be on Friday 5 December, replacing the meeting on Wednesday 3 December. We will probably be going out to the Steak House at the Regatta for dinner and drinks.

Until next time!

A Day in the Life of an Anti-Graffiti-ist

You've thought about joining the anti-graffiti league but you're not quite sure if it's for you? Well, let us present Our Guide to A Day in the Life of an Anti-Graffiti-ist! If after reading this guide you decide you want to join in (and we would welcome you with open arms!) then please email the club at rotaractswb@hotmail.com :)

Warning: This guide is potentially not applicable for those anti-graffiti heroes who live a little further away and may incite jealousy!

7am: Alarm goes off, hit snooze. 7:10 am: Hit snooze again.
7:20 am: Hit snooze for the third time.

7:30 am: Wake up and get dressed in various old clothes and falling apart runners. It is important to look the part although you will be supplied with a stylish visbility vest! You may wish to add your own protective gear - old lab coats work perfectly!

[Lisa (L) and Amanda (R) model Anti-Graffiti gear]

7:45 am: Head for John's workshop aka Anti-Graffiti Central (right near Darra train station).
8:10 am: Everyone's here? The ute's geared up? Let's go!
8:30 am: That's a lot of graffiti....

But hand out a few paintbrushes....

[Adam's hard at work]

And before you know it you're almost done! Many hands really do make for light work :)

[Some of the team: Sharyn, Tim, Lisa, Amanda, Yu-Min, Karl and Adam]

10 am: We're done! Breakfast!

Anti-graffiti is generally held on the last Sunday of each month. The next anti-graffiti morning is on Sunday 31 August starting at 8am. Please email rotaractswb@hotmail.com if you want to come!

One Punch Can Kill

The One Punch Can Kill campaign is such a startling reminder that people's lives can be ruined, or even lost, in an instant, simply by one bad decision. I felt this was a really important and positive message to support and to reaffirm the fact that any kind of violence is absolutely not ok. -- Kendal Nagorcka aka Picasso from The Shak.

At the BETS day earlier this year, several of our members were privileged enough to hear Jonty Bush talk. She shared her story as a victim of homicide and challenged us to fight back against violence in our society.

Jonty is the current CEO of the Queensland Homicide Victims' Support Group, an organisation that provides support to victims of homicide, raises awareness about their needs, and aims to promote education and reform .

As part of this education and reform, Jonty, the QHVSG, the Queensland Government and concerned people throughout the state have supported the One Punch Can Kill program. "Every year far too many young Queenslanders are assaulted at parties, in bars and out on the streets. We exist for one purpose: to reverse this. All too often young people are getting hurt or even killed when they are out just trying to have a good time."

Time for Change

At tonight's meeting Anna Keenan came to speak to us. Anna is a Community Outreach Officer with the Australian Conservation Foundation and an impressive and passionate speaker.

In November 2006 Anna Keenan was the youngest (aged 21) of 85 Australians to be personally trained by Al Gore as part of 'The Climate Project – Australia' to present an Australian version of his now-famous slideshow 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

She is currently the Chair of Queensland's Youth Environment Council and International Coordinator with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Anna actually attended the UN negotiations in Bali for the next phase of the international climate protocols and watched as Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Out of her message, one of hte most memorable stories for me was an anecdote about Bali when the US was blocking proceedings. The representative for PNG, Kevin Conrad, spoke:

"And there's an old saying 'if you're not ready than get out of the way'. And I would ask the United States, we ask for your leadership, we seek your leadership, but if for some reason you're not ready to lead, leave it to the rest of us: please get out of the way." [Shorter YouTube video][Longer YouTube video]

Personally I think there's a message in that for all of us. :)

The take home message that I, well, took home, was that while big, bad things will happen with climate change, we're not yet at the point of no return. We're all in this together and we can all make a change together.

Hopefully we can have Anna come back later during the Rotaract year, possibly to talk about what we can do on an individual and local level if that interests club members. She also explained that Rotaract SWB can become a member of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition so we can also look further into that if members wish.

On a related environmental note, the Community Service committee is trying to organise a guest speaker from the Oxley Creek Catchment Association some time later this year.

