Completed International Service Projects
Chicken Farms in Rural Panamá
We helped our sister club in Panamá build 5 self-sustainable farms in a variety of poor rural villages in 2007. We raised US$1200 towards it ourselves, asked one of our then sponsoring clubs to also chip in US$500, and Rotary District 9450 donated the rest of the funds that was needed - a good US$15,000! The farms have now been constructed in 5 communities.
Aquabox
We purchased an Aquabox, which we filled with emergency supplies, both new and second hand, including warm clothing for adults and babies, toiletries, kitchen utensils, small hand tools, and so on. It derives it's name from the fact that once the emergency items have been removed, the tub, which has a tap on one side, is filled with water (water purifying tablets are included!) to supply clean drinking water. Fortunately we finished stocking our Aquabox in December 2004, and it was sent off for use in the wake of the Boxing Day Tsunami within a week or so of us returning it to the Rotary Club of Kalamunda for storage!
Supporting Interplast's Reconstructive Surgery
Interplast, a Rotary-sponsored project, provides reconstructive surgeries for needy children and adults with cleft lip, cleft palate, severe burns, and other crippling injuries. The Interplast story is about repairing bodies and restoring lives. It is also about hope. In 2003, the Rotaract Club of South Perth donated $1000 to Interplast from our first Harry Potter Movie Night.
A Winter's Wish
In July 2002, we held a Christmas in July dinner to raise money for the Bagamoyo School of Music in Tanzania. We used the funds to purchase a keyboard and books for the school, which were given to James Searle, a West Australian music teacher who went to Tanzania as a volunteer to teach at Bagamoyo, in October 2002.
Polio Eradication Campaign
In 2001/2002, we issued a challenge to our sponsoring Rotary clubs that we would donate A$500 to the Polio Eradication Campaign if they did. They accepted. Instead of holding a fundraising event, we used the last of the funds we had left over from Cash for Cans. In July 2002 we donated an additional $1000, which we had raised from the 2002 WA Rotaract State Ball.
Purchasing a Drinking Water Fountain for a Hospital in India
Our major International Service Project for 2000/2001 was to partner with a Rotary Club in India to undertake a Matching Grant to install a water fountain in a hospital in India to give visitors and patients clean water to drink. The US$200 we needed was partially funded by our second Death By Chocolate night, with the rest of the funds coming from our Cash for Cans project. Unfortunately we were never sent a report or photos of the completed project.
Equipping a Primary School in Rural China
Our major International Service Project for 1999/2000 was to support a Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) project which was building and equipping schools in rural China. We raised $450 at our first Death By Chocolate night, topped it up to $540, and donated the money to help equip a school in Binxian County, China.
Smaller Projects
From mid 2004 - 2008 we encouraged Rotaract Clubs worldwide to join us in spreading the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" as far as possible: in email signatures, messenger display names, on websites, tshirts, stickers... 175 Rotaract clubs in 46 different countries joined us in our effort!
In April 2006 we designed and painted a 30 x 30 cm square tile to send to Rotaract District 2110 in Italy, where tiles from Rotaract Clubs all over the world will be incorporated into a permanent world understanding exhibit in a parkland the district is doing up. Luckily for us, our club member Sara Pieruzzini returned to Italy for Easter, so she hand delivered our tile to the organisers for us!
On March 20th, 2005 we went to the Swan Valley, just under an hour's drive from the center of Perth, to conduct "research" for our contribution to the "Rotaract International Tourism Guide", a project coordinated by the Rotaract Club of Amman-Petra in Jordan. Visiting Rotaractor Harald Schlutter from Germany kindly helped us verify the authenticity of the german food at the Duckstein Brewery!
We spent the last few months of 2004 completing a 60 x 60 square cm tile to send to a Rotaract Club in Jordan for inclusion in an "International Park" they were constructing. We had a heap of fun as members showed off their creative sides, designing and building a tile that was half photo collage, half mosaic! We were absolutely devastated when some months after we had posted it, carefully wrapped, it was returned to us in several pieces!
In September 2004 we shipped a 19" monitor box full of second hand stuffed toys, games, children's clothing, pads of paper, and colouring pencils and textas to the Rotaract Club of Agadir in Morocco. The Rotaractors there distributed the items we donated to poor children on our behalf. (Pictured left is approximately half of the goods that we sent to Morocco)
In April 2004 we had the pleasure of hosting a Brazilian exchange student for 2 weeks - Rodrigo the Chicken! We took him sightseeing around Perth and included him in all our club activities. We made sure we took plenty of photos, and let his home club know what he got up to. We were very sad when he had to leave us, bound for his next stop - Bali!
In 2004 we responded to a request from the Rotaract Club of Paraiso in Quezon City, the Philippines, to help them improve the library of the Judge Juan Luna High School. They wanted to turn the existing library into an international library, and requested books from Rotaract clubs around the world to show many cultures and places. We sent them two books - "Portrait of Perth" and "Discover Western Australia".
In 2003 we partnered with the Rotaract Club of Nizhny-Novgorod in Russia to undertake a project promoting peace and international understanding. Children at an orphanage in Russia and a class of children at the Koonawarra Primary School in Manning made A3 size drawings about what they love. The posters were exchanged, and we exhibited the drawings from Russia for 2 weeks each in the South Perth and Manning public libraries.
In 2002 we discovered that the Prosthesis Foundation in Thailand makes artificial (prosthetic) limbs from the recycled aluminium, such as that found in the ring pulls on aluminium cans. One kilogramme of these tabs produce just over two legs! Our club joined other Rotary clubs in Western Australia to collect ring pulls for this very worthy project, until there was no longer a need for them as the Thai government got behind the project.
Also to mark September 11th in 2002, we sent 17 postcards with messages of friendship to Rotaract clubs in countries we had no contact with previously. The countries we selected were Aruba, Bahrain, Belarus, Belize, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Estonia, Guinea, Honduras, Luxembourg, Monaco, Mozambique, Scotland, Senegal, St Kitts-Nevis, Uruguay, and Wales.
To mark the first anniversary of September 11 and to help promote peace, we participated in the "World's Biggest Hug for Peace". We had a relatively small turnout at our meeting, of just 10 people, plus a reporter from Curtin University's "Perth Independent" newspaper, so our group hug didn't come anywhere near the record of 1,802 people! We hugged in silence for 1 minute to remember those who lost their lives.
In 2001, we were the only Australian Rotaract club to take part in the Rotaract International Peace Crusade. The purpose of the project was to reach the population of Israel by sending them peace messages from all over the Rotaract world. We asked children at a local primary school to make posters containing drawings and messages of peace, which were forwarded on to the middle east.
Last updated on Monday 30th of June 2008 by Ian Ball © copyright 2000 - 2010 Rotaract Club of South Perth
Rotaract is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious international professional development and volunteer service organisation of students and young professionals aged between 18 and 30. The Rotaract Club of South Perth, District 9470, Western Australia, is sponsored by the Rotary Club of South Perth-Burswood. ~~ May Peace Prevail on Earth! ~~
