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Cairns Mulgrave Rotary Club
Boxed Gift Pens
Available Now
$15.00 each.
Please see Secretary Mike if you would like one
PRESIDENTS
MESSAGE
Welcome to a new Rotary Year.
I think everyone enjoyed the change
over dinner, the Presidents of the other clubs did and they have
all sent me a thank you to the Club for inviting them.
July 16 to 18 is the Cairns show,
and we are needing volunteers for the Show stall and the car park.
A list will be at the meeting on Friday for the people who want
to help to put their names down.
RYLA is on the 23 to 26th of July
and Sunrise club still has a couple of vacancies for people between
18 to 25 to participate. The accommodation is at Cairns Campus lodge
at Smithfield.
The District Governor Mr. Mike Rennie
will be visiting our club on the 29th of August, so we look forward
to meeting him once again in Cairns.
This is all I have for this week,
look forward to seeing everyone at the Hilton on Friday.
The theme for this Rotary year 2003
/2004 is Lend a Hand.
President Robyn
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Rotary 4-Way Test
1.
Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
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Cairns Choral Society Presents
Les
Miserables
Friday August 1st
Cairns Civic Theatre 7.30pm
Tickets are $28 per person
Please call Sandy on 40452072 or 0412240190 or email
astills@optusnet.com.au if you would like to join a group from Rotary
…. We would love you to come………
From Denise
Cairns Mulgrave Rotary Club has does it again!!
To everyone involved in the planning and preparation
of the Change-over Dinner, you all should feel very proud of the
result. Once again Cairns Mulgrave have shown the other clubs how
to party.
May I take this opportunity to say a big thank you
to the Club for the PHF award, it was the strangest feeling. It
felt surreal to have your name announced, then walking up through
the crowd and having your fellow Rotarians congratulating you. Whilst
listening to Garry verablise your life to all the guests.
I have won awards before but not one that has had
such an impact, it was probably because it was so unexpected. Although
I must say seeing my Daughter Kate and her husband Mark arrive at
the railway station was a little suspicious.
Receiving the award together with David Kirchner
certainly added to the occasion, congratulation once again David.
Also congratulations to John Quinn for his Eric Morton Award, very
deserving John.
Garry thank you and may I wish Robyn and her team
all the best for their coming year, I am sure it will be another
exciting year at the Cairns Mulgrave Club.
See you all for lunch on Friday.
Jottings from
Director John
From Rotary Down Under June 2003
Dear Fellow Rotarians
This evening (May 23 2003) I have been at a Rotary
club meeting in Bangkok. It was Dhonburi, the home club of (then)
President Bhichai Rattakul.
While I was there I was reminded of just how important
each Rotary club is. This is the place from where most Rotary service
begins. Every single Rotarian is a member of a club, each Rotary
club is the most important entity in Rotary. It was also brought
home to me just how important all our leaders are.
Firstly, each of our club presidents…they are our
leaders and we rely on each one to create the team that will plan
and service club and community needs for a whole year. It is also
the time about now when there are change-overs from one club leader
to the next.
The club needs continuity and our leaders need
to demonstrate just how neatly we can dovetail club planning to
ensure stability but with new ideas that excite members for the
next year.
Thanks to all our club presidents for their work
in this past year when we promised to Sow The Seeds Of Love. Next
(this) year's president of Rotary International (Jonathan Majiyagbe)
descried Bhichai Rattakul today as "a colossus of a man, an institution,
a man of great intellect and impeccable character who combines candour
with simplicity, integrity and dignity". What a leader!
A woman for Italy sitting next to me at the Dhonburi
dinner reminded me of the saying "Forget about yesterday, dream
about tomorrow but live for today." Let's continue to roll up our
sleeves and do the job
- in Rotary service.
John Thorne
Rotary Club of North Hobart,
Tas. Rotary International Director 2002-04
Knowledge Begets
Hope
Kenyan Rotarians are serving to curb HIV/AIDS
spread
By Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga
Young acrobats in zebra outfits hopped nimbly through
hoops to the beat of soukous, Africa's most popular dance music
blaring from speakers aimed at crowds of enthralled spectators.
Youngsters with painted faces giggled when a red-nosed
clown stuck his tongue out at them. Fresh visitors walked to the
arena and were promptly swallowed up by the happy crowd.
Among the new arrivals was a tall man in a suit
who shook the hands of guests seated in the front rows before settling
among them. His presence underscored the fact that these festivities
were part of a no ordinary circus.
U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Johnnie Carson was the
guest of honour at the opening of the Voluntary Counseling and Testing
(VCT) Centre for HIV/AIDS in Ruben village. The village is a neighborhood
in Mukuru, a poor section of Nairobi. The centre, situated on an
acre of land donated by local civic leaders, was made possible with
funding from Rotary clubs in Kenya and the United States.