Finally, it was nice to see some new faces (and returning new faces) at the meeting, we hope you enjoyed yourself and that we'll see you again soon. :)

Update on Darfur

"The International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor has charged Sudan's President with genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur in a move Khartoum warns could set fire to the region.

ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court for an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan Al Bashir, the first sitting head of state to be indicted by an international court since Liberia's Charles Taylor and before that Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic.

"Moreno-Ocampo has presented evidence today showing that... Bashir committed the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur," the prosecutor said in a statement...

International experts say at least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced since a rebellion erupted in 2003. Khartoum says 10,000 people have been killed." ABC News.

BBC's Q&A: Sudan's Darfur conflict has been updated to reflect the changing situation in Sudan.

Come and learn more about the conflict in Darfur.

The Rotaract Club of South-West Brisbane will be screening the award winning documentary The Devil Came on Horseback on Friday 15 August at 7pm at St Aidan's. For more information please email the club at rotaractswb@hotmail.com or click here to view the invitation.

The Devil Came on Horseback - Trailer



Interview with a Refugee from Darfur

Changeover; PNG Update; What's New; Date-Claimers

Changeover
Well I (Cat) had a post ready to go about Changeover when I noticed a report and photos are already up! Great minds hey. So instead congratulations to the new board and thank you to the old board, especially Emily, for getting us up-and-running and creating a club with such a fun and friendly atmosphere. Thank you also to Lionel, Chris, John and the other members of Jindalee and other local Rotary clubs for all your support this year. We look forward to working with you this year. :)

Update from PNG
Here, it is as busy as ever. I am now into surgery: I am just coming back from Daru where we had 167 cataracts and pterygium surgeries in 4 days. It has been so great to see the joy of all the old and not so old people who could see. I am planning to bring the surgeon to Kiunga the first week of August to do the same, I am really struggling with the hospital administration to have the theatre fixed for that date. It is nearly a desperate situation at Kiunga hospital. They only need 2 operation tables, a sterilizer, they bring all their equipment with them. Even that is hard to get, the hospital is no more than a clinic, no doctor since 5 years. Dr Darman the opthalmologist is using a new method for cataract, no stitches, it takes about 7 minutes per surgery, the next day the patients see very clearly straight away, it is really wonderful.

Last week I brought 3 children to Tabubil for cleft palate surgery, this week I am bringing 4 more and next week 3 others, it will be great, I have been waiting for a plastic surgeon to come for such a long time, it is so hard to get them here, there are only 2 in the country. I am glad it will be done, next will be our 17 children with club feet in Daru!

There are also building going on, 2 classrooms for the deaf, one in Daru and one in Kiunga. I gave it to a contractor. It is nearly finished in Kiunga. Daru will start soon.

-- Sr Pierrette

What's New This Year
Change of meeting time: The new meeting time is 6:45 for 7:00pm.

Rotating Chairperson: Each week we will have a new member acting as Chairperson to help develop leadership and presentation skills.

New roster system: Please check the bulletin for the new roster up until year end. Members will rotate through Chairman, Duty Officer and Fellowship Officer.

These changes will be explained in more depth at tomorrow night's meeting. We will also discuss the possibility of changing the meeting night from Thursday to a Wednesday.

Date Claimers
27 July - Sunday - 8am - Anti-Graffiti
31 July - Thursday - 6:45pm - Trivia Night with Rotaract of South Brisbane
15 August - Friday - The Devil Came on Horseback screening
31 August - Sunday - 8am - Anti-Graffiti

Celebrating 2007-08 and getting ready for 2008-09

At our changeover dinner on Friday 4 July 2008 we celebrated what has been a fantastic first year for our club and installed the new board for 2008-09. It was a great night and we were so happy to share the special occassion with so many of our fellow Rotaractors, Rotarians, friends and family.

In addition to reflecting on and celebrating our club achievements, we recognised the achievements of our members. In particular we presented the following awards to some of our members and sponsor Rotarians.

