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NOTICE TO MEMBERS AND VISITORS
MEAL BOOKINGS FOR PEEL MANOR HOUSE - GENTLE REMINDER!
Please make your meal requests and payment direct to Peel Manor House by Sunday evening, prior to the Monday meeting. This will enable Paul to cater for the correct number of guests! Your attention to this is greatly appreciated. The link can be found at:
August is Membership and New Club Development Month
Club Night - 9th August 2021
Members enjoying some socialising prior to and during our meal!
Guest Speaker - Erin Hegarty
Erin has worked unofficially in Kenya since 2013 where she initially volunteered as a teacher at the Township Primary School in Kitengela, Kenya. She quickly realised that teaching wasn't her choice of profession, and simultaneously recognised and issue she could tackle - overcrowded classrooms. Noonkopir Township Primary School,one of 3public schools in Kitengela, catered for 1,500 students in sixteen classrooms. With an average of 93 students per classroom, the school was bursting at the seams.
Erin began the 'Building a Better Future' program to mobilise local community members to build new classrooms. She sought sponsorship from friends and family in Australia and approached Kenyan churches, business and government departments for financial and material support. As a result, 2 new classrooms were built. In 2017 and 2018, locals were employed to do maintenance on the classrooms by recementing the floors which had worn down to expose the reinforcement wire.
Erin also spoke to us about her work with 'Mama Respond International', a charity she formed in 2020 with the mission of “Improving health for better education”. After several return trips to Kenya she realised she could achieve more if she officialised the work and 'Mama Respond International' was formed. The charity now employs staff in Kenya to carry out the work of the charity.
In 2017 Noonkopir opened the only special needs unit in the township. The room is an empty shell measuring three meters by five meters and accommodates forty students with a huge array of disabilities. The room is a small tin shack with no disability aids, nor disability access. Inside the room, there is one table and four chairs. Children with conditions that prevent them from sitting or standing lay on the bare concrete floor until the school day is over. The students must use the generic toilets which bear no aids to assist them, nor a path to accommodate them.
As an ambassador and a friend of Noonkopir Township Primary School the charity is working to see the student’s educational standards improve. They are, therefore, building a new, state of the art, special needs unit. It will include disability access, bathrooms accessible within the building, a veranda around the whole building with garden beds for motor skill development, water tanks for everyday access to water, and a recycling water system. The room will be fitted with disability aids, appropriate furniture and specific learning materials.
To find out how you can help with this project click here.
Who Has Been Helped (so far)
Lucky
Lucky was eight years old when he first came to the attention of Erin Hegarty. It was clear that he could see very little and as a result, he remained in pre-primary. Knowing Lucky was not born blind, we knew we could save his sight. After receiving his diagnosis of bilateral cataracts, we contacted the Fred Hollows Foundation in Kenya to see if they could help.
The incredible team found the money to fund one eye surgery and further, sought funding from Kikuyu Hospital to fund the second eye surgery.
Lucky’s injury was too old to regain 20-20 vision again, however his sight has improved tenfold. He is now in year one and is number one in his class for all subjects.
Fred Hollows Foundation and Kikuyu Hospital:
Bilateral cataract surgery $400
Lucky’s hospital fees $70
Mama Respond covered:
Initial consultations $110
Transport to and from appointments $25
Transport for Mama Lucky to and from the hospital $120
Follow up treatment $10
Income replacement for the days Mama Lucky took off work $30
Medication $20
Abby
Abby sustained a brain injury at birth and suffered endless seizures. After years of misdiagnoses and assumptions about Abby’s condition, she was taken to Gertrude's Children’s Hospital. Her poor health meant the doctors had to treat pneumonia and typhoid and flush her body of incorrect medication before they could assess her condition. One month later, Abby had emergency brain surgery to unkink a nerve in her brain.
Abby has not suffered any seizure since her surgery. She continues on the road to recovery with monthly physiotherapy to learn how to walk and talk again. It is our hope, and Mama Abby’s hope, that Abby can live a comfortable life free of pain.
Gertrude's Children’s Hospital:
Brain surgery $600
Medication $100
Abby’s hospital bill $200
Mama Respond:
Transport to and from hospital $187
Mama Abby’s bed in the hospital $109
Transport for physiotherapy monthly $46
RIDE Pre-Learner Driver Safety Course
Eclipse Driving School & The Rotary Clubs of Baldivis, Rockingham & Palm Beach provide the only Pre-Learner Drivers Course in Perth
This course is aimed at 15-16 year olds and is designed to help reduce the high fatality rate in our younger drivers, who are up to 40x more at risk of being in a crash in their first 6 months of driving.
You will be driving fully insured dual controlled vehicles with a professional instructor next to you.
PARENTS/CAREGIVERS MUST ATTEND WITH THEIR CHILD
Next course - Sunday 22 August 2021 FULLY BOOKED
Next available course - WATCH THIS SPACE!
LOCATION
Perth Motorplex
Cnr Anketell & Rockingham Roads, Kwinana Beach, WA 6167
Let's get out there and spread the work about how great the work of Rotary is!
THOUGHT FOR THE FORTNIGHT
Rotary Disaster Recovery Trust launches European Floods Appeal
The Rotary Disaster Recovery Trust has launched a Europe Floods Appeal, after July saw devastating flooding in multiple countries across the continent.
Caused by record rainfall, countries including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have been badly affected by some of the worst flooding for decades.
It is thought over 180 people have lost their lives, with hundreds still missing and tens of thousands more unable to return to their homes.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has described the flooding as the “worst natural disaster” in a century.
Images published by The Atlantic(see following photographs from 'The Atlantic')show the harrowingly vast scale of the wreckage which has swept through the continent, with infrastructure, homes and communities destroyed.
In help and support of our neighbours and friends, the Rotary Disaster Recovery Trust has launched the following appeal.
How to donate
If you would like to support* the Disaster Recovery Trust (charity number 1119688), you can find further information here.
ByJames Bolton
Published Date: July 20, 2021
About the Disaster Recovery Trust
The Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland Disaster Recovery Trust (formerly known as the Donations Trust) is a registered charity (number 1119688), established in 2007, which collates donations and makes grants to Rotary projects working to rebuild communities.
Since then the charity has continued its work with the purpose of responding to major disasters at home and abroad in the reconstruction phase following a disaster.
Typical projects include constructing and equipping school and community centres, rebuilding infrastructure and providing rescue vehicles.
Over the last three years, the Donations Trust has collated funds for earthquakes in Italy, New Zealand and Nepal, flooding in the UK, Ireland and Pakistan as well as hurricanes in the Caribbean.
Support our Rotarians in Business
Monica and Joel Hunter run Drip Hunters Plumbing and Gas so if you have any plumbing or gas needs, please contact Joel on 0439 922 548 and receive a discounted price for being a Rotarian.
Kitengela, Kenya. She quickly realised that teaching wasn't her choice of profession, and simultaneously recognised and issue she could tackle - overcrowded classrooms. Noonkopir Township Primary School,one of 3public schools in Kitengela, catered for 1,500 students in sixteen classrooms. With an average of 93 students per classroom, the school was bursting at the seams.
