Rotary Club of Diamond Creek Bulletin 14/08/2012

rotary club of diamond creek inc RCDC 14th August Page

1 4 t h A u g u s t 2 0 1 2

RCDC

ROTARY CLUB OF DIAMOND CREEK

Esther Wamai Principal, Director

Tenderfoot Self Help School

Kangemi Narobi Kenya.

rotary club of diamond creek inc RCDC 14th August Page 2

RI President

Sakuji Tanaka Rotary Club of Yashio, Saitama, Japan

Governor

John Gatt Rotary Club of Diamond Creek

AG

Pat Miller Rotary Club of Diamond Creek

Club Officers

President Steve Crosling

Vice President Alan Jones

President Elect Bev Baker

Secretary Greg Paull

Treasurer & Public Officer Greg Adams

Directors and Standing Committees

Club Administration PE Steve Crosling

Membership John Egan

Public Relations PP Alan Jones

Service Projects PP Alan White

Rotary Foundation PP Linda Gidlund

Who ya gunna call !

President Steve Crosling 0417 595 282

Secretary Greg Paull 0427 712 688

Treasurer Greg Adams 0419 355 842

Editor: Greg Adams

Art Director: Greg Adams

Advertising : Greg Adams

Bottle washer : Greg as well

Editorial: send to [email protected]

Caution: The Bulletin contains no calories, vitamins,

minerals or proteins. In fact, it is devoid of nutritional value.

Nevertheless, it is a supplement much sought after and

regularly devoured by the Rotarians of Diamond Creek.

rotary club of diamond creek inc.

RCDC

V o l u m e 2 1 I s s u e 7

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter

are not necessarily those of the Club or its members

District 9790

past presidents

Brian Bowen 1978-1979 Heidelberg North

Bob Eycken 1983-1984 Alperton UK

John McCrohan 1992-1993

Ron Gordon 1993-1994

Chris Doupe 1994-1995

Cliff Wearne 1995-1996

Ern Wardell 1996-1997

Rod Mackenzie 1997-1998

Steve Sampson 1998-1999

Robin Chapple 1999-2000

Peter Marriage 2000-2001

Rob Lloyd 2001-2002

Bev Baker 2002-2003

Joe Di Natale 2003-2004

Geoff Swan 2004-2005

John Gatt 2005-2006

John Arthur 2006-2007

Linda Gidlund 2007-2008

Alan White 2008-2009

Pat Millar

2009-2010

Clyde Hulme

2010-2011

Alan Jones

2011-2012

The dream of Esther Wamai-

the Administrator and founder

is to develop the primary

section and expand it to a

secondary school.

Tender Foot Self help School

was founded in 1996 by Esther

Wamai, a former teacher at

Mama Ngina Children's Home.

On moving to Kangemi, she

was distressed to see children

as young as three years old

roaming the streets

unsupervised. With groups of

local women, she formed a self

help group, organization and

registered with the Ministry of

culture and Social Services.

FROM THE EDITOR

Our Club sponsors 4 students

and as a number of members

do also I took the liberty to

publish a copy of the latest

Newsletter from the school.

The forming and growth of the

school has been a testament to

the dedication of Esther.

Esther was, as a child was

bashed and abused. The

School from its humble

beginnings to today it is an

outstanding achievement and

her story is inspirational.


14th AUGUST 2012 TUESDAY 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Plenty Valley Disability Services—Sarah Loughtrey Attend, Alan W, L, Chair, Pat M,, Cash Greg

A, Welcome Phil C, Regalia Ern W, Raffle Gift Bev B.

21st AUGUST 2012 TUESDAY 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Training—Partners Night Attend, Phil C, Chair, John E, Cash Greg A, Welcome

Tina E, Regalia Linda G, Raffle Gift Greg A.

28st AUGUST 2012 TUESDAY 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Club Ass. Attend, Jacqui H , Chair, Steve C, Cash Greg A,Welcome Arthur L, Regalia Alan

J, Raffle Gift Warwick L.

4th SEPTEMBER 2012 TUESDAY 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Attend, Alan W , Chair, Rod M, Cash Greg A, Welcome Pat M,

Regalia David P, Raffle Gift Roger K.

8th SEPTEMBER 2012 TOWN FAIR ?