Members' Member Cat McDowall
Artist in residence Karl Goulding
Blue card bandit Lisa Cansdale
Biggest blogger Cat McDowall
Achieving the impossible (getting Lionel to stop talking) Lisa Cansdale
Biggest offender Lionel Cansdale
All hands on deck Adam Busteed

Congratulations to the entire club on a fantastic year.

Year-Ahead Planning

The Board Elect attended BETS yesterday, a Board Elect Training Seminar. Kylie from South Brisbane did an amazing job of organising the day, the event was very well attended with Rotaractors from three different districts.

If you can please try to attend this Thursday's meeting as we will break into committees and start to organise ourselves for the upcoming year. If you aren't yet in a committee then you can choose one or change to a new one if you wish. The plan at the moment is that as well as discussing organisational details, each committee with develop a shortlist of projects and ideas that will be compiled into a survey for all members of the club so that everyone has a chance to add their say.

We will also be voting for Member of the Year/Most Oustanding Member (not quite sure what it's called, you get the idea) at this meeting so if you won't be there you could perhaps email the club address or organise for someone else to take your vote in.

And please don't forget to RSVP for the Changeover Dinner if you haven't done so already!

Changeover Dinner - Friday 4 July 2008

With the end of the Rotary year approaching, we are getting ready to host our inaugural changeover dinner. At the dinner we will report on our activities throughout the year, present our plans for the future and recognise the efforts of our members.

WHERE - McLeod Country Golf Club, Gertrude McLeod Crescent, Mount Ommaney
WHEN - 6:30 for 7:00pm, Friday 4 July 2008
COST - $40 per person (two course meal + drinks)
DRESS - Lounge Suit/Cocktail Dress (jacket and tie for gentlemen)
RSVP - Friday 20 June 2008 to rotaractswb@hotmail.com

We hope to see you there.

Board Members for 08/09

At our meeting last night we elected our board for 08/09. Congratulations to the new board.

President - Suzanna Muchow
Vice-President - Cat McDowall
Secretary - Liz Criddle
Treasurer - Ben Dighton
Director of Community Service - Cat McDowall & Liz Criddle
Director of International Service - Amanda Wood
Director of Club Service - Lisa Cansdale
Director of Professional Development - Sharyn Schooth (08) & Lucy Clifford/Merril Gillman (09)
Sergeant at Arms - Adam Busteed & Karl Goulding
Bulletin Editor - Emily Wood

Photos

Don't forget to scroll down to the end of the page [or just hit End on your keyboard] to check out different Rotaract photos. At the moment we have piccies from the Charter Celebration and Anti-Graffiti.

Youth Homelessness

Homelessness seems to be a 'hot topic' in the media at the moment with today's release of the National Youth Commission's Inquiry into Youth Homelessness. In last week's edition of The Satellite Merrin Jagtman's cover story talked about an increasing number of people who are homeless in Brisbane's south-west suburbs. (Merrin is the same journalist who wrote an article about our club in celebration of Rotaract's 40th anniversary.)

The Sunday Mail reported that "more than 100 000 Australians live on the street, a third are under 25, a quarter live in Queensland." [April 9, 2008, p26). The article contained several quotes from Angela Barnes, executive manager of Brisbane Youth Services. She emphasised the importance of meeting basic physical and emotional needs before beginning employment training and job seeking.

The ABC reported a fortnight ago: "As mortgage stress rises across the country, more and more Australian families are reaching crunch point and having their homes repossessed. The aspirational suburbs of Sydney are among the hardest hit.

In the city's south-west, there are reports that working people are moving into homeless shelters because they have failed to meet their loan repayments. Home repossessions for 2008 are already at record highs and are expected to increase further through the year.

Phil Hancock from Brisbane Youth Service will be visiting our club on Thursday May 1 to discuss youth homelessness with us. BYS have been operating for more than 20 years and run a range of services including street outreach, a drop in centre and a health clinic as well as a parenting program for yong parents or parents-to-be who are homeless or at the risk of homelessness. As always, feel free to bring a friend with you. It should be a good night as we learn about youth homelessness and perhaps start thinking how we might be able to do our little bit to help.

Meeting Update

On Thursday we had our first 'proper' meeting in some while after having our Sudanese information evenings the meeting before and banner painting the meeting before that.

