Rotary Club of Central Melbourne

27/10/2020

Meeting report

Reported by: Puja Ganguli

Our Chair for the day, Bruce Heron opened the meeting with a toast to Rotary International.

President Therese Robinson respectfully acknowledged the Traditional Owners of these lands and welcomed guest Dr. Marli Watt.

Bruce introduced todays speaker, Dr Catherine 'Kitty' O'Connor. Dr O’Connor is a Doctor of Law from Oxford University. Having practised as a solicitor in the UK for a number year, Kitty retired from active case work in 2002 upon her arrival into Australia (Melbourne). An avid Sydney Swans supporter, she is currently the in-house counsel at Healthcare Australia. The mother to three Great Danes, Kitty originally joined Rotary in 2009 as part of the Honiara Rotary Club in the Solomon Islands where she was living. She returned to Australia and her beloved Albert Park in 2011 and left the Rotary fold only to re-join in 2016. President of the Laverton Point Cook Rotary Club for two years from 2018, Kitty took on the role District 9800 Polio Chair in 2019. Now a member of the Rotary Club of Melbourne South, a two-time cancer survivor, Kitty supports her most passionate causes as a speaker for the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Fight Cancer Foundation, Equality and Diversity and of course Polio.

Kitty spoke passionately about Rotary’s commitment to ending Polio. She emphasised on the need to have conversations about this deadly disease to make sure our communities don’t get complacent and forget the devastating impact it can have. She emphasised the role that community leaders can play in engaging and informing the people around them about this cause. She also talked about people suffering from post-polio syndrome, even in Australia, and not getting proper medical attention because general practitioners are not well versed in the impacts, due to lack of awareness.

She shared a video that outlined the history of the End Polio campaign, starting from a small project in 1985 to today- 2 countries to go for complete eradication. There are currently 120 cases in the world, predominately in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Rotarians around the world are working hard to keep the momentum going and reach the target of eradication Polio completely in the next 3 years. District 9800 has raised over $55,000 through their Polio campaign initiatives like Walk with Rotary. As the ambassador for the Polio Eradication Campaign in this district, Kitty talked about the impact rotary’s grassroots campaign and fundraising has had in achieving positive impact. She encouraged Rotarians to raise awareness and money to support this cause and reach the goal that of ending polio together.

Kitty answered several questions from the attending Rotarians. She explained how, even if there are zero cases in the world, without a cure we can’t stop vaccinating since the virus will come back. She also talked about the main barriers that are hampering eradication in

the last two countries. She explained that the economic and political instability and accessibility of remote locations in both Pakistan and Afghanistan make it hard to administer the vaccines. Plus, deployment of healthcare teams into war zones in that region is very risky.

At the end of her talk, Neville Taylor thanked her for taking out time to talk to the club and for the great role she plays in raising awareness about Polio in our community and across the world. He also made an announcement about the upcoming Foundation month (November 2020) and the Paul Harris Breakfast on the 3rd of November and reminded members to buy their tickets.

Rob Hines also made an announcement about another foundation month event- the silent auction of items donated by members. He then drew the raffle which was won by George MACKEY ($100 Bunnings Voucher) and Therese Robinson ($50 gift voucher).

Rebecca John let everyone know that the nominations for the Shine on awards are open till January 1st. This award recognises outstanding service by people with a disability in our community.

President Therese Robinson gave the club an update about the board meeting last week, where they discussed making changes to the club’s application process as well as what Christmas might look like for RCM. They also started the planning process for a new project in the Philippines.

For pocket positive, Roy Garrett shared with us the artworks of his exceptionally talented granddaughter Poppy, who won the Archibald prize 2017, in her age category (7-8).

In closing the meeting, President Therese thanked our speaker and visitors for attending and wished everyone a good week ahead.