LIFE’S EVENTS

Aug 17 Molly Chapple birthday

Aug 19 Alan Jones birthday

Aug 25 Bev Baker birthday, Molly and Robin anniversary

Aug 30 Kerry and Alan anniversary.

Sept 2 Alan White joined this club 18 years ago.

Sept 3 Kerry Jones birthday

Sept 7 Peter Hodge birthday, Pat Millar birthday.

PLEASE WELCOME TONIGHTS SPEAKER

SARAH LONGHREY

Sarah Loughrey has worked for Plenty Valley Community Health, in the Disability area for 10 years.

Sarah is a disability instructor and senior practitioner for independent support packages.

They are looking at running a special program in 2013 for Year 12 school leavers, this program is called “P.I.T.” Pursuing Independent Pathways.

The program will be held at “Farm Vigarno” in South Morang.

WHAT’S ON, WHO’S ON AND WHEN’S IT ON


THE PRESIDENTIAL CROSS CHAT

XRAY STEVE

Great news – the Board will be pleased to announce that the following positions

have been filled:

Sharraine Ballao (Family of Rotary), Arthur Lewin (Programme) and Alan Jones

(Public Relations)

We extend a grateful thanks to these volunteers and I am sure that every club

member will extend whatever assistance is required to these members if and when

they should request it. This now means the PHF PP Bev Baker can focus on her role

as President Elect, Club Administration and of course On To Conference.

At last week’s meeting we heard from Sharraine Ballao in her “Person behind the

Rotarian” presentation which kept us all enthralled and amused in learning

something about a person that we only usually see as a Rotarian. The other side if

you like. We will be running a number of these presentations throughout the year

and we would be looking for some life background from the newer / younger

Rotarians and from the older / longer serving Rotarians some background on

what they have achieved as a Rotarian. We may also introduce some profession or

career presentations – in other words tell us what your job entails. It’s amazing

what some of us do and get up to!

Also at our last meeting we received our latest shelter box certificate number 11217.

This can be tracked from the www.shelterboxaustralia.com.au website and

following the ‘Track my Box’ link. This box is yet to be deployed, but our previous

boxes were deployed to Java, Peru (x2) & Pakistan. Apart from the fantastic effort

that our club has put in for both Shelter Box and Aqua Box it makes you appreciate

what a truly great humanitarian effort Rotary International has made when you

look at the certificate number – that’s the number of Shelter Boxes that have been

put together for deployment in times of human suffering. When prospective

members ask “What does Rotary do?” this is certainly one of the activities that we

can mention with pride.

A reminder to all members – when arriving at dinner meetings and checking in

with the cashier please remember to list your makeups AND the number of hours

that you have contributed to our Rotary projects. This is now part of our reporting

process that has been initiated by DG John Gatt and it is a lot easier to do this on a

weekly basis rather than someone trying to work it out 6 months down the track.

Secretary Greg Paull would not be happy!!


AS IT HAPPENED LAST WEEK ?

Toast to Australia: Pat Miller Rotary grace: Alan White

Visiting Rotarians: None Guests: None

Shelterbox: We have received our latest shelter box certificate: number 11217. This can be tracked from the

www.shelterboxaustralia.com.au website and following the ‘Track my Box’ link. This box is yet to be

deployed, but our previous boxes were deployed to Java, Peru (x2) & Pakistan.

Service Projects: Please note that from tonight you need to record your time spent on community service or

service project eg town fair, bbqs, youth exchange etc. This does not include time spent on Regular

meetings, board meetings etc. This goes into the time that rotary spends in the community.

Our outgoing exchange student has pulled out for this year but would like to be considered next year.

Conference: Rob, Greg A & John are going to Ballarat this Friday for a pre conference visit. Please

remember to book your accommodation in Ballarat.

NZ Visitors: NZ visitors are now all allocated to hosts. Thanks to all those hosting.

Other: We have a BBQ for the Eltham toy library on September 1st. Volunteers needed please. Sharraine

has taken on Family of Rotary from Bev. Arthur will take on Program scheduling. Still looking for

someone to do PR role.

Chair for tonight Arthur Leewin

Sargent Roger used illicitly gained information to fine his fellow Rotarians.