Em, Suzanna and Lucy gave a report on District Conference. They all enjoyed themselves and had fun meeting Rotaractors from Toowoomba (not yet chartered) and hanging out with South Brisbane Rotaractors as well. They definitely encourage everyone to go next year (13-15 March 09 at Twin Waters (I think)).

Anti-graffiti had a small turnout which was unfortunate as the guy who started the group was down from the Sunshine Coast and it would have been nice for him to have a bigger turnout. So thank you Jenna, Adam and Emily for helping out. Afterwards they met up with some members from the Rotaract Club of Strathpine.

We talked about changing the date for next month's Anti-Graffiti as it will fall on the long weekend as it currently stands. We also talked about giving RSVPs at least one week prior to anti-graffiti.

Emily also reported on the interest meeting for a Rotaract club in Logan. There's a small band of very keen and enthusiastic girls so hopefully they can gain enough momentum to start a club.

Amanda also reported on the Sudanese information evening and there was some discussion about upcoming events. The general consensus was that the next event in the campaign - showing a documentary about the Darfur genocide - will be held in the new Rotaract year (starting 1 July) so that our club has enough time to plan and publicise the event.

During Member Behind the Badge spot Laura spoke about one of her passions, Close the Gap, an Oxfam campaign to close the health outcomes and life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It's disheartening to think that non-Indigenous Australians live 17 years longer on average than Indigenous people but hopefully campagins like Close the Gap will encourage us as a country to change this.

It looks like we are slowly heading in that direction. Just tonight "Kevin Rudd has announced he will report to parliament on the Government's efforts to improve the living conditions of Aboriginal people. The Opposition Leader has welcomed a Federal Government plan to annually discuss the progress being made on improving the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians. During a speech in London, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced he will report to parliament on the first sitting day of every year on the Government's efforts to improve the living conditions, health and education of Aboriginal people." [Source: ABC News]

The second half of the meeting was taken up with discussing nominations and voting for the new board. After nominations we were able to decide a new board via consensus however it won't be officially announced until next meeting. This was anyone who wasn't present at the meeting still has the opportunity to nominate themselves and those who were nominated but not present have the chance to turn down the nomination (or 'appointment').

Club Visits Update

During March different members went visiting local Rotary clubs - we defined local as South-East Brisbane, some Ipswich clubs and in District 9630 (so not north of the Brisbane River including Indooroopilly, St Lucia, etc even though we have members living in these areas).

While our primary purpose was to put the word out about Rotaract and our club specifically as part of a member drive. But as Laura reported in the bulletin, "Our partnership with Rotary is an important one and visiting theclubs was also an opportunity to make contact with local Rotaryclubs and hear what they have been up to."

Laura did a great job of contacting clubs and organising for us to speak, either in short five minute segments or as the meeting's official guest speaker. Thanks must also go to Emily for putting together a powerpoint slideshow in presentations, Sharyn and Emily for putting together the very professional looking flyer and to all the members who volunteered their time to visit clubs.

We had some great feedback from the clubs and everyone seems exciting to hear about us. The Rotary Club of Ipswich City has very generously donated a gong to our club after seeing Bec and Tim in awe of the power of the gong to maintain order.

Not to be outdone, Sharyn reported that "the Rotary Club of Goodna have offered us the use of their 4 burner BBQ on a trailer, equipped with eskies and gas bottles. They are very proud of their trailer and would be willing to lend it to us to conduct BBQ’s in the community to raise some money."

The Rotary Club of Archerfield will spread the word to their returning Youth Exchange students and will consider sponsoring the joining fee and membership dues for anyone who is interested in joining our club but faces financial difficulties.

While I am sure we would welcome at many Rotary Clubs, the Rotary Club of Rocklea has extended a standing invitation to our members to attend any of their dinners and listen to their guest speakers. They have had some exciting ones on the program including a young man who trekked hundreds of kilometres through northern Italy (I think). They passed on their congratulations and say that we should be proud of ourselves for accomplishing so much in such a short space of time - they reckon they'd like to borrow some of our enthusiasm!

