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Welcome to the Rotary Club of Berwick

Serving the Berwick Community and the surrounding District since 1961

President - Isobel Caulfield

Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian service and to advance goodwill and peace around the world. Members enjoy networking with others to improve their professional skill set and make connections throughout the world.

While the perception is that Rotary is for older people, the reality is that Rotary is for anyone who wants to serve to improve the lives of others. Many of the members of the Rotary Club of Berwick work full time and have very busy lives.

Want more information, why not ask a question! CLICK HERE to open the form.

Do you want to serve the Community and make long-lasting friendships? Could Rotary be the organisation that is right for you?
Club Contact:	For Dinner bookings contact:
Secretary P.O. Box 30, Berwick 3806 email: secretary@rotaryberwick.org Book into a meeting: CLICK HERE	Wednesday nights, 6:30 pm for 7:00 pm The Beaconsfield Football Club 200mt from Emerald and Holm Park Road intersection Beaconsfield, VIC 3807, Australia Email: attendance@rotaryberwick.org

Rotarians: People of Action

Posted by David Button on Aug 04, 2019

On Saturday, we had a mission! Deliver a bit of dental equipment for our project in the Solomon Islands to Rotary Donations in Kind in West Footscray (https://www.facebook.com/RotaryDIK/) and then backload an even bigger load of medical equipment for Hallam Valley Trade Training Centre for their medical training classroom.

This was a significant project as the equipment was for a local program instead of an overseas one. It was also an opportunity to get out and do something positive with our spare time, share a few stories and see another side of the world we live in. (and maybe have some fun!)

The Team! A mix of professionals including a nurseryman, boilermaker, kennel owner x 2, builder, environmental consultant, weatherman, educator, storage expert, building maintenance and finance expert. An unlikely mix that use their free time to help others

Supporting Young People at risk of homelessness

Kids Under Cover was established 30 years ago, in 1989 by well-known Melbourne identity, Ken Morgan OAM.The disturbing findings of the Senate National Inquiry into youth homelessness, known as the ‘Burdekin Report’, moved Ken to initially raise funds to build a house for homeless young mothers.

Ken’s passion to increase the support offered to young people facing homelessness led to the birth of Kids Under Cover. Due to events in his own life, when he was younger, Ken was determined to fill what he saw was a huge gap in the sup

port offered to young people in the community.

Kids Under Cover is a not-for-profit organisation which is dedicated to preventing and supporting vulnerable young people between the ages of 12 and 25 years who are either already homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Thank you to Amy-Lou Cowdroy-Ling for a great presentation on the work of Kids Under Cover and the positive impact their programs have on the lives of young people at risk of homelessness!

It was the club's great pleasure to donate $3,000 to support the great work of the Kids Under Cover organisation.

www.kuc.org.au

Paul Harris Fellow Shane Gray

Rotarians have a tradition of supporting the Rotary Foundation by honouring others in our community through the awarding of a Paul Harris Fellow. PP Jim Wilson announced that this evening the Club would be presenting a PHF to Shane Gray.
Shane is a dance instructor and runs the Pakenham Dance Studio.

For years Shane has given young adults with special needs in our community an opportunity to mix and have fun in a safe environment by holding a monthly “Special Needs Disco” at his dance studio in Pakenham.

Shane quietly works in the background investing considerable time and effort for the community. Over the years he has trained the participants of local Debutante Balls, many conducted by the Rotary Club of Pakenham.

Rotary Action Groups

Rotarian Action Groups are international groups of Rotarians, family members, program participants, and alumni who are experts in a particular field or passionate about topics such as microcredit, peace, the environment, or water. Rotarian Action Groups (RAGs) give members opportunities to engage in service activities and network with like minded members around the world. Read more:

https://my.rotary.org/en/take-action/empower-leaders/join-rotarian-action-group

https://rotaryserviceblog.org/category/service-activities-and-resources/rotarian-action-groups/

Rotary Junior Community Award

President Isobel had the honour of presenting with a certificate for recently completing The Rotary Junior Community Award.
Josie Wilson, from the Rotary Club of Pakenham (who is passionately leading this program in her own Club and also within our Cluster), explained to us that in order to achieve this award, which is designed for boys and girls in their final year of Primary School, Callum successfully completed a number of activities in the following four areas: Community Service, Physical Recreation, Social Experience and Skill Development.

Rotary connects the world, our new president Isobel Caulfield

The official vision of Rotary International resonates with President Isobel. ‘Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change - across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves’. President Isobel noted that the change may be in ourselves. That could mean by taking on a new role that you didn’t think you could do...like being President...or just the satisfaction of a job well done serving the community.