Rotarian Behind the Badge: Sharraine Ballao

Sharraine was born in Cairns and soon moved to Silkwood. Her family were sugar cane growers. She loved

music when growing up and learned to play the Organ, French horn and Tap dancing! First connection to

Rotary was when she was a debutant at a Rotary sponsored deb night. Sharraine went to High School in

Innisfail FNQ.

Her first job was with an agricultural bank (now part of Suncorp). She married at 20 and had Mareesa at 22.

Sharraine had a Tupperware job and was very successful at running parties – up to 10-12 a week....! Moved

to Melbourne (more opportunity than Innisfail) and got a job at NAB, then worked at the Austin hospital

admin dept, then moved to LePine and been there for 9 years now.

Sharraine travelled overseas to Greece for a couple of months 5 years ago.

Sharraine joined Rotary as she was interested in volunteer and community work and to be involved in the

local community and wanted to be involved in something that Mareesa could be involved in as well.

She still plays the organ and would love to get into theatre, enjoys movies, festivals, history and would love

to go to Iraq for its history.

Raffle raised $32 Won by Pat!

Fines $30

Meeting closed at 8:11


TENDER FOOT SCHOOL

P.O. Box 23482- 00625 NAIROBI CELL PHONE: 0722 377 315 / 0716 199 073

Newsletter Updates June to July 2012

We are glad to update you on our school progress. It has been a busy month with so many activities as laid out below:

Half term Break

The children did their half term exams and had a break for their half term on Friday 29 th May 2012.

They reported back on Tuesday 5th June 2012, ready to continue with their studies. The weather is chilly but we are surviving. The month of June was

smooth with the learning activities going on well. Classes 7& 8 have done their fourth exam and they are doing well.

Class eight will be doing their mocks exam by the end of July so we are getting them ready since this exam is done countrywide and is a preparation of

their end of year exam which they will be doing in early November as their final primary 8 exam.

Education Trip

Our Classes 7 had their education trip on 26th June where they visited our Kenya National Archives where they studied about the historical and cultural

activities of our country.

This was followed by our class 5 & 6 who visited our Meteorological department where they learnt about weather. This is where the weather station is

doing the coverage of the whole of our country and they give guidelines and information about weather, it’s in place called Dagoretti in the eastern

side of the Capital city Nairobi and its very near our school about ten kilometers away.

We also had our class 4 trip who also visited the Kenya National Archives for their history lesson. The Kenya National Archives is located in the city

centre.

Kenya National Archives Pupils are being taught at National Archives

Volunteer Guest

We were happy and privileged to have a visitor from The U.K. by name Richard Baines who is a teacher by profession. He was such an inspiration to

us and his stay with us was an honour. He arrived at our school on the 10th of July, and we welcomed him together with the children doing their normal

gigs for our visitor who looked very excited.

We called him teacher Richard because he wanted to be treated like one of us and he wanted to feel comfortable around us. He immediately embarked

in teaching our children and he enjoyed very much interacting with them and sharing his ideas with them. He also taught them some IT techniques

and our children were so excited towards this new lesson. In fact we have told him that he has done a ground breaking on this one and we are not

going to stop but to start.


Pupils attending IT classes

We may not have a computer classroom, but somehow we can start with one or two computers which we have to encourage these children.

On Friday 13th July 2012, Teacher Richard actually accompanied the class four together with their teachers on their trip to the Kenya National

Archives and he also got to learn about our history and culture. He was very excited to actually visit the city centre for the first time. He also shared

this experience and information with the children when they came back to school.

Tr. Richard taken a photo with the pupils at the Kenya National Archives

Parents Class meetings

We had some class meeting on 17th, 18th and 20th of July between parents and teachers where some academic issues were discussed for the betterment

of our children’s education the turn-up was overwhelming and we appreciated the parent for their dedication towards their children’s affairs, all

meeting were chaired by our principal Esther Wamai. Teacher Richard was able to sit on all meetings and got to experience the interaction between the

parents and the teachers and how some issues are handled. His opinion was very positive.

On the 19th of July, 2012, Teacher Esther got a chance to take Teacher Richard to visit our old school premises and the Kangemi, Kawangware, Kibera

slums. He was surprised to know that some of our children actually come from these very poor surroundings. He actually got firsthand experience.

Former school premises Kibera slums


Time has flown by and on Thursday the 26th of July we held a farewell party for Teacher Richard who will be going back to U.K. on Tuesday 31st of

July 2012. It was very colourful and we shared a cake, sang some farewell songs, had some poems and raps dedicated to him for the good times we

shared and learnt together.

