We had 20 members attending, as well as guest speaker Mike Berman

 

President Kaye welcomed us all and thanked Eddie for organising our wonderful Chinese New Year function.  What a great evening!

 

 

District has started a relief committee for the recent bushfires.  There is a Facebook page with links to donations.  They will be looking at long term help, including mental health issues down the track.  They are also building a database of people who have skills to contribute.

 

Dan and Kaye met with the City to go over the questions the club has re the Stirk Park re-development.  The City will get back to us when they have answers.

 

Paul introduced Mike Berman from the Rotary Club of Ascot.  The topic was a clean water project in the Lete Foto district in East Timor.  This is a project we have contributed to.  It is a wonderful project, with work being done in rugged terrain.  The locals do the work and Rotary provides the $$.  The area now has 17 tanks in place and the water is 99% pure and has made a huge difference to the lives of some 1 600 people.

 

Rotary did a reno on the school and they now have decent toilets.  Students are able to grow vegies for the school.  Some of these children have never had clean water before.

 

The result has seen a massive improvement in health outcomes.  At a previously completed project they went from virtually 100% of the population with health issues to 30%.  One clinic sister was worried that people weren’t presenting for treatment, but it turned out that they weren’t ill!

 

Ascot are looking for another $100,000 to complete the project. 

 

A great talk, and a most worthwhile project.

 

A reminder that the joint District Conference is on 5, 6 and 7 March at Optus stadium.