Visiting Rotarians and other Guests
President Rohan greeted the following people
- James Waite, Rotary Chicago
- Annet Brouwer, Rotary Rotterdam
- Richard Da Zhang, Rotary Shanghai
- Kerrie Hicks, past VPLMP mentee
- Sainab Sheikh, Rotary North Melbourne (guest speaker)
- Tomoya iizuka, Global Grant Scholar from Japan
Recognition of key milestones
Chair Neil Salvano acknowledged the following milestones that occurred in January
Members’ Birthdays (January)
Lady Pastidio, Rohan Williams, Stella Avramopoulos, Cecily Neil, Sonia Dhillon, Kevin Love, Steve Turner and Alison Chan
Spouses’ Birthdays (January)
Kuei Akol ,Pippa Thornton , Sally Moon , and Suzette Taylor
Wedding Anniversaries (January)
Frank & Pauline O’Brien (53 years), John & Raylee Ilott (48 years), Allan & Athina Driver (41 years) and Luke & Charity Chen (5 years)
Date joined Rotary
David Jones (32 years), Paul Fowler (13 years). Trevor Dymond (6 years) and Ignacio Inchausti (3 years)
Guest speaker PP Sainab Sheikh.
Sainab Sheikh is a driving force for African Australian communities, serving her community for 17 years. She is the founder of the Somali Women’s Development Association Inc, a not-for-profit organisation based in Victoria that provides a diverse range of cultural appropriate support services, including settlement programs, capacity-building and community development programs.
Her advocacy extends to other social determinants of health and wellbeing such as mental health support, housing migrants for homelessness, COVID-19 responses, educational support through homework clubs for primary and secondary school children, employment support for jobseekers, emergency food relief, for refugees and migrants of African backgrounds. Sainab also advocates youth justice and provides culturally appropriate solutions for family violence and mental health forums in partnership with Victoria Police, Victorian Government and other key stakeholders.
Sainab has Bachelor degrees in