Friday 27th July 2012, we had to take our small children for a trip to the Orphanage and the Bomas of Kenya this were children between ages 3 and 8

who are in baby class to class 3.

Teacher Richard accompanied the children and he gave such a supportive hand. He also got a difference experience altogether. We had a chance to

see our wildlife and our culture in both places. We are very proud to have had such a teacher and it is our wish that he will get another chance to visit

us again.

Pupils at the Bomas of Kenya Pupils watching buffalos at the Orphanage

Our children are sitting for their end of term exam which starts on Tuesday 31st July, 2012 to Thursday 2nd July, 2012. We shall be closing our school

on 7th August, 2012 for a vacation of three weeks and we shall re-open the school on Tuesday 4th September, 2012.

We are sad to have lost yet another parent of two boys who are in our school in class 6 and class 1. We lost her on Thursday 2nd August, 2012. Our

condolences go to the family and friends.

Pupils doing their end term exams

We would like to take this opportunity to pass our utmost gratitude to all our sponsors and friends for supporting us this far. We wish

you all the best and we shall keep you posted on any development that may arise.

COMPILED BY ESTHER WAMAI


August! A month of my year has already gone. Time really does fly when you are having fun.

Eileen and I attended another seven changeovers and nine DG visits. We also visited the ‘about to be formed’ new

breakfast club Albury-Wodonga Sunrise.

Very appropriate considering August is Membership and Extension month. The club has already organised its first

major project, which will be a netball event, the Corporate Netball Blitz, to be held on 3rd August at The Scots School

Albury.

We also visited my original club, Coburg. The RC of Coburg had a great night to celebrate fifteen years of projects in

Vietnam. The RC Coburg started the first project in Vietnam in 1996 with the establishment of the planning and

experimental development of a model coffee tree plantation.

In 1999 I was privileged to visit Vietnam with another nine Rotarians and friends. We visited and opened two school

buildings the club had built in Dak Lak Vietnam, and gave sixty push-bikes to sixty very excited children.

The club continued its work in Vietnam with the Vietnamese Street Children Project. This project helped a women’s

help group in Ho Chi Minh City to run evening classes for disadvantaged children at the Vinh Dien Primary School.

On the 21st and 22nd of July we attended the Rotary Success Conference (a brainstorming workshop on

membership) which was held in Canberra. RI President Elect Ron Burton gave an inspiring and motivating speech

from his heart. Past RI Director Stuart Heal and new RI Director John Boag also spoke. The last key note speaker was

Kristy Sword Gusmão wife of Xanana Gusmão, Prime Minister andformer President of the Democratic Republic of

Timor-Leste. Kristy spoke about her Alola Foundation that supports Woman and children in Timor- Leste. Breakout

sessions were also held at the conference with trained facilitators who were able to control and deliver quality

outcomes.

If you would like to find out more about what happened at the Canberra Rotary Success Conference, the RDU web

site will have more information.

Peace through Service is this year’s theme and I have asked all club Presidents to advise me of their club service

during each month. See the back page of this newsletter to see the service that clubs in our district have done during

July. If your club is not mentioned please tell your President to sent me the service your club has done so it can be

included in next mouths Gatt’s Gazette.

John Gatt

District Governor 2012-2013

Rotary District 9790

MESSAGE FROM THE DG JOHN GATT


“Holy @#$% Batman, how many

sleeps to go?

Phone 03 9438 3044

Fax: 03 9438 4070

Rotary Grace

O Lord and giver of all good

We thank you for our daily food

May Rotary friends and Rotary ways,

help us to serve you all our days.

Advance Australia Fair

Australians all let us rejoice,

For we are young and free;

We've golden soil and wealth for toil,

Our home is girt by sea;

Our land abounds in Nature's gifts

Of beauty rich and rare;

In history's page, let every stage

Advance Australia fair!

In joyful strains then let us sing,

"Advance Australia fair!"

http://diamondcreektownfair.org.au/

Rotary Club of Diamond Creek Bulletin 14/08/2012

Documents

club sponsors

treasurer greg adams

rotarians of diamond

greg adams advertising

cash greg

greg adams art director

greg adams bottle washer

secondary school