If anyone is interested in attending these meetings as a visitor they should contact Laura who has details of venues, times and phone numbers.

Last Thursday - Sudan Information Evening

The Sudan Information Evening held last Thursday night was a great success. Amanda and the rest of the International Service committee should be congratulated. We had many guests including Rotarians and friends of Rotaractors.

In spite of some last minute changes to guest speakers due to illness, the committee arranged for three amazing speakers. The first was Adele Rice from Milpera State High School in Chelmer. Milpera is a unique high school in the Education Queensland system for recently arrived teenagers who have little to no English, refugees and immigrants. It prepares its students for schooling in a main-stream high school and also helps with settlement.

Adele spoke about her work with African refugees, particularly Sudanese students who have often spent many years in refugee camps in the countries bordering Sudan. She touched on a few major issues that hinder these teenagers (some of whom aren't much younger than us) as they try to make a new life in Australia. The two big issues that stood out for me were that so many students are dealing with grief... many of them are parentless or only have one parent and almost all of them have family or close friends left back in the refugee camps. The other was illiteracy. Many of them have snippets of several languages but are not literate in any of these. This also affects their parents. The school works especially hard to help the students in these two areas. They have art and music therapy programs and they do a lot of work on pre-literacy and pre-numeracy, which relies heavily on a volunteer base.

Our other guest spearker was Lisa Siganto from Airfares for African Refugees. While refugees on one category of visa are flown to Australia free of charge by the government and receive extensive help in settlement, including an individual case worker, refugees on another visa category have to pay for their own airfare and have almost no help with settlement when they arrive in Australia.

A couple of years ago a neighbourhood group of women came up with the idea of a revolving loan scheme. When a refugee in Australia sponsors another family to come here they can ask AFAR for a loan equal to the cost of the airfare. The sponsor acts as guarantor for the loan since they are already employed or have government allowances. When the new refugees arrive in Australia, they pay the loan back interest-free over a period of 2-3 years out of their wage or allowances. When the loan is paid back in full the money is available for a new family. The group raised over $80 000 for the loan scheme and St Vincent de Paul auspice them and they have started extending their help to resettlement services, not just airfares.

Lisa was kind enough to bring her good friend Zobaida and her family to the evening. Zobaida is a 25-year-old Sudanese woman with four beautiful young children between the ages of one and nine. She immigrated to Australia with her husband and children three years ago.

Since immigrating to Australia Zobaida and her family have sponsored another family through AFAR to come to Australia.

The thing that struck me the most was that they too are facing problems caused by a lack of affordable housing. The family might have to move to Caboolture as that's where the most affordable housing is. Apparently Caboolture have quite a progressive program when it comes to refugees but there's still the problems of leaving all the friends that you've made, the primary school with its special ESL program and so on. The saddest thing though was that Zabada said sometimes they would go to look at a house within their price range and they would be told that it was no longer on the market, that a tenant had been found. But then the house would still be listed afterwards.

All in all it was a wonderful night and it really opened my eyes and it'll be great to see where the club decides to go from here.

(If anyone else in the club wants to write about their thoughts on the night please feel free to update the blog yourself. If you're not sure how than email me your post at s4055109@student.uq.edu.au and I'll put it up for you or you can always add a comment to this post.)

Darfur Information Evening Thurs 20 March

ROTARACT

ACT NOW

The Rotaract Club of South-West Brisbane would like to invite Rotarians, Rotaractors, Interactors and the community to learn more about the conflict in Sudan. Since 2003, 400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced.

We need to ACT NOW.

Our guest speaker will be Jenny Ryan from Airfares for African Refugees and the Mater Mothers’ Hospital. Sudanese refugees from the local Brisbane community will also be there to share their experiences.

Date: Thursday 20 March 2008
Time: 6:30 for 7:00pm
Location: Auditorium, St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School,
Cnr Ruthven St & Aidan’s Way, Corinda
RSVP: rotaractswb@hotmail.com

If you would like a copy of the flyer in PDF format please email rotaractswb@hotmail.com

We're in print!

Rotary Down Under featured us in their March 08 issue. I would scan a copy of the article but I think I left the magazine behind at our last meeting....oops!