In Isobel shared with us that she felt overwhelming and honoured to be inducted as President. She congratulated and thanked Geoff for the past few months.
Isobel said the club needed leadership and Geoff stepped up to the job. She also thanked the board and all the club members for supporting Geoff. Isobel spoke of how ironic it was that changeovers have become a thing between the Double’s and Caulfield’s. In 2010 Di passed the IWC Berwick Presidential Collar to Isobel. In 2016
Geoff handed over the Rotary Collar to Mark...and in keeping with the tradition, Geoff was now handing the collar to her. Isobel thanked her father Graeme and her late mother, for being such active members of the community in which they have lived. Doing things for the community is something which Isobel has done
all her life. She especially thanked Mark and their daughters, Rachel and Anna, who also give so much to the community, both through Rotary and through Rotaract.

Kids on Track

Gary Castricum introduced our Guest Speaker, Dr Lynette Buoy, who is the CEO of Windermere.

Lynette commenced as the CEO with Windermere in early 2013. Previous to this Lynette was the CEO for the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare - the state peak body for 95 welfare agencies, General Manager for The Smith Family in Western Australia and also held the position of CEO for the Lady Gowrie Child Centre (Melbourne) Inc.

Lynette explained that Windermere Child and Family Services takes its name from the location of the Melbourne Orphan Asylum from 1878, in Windemere Crescent, Brighton. Since then it has grown into a large organisation providing multiple social services including:

Victim Assistance Programs
Disability programs
Day Care Services
Kids on Track program

The Kids on Track program started in May 2010, in collaboration with Pakenham Police and Gilwell Park Scouts. It is an 8-week schools early intervention program that covers topics such as anxiety and depression, drugs and alcohol, anger management, cyber safety and bullying.

Kids on Track aims to give young people the ability to learn positive behaviours in themselves and others, and the skills to make better informed choices, so they have the opportunity for a better future.

Initially, it involved working with young people from 10-15 who were coming to the attention of police for a variety of wrongdoings. This later changed in 2013 to be a school-based program focused on young people aged 10-12 (Primary school grades 5 & 6).

Originally, the program was referral-based through Police identifying young people who had received a caution, or who were deemed likely to offend. It now focuses on schools where antisocial behaviours are present and there is a history of family engagement with police and growing evidence of high absenteeism. High absenteeism is considered by the Department of Education to be more than 30 days absent in the school year.

The program structure is:

Week 1: Introduction & Family Basics

Week 2: Family Dynamics & Relationships

Week 3: Mental Health

Week 4: Anger Management

Week 5: Teamwork (Victoria Police)

Week 6: Bullying & Peer Pressure

Week 7: Cyber Bullying

Week 8: Graduation

The program also provides one-on-one counselling to those children deemed to be "most at risk" and covers the areas of Casey, Cardinia and Frankston. Since its' inception, the program has helped over 2,000 students.

It costs $50,000 per annum to run the program, which equates to approximately $400 per student. Windermere raises funds through philanthropic donations, which have totalled $700,000 since 2011.

New Dental Hospital for the Solomon Islands

The Rotary Club of Berwick has partnered with the Rotary Clubs of Ballarat West and the Rotary Club of Honiara to equip a major dental centre that will improve 1000's of lives in the Solomon Islands.

Using the expertise of Dr David Goldsmith (RC Ballarat West) and his team of volunteer dental equipment experts combined with the sourcing and shipping power of Rotary Donations in Kind (DIK) and then added to the tax-deductible Rotary Australia World Community Service, Project 29/2018-19, we have an opportunity to make a lot of peoples lives a whole lot better. Please read on.

The Solomon Islands has a population of over 625,000 scattered over more than 900 islands but Government services and most facilities are centered on the capital, Honiara. The Solomon Islands is one of the world’s poorest nations with a GDP that has been ranked 173rd. of 185 nations. The National Referral Hospital (NRH) in the capital, Honiara, is the largest hospital in the Solomon Islands and looks after the most acute cases from all over the country with over 300 beds and over 50 doctors. This hospital sees the vast majority of the medical cases in the Solomon Islands and is often overstretched, and at times at bursting point

The NRH Dental clinic was closed in 2012 . Dental Services at the NRH are currently being provided out of a single dental chair caravan parked in the hospital grounds. Public dental services are rudimentary, even in Honiara, and are mostly limited to extractions and pain relief. Each morning over 100 pain patients attend the only public dental clinic in Honiara, which is located in the Police Station in Chinatown. It has 4 chairs so they only see the first 30 patients and send the others away. There is a high level of edentulism but the public dental prosthetic lab. has been closed for 4 years. In addition, Betel Nut chewing, which is common in the Solomon Islands, results in one of the highest incidences of Oral Cancer in the world

However, there is no shortage of dental professionals. The Head of Population Oral Health Research, Dr Ellison Vane, tells me there are 40 qualified dentists in the Solomon Islands, but the lack of facilities means many are working part time, or not at all, and they are losing their skills. In addition, there are 15 dental students currently training to graduate at the Fiji and PNG dental schools.