Other supporters include the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID), Liverpool VCT and Care, Intermediate Technology
Development Group-East Africa (ITDG-EA), and Hope Worldwide. A VCT
centre offers voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing services
to the community.
Such centres play a central role in the efforts
of the health ministry, non-governmental organisations and local
authorities to stem the tide of a pandemic that has infected more
than 2.5 million Kenyans. A study sponsored by Family Health International,
a non-profit organisation operating in more than 40 counties, found
that voluntary testing and counseling promote HIV prevention.
One-on-one counseling often leads to repeat visits
and promotes positive changes in behavior by giving clients knowledge
of their HIV status. Ambassador Carson said when he arrived in Kenya
in 1999 he was dismayed to find that there wasn't a single VCT centre
there despite the rapid spread of AIDS. As he had done on previous
assignments to Uganda and Zimbabwe, he worked with Kenyan and U.S.
health authorities to change this.
He noted with satisfaction that the Ruben village
facility is now one of 115 VCT centres in Kenya and that the government
plans to establish an additional 200 to 3000 within three years.
Ambassador Carson said: "Everyone has a right to good medical care
and everyone has a right to know on a confidential and voluntary
basis, their HIV status. It helps to ensure their own welfare that
of wife or husband, their children, and the community."
He lauded the fact that the clinic focuses on young
people. He said, "If we can give them hope and support to lead longer
productive lives, we will ensure the future of Kenya."
Collaboration and co-operation were watchwords at
the opening as speakers drove home the fact that AIDS must be contained
through coordinated efforts involving all of society.
"This site was created because of the co-operation
between Hope Worldwide and the Rotary clubs in Nairobi and Georgia",
said Jeff Bamford of the Rotary Club of Nairobi East. With the
Rotary Club of Dunwoody, Georgia, U.S.A.
Nairobi Rotarians helped fund construction
of the Community AIDS centre at Ruben Village. Doctor Mark Ottenweller
of Hope Worldwide Africa described the training, support, prevention
and childcare services his organisation had developed in response
to the needs of impoverished towns in South Africa.
The Ruben Village centre is one of 30 sites that
Hope worldwide has helped to establish across Africa. Modeled on
the pioneer program in Soweto, South Africa, each of the organisation's
community efforts has benefited from involvement of Rotary clubs.
Hope Worldwide services have been recognised as a best practice
model by UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation.
Malinda Wheeler, Hope Worldwide's regional director
for eastern Africa, said: "Success will be determined by the level
of co-operation among the many organisations and people who are
all part of this project." David Kuria of ITDG-EA offered some sobering
statistics.
More than 20 percent of Nairobi's 4.5 million inhabitants
are infected, he said. Nairobi Mayor Joe Akech pointed out that
because AIDS killed about 700 Kenyans a day, it was necessary for
the government to work with others, including foreign governments
and private humanitarian groups.
He singled out Rotarians for special praise, saying:
"Today we wont also to recognise the effort of Rotary clubs. They
are doing wonderful work. We would like to encourage more young
people to join in such volunteer service." Doctor Miriam Taegtmeyer,
an infections disease specialist and director of Liverpool VCT and
Care, arrived in Kenya in 1998.
Working with local groups, including the Rotaract
clubs of Nairobi, she has seen many positive changes in attitudes
and behaviors. Here group was established by the Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine in England to develop approaches to voluntary
HIV counseling and testing for countries where infection is rampant.
Liverpool VCT and Care provides training and support
to almost 70 voluntary testing and counseling sites in Kenya. Dr
Taegtameyer hopes to work with more Kenyan Rotarians and Rotaractors.
Among the visiting Rotarians was Marion Bunch of the Rotary Club
of Dunwoody.
Since losing her son to AIDS in 1984, Marion Bunch
has worked with Rotarians in African and Asia as part of World Rotary
AIDS Project (WRAP, which emphasizes prevention and support services.
The Rotary Club of Nairobi and several U.S. Rotary clubs
sponsor on on-going project to strengthen the capacity of a health
care centre in Kibera, a disadvantaged area in the Kenyan capital
with a population of 1.5 million.
The centre will provide treatment to thousands of
HIV positive mothers and babies, in addition to testing and counseling
services. In co-operation with Kenya Airways, the Rotary Club
of Nairobi launched the AIDS orphans Project in 2000. The joint
effort identifies and places AIDS orphans in foster homes and assists
them financially with money form a donation program now promoted
on all Kenya Airways flights.
The Rotary Club of Kisumu also raises funds
to educate, clothe and feed AIDS orphans. With the support of 15
African districts, Kenyan Rotarians also are building 15 shelters
for AIDS orphans in Cura Village near Nairobi. The Rotary Foundation
of R.I. has provided a $15, 000 Matching Grant to support the initiative.
Vukoni Lup-Lasaga, is editor or Rotary News Basket
and R.I.'s media relations specialist for Africa.
From Rotary Down Under June 2003
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