But RDU does publish their magazine online so if you follow this link and click on page 30 from the menu you'll be able to read the article. There's also a neat article on page 29 about the Rotaract Club of Whitehorse who 'backyard blizted' a foster home in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. If you check out past editions they have a Rotaract section and there's heaps more projects in there as well.

-- Cat

Update

Steph and Suzanna visited the RSPCA today and presented a cheque from our club for $600. The money will go towards the wildlife centre where they have rehabilitation programs for skinks, possums, birds, bats, snakes and even a blue tongue lizard. The RSPCA officers were telling Steph and Suzanna that our donation is equivalent to three times the annual food budget for the centre or the cost of a heating pod-thing (can't remember what they said it was called!) so it will definitely go to good use.

We had a very informal meeting tonight, held outside in the undercover area next to our meeting room. Tim very thoughtfully provided us with some red and blue paint and we got cracking on creating some club banners... one of which is very professional looking and others slightly less so.

Laura passed around a roster as we have secured a spot to visit several Rotary clubs and talk about Rotaract, our club and our projects. There are still quite a few blanks spots so if you weren't at the meeting please, please, please email Laura and see what spots need visitors. Centenary and Ipswich both have meetings on Wednesday mornings that meet at 6:45 for 7:00 I believe so that may fit better if you have work and other evening committments.

Everyone who went along to anti-graffiti last weekend reported back that it went really well (see your Bulletin for photos) - the next one will be held on the last Sunday of March, the 30th. Instead of splitting into a painting team and a bbq team we will see how it goes having everyone painting then everyone helping set up the barbie. Hopefully we can make the bbq/picnic a meet and greet and information session for any people potentially interested in becoming a member.

Our next meeting on the 20th March is Bring A Friend night and we will hopefully have some guest speakers talking to us about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Everyone and anyone is welcome so get all your mates and family and bring them along.

International Service: Sudan

From this week's bulletin
Our project this year: Sudan

Sudan is the largest of the many coutnries that make up the African continent. Its history reads as a continuous list of civil war and unrest. However, most notable in its history is the war that currently rages in the western region, Darfur.

Sicne 2003 the tribal communities that inhabit the region of Darfur have fought against the political, economic and social marginalisation brought on them by the Sudanese government. In retaliation, the Sudanese government have armed the Arab Janjaweed militia and charged them to clear the civial population bases in Darfur.

Since this time, hudnreds of thousands of people have been killed, and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced fromt heir homes. Despite efforts by the UN and African Union, the fighting continues. This is the 21st century's first genocide. It has been raging for over four years and still there is very limited public knowledge of it.

We have decided that our major international service project this year will be to create a greater public awareness about the absolutely horrible atrocities that continue to occur in Darfur. We want people to know about it, think about it and want to do somehting to help.

Currently we are still in the ideas phase of our planning, but we are seriously committed to doing something that will make a difference!

For further information on Darfur a great website is The Enough Project.

Also try looking at:
BBC's Q&A: Sudan's Darfur Conflict
The Darfur Australia Network

Welcome to our blog!

At the first meeting of the year we talked about setting up a website for Rotaract SWB. We decided to experiment with a blog first. We may decide to get the Duty Officer from each meeting to update the blog to spread the work around.

At last night's meeting we had committee planning. President Emily gave a run-down on the different event and guest speaker ideas that the club has tossed around lately then we broke into committes, broke out the butcher's paper and textas and each committee drafted and fleshed out events for the next six months. Each committee will present their ideas and plans at the next meeting (as well as typing the info up on an A4 sheet).

The Rotary Club of Jindalee has also suggested that we get together on the last Sunday of each month for Anti-Graffiti. Roster sheets went around the last meeting for Sunday 24th of Feb. The anti-graffiti itself will take place from 7am til 9am with a barbie afterwards. If you weren't there last night you can either add your name to the rosters at the next meetings (7th and 21st of Feb) or email rotaractswb@hotmail.com. If you can't go to February's anti-graffiti you might consider keeping your diary open for March 30th, April 27th, May 25th or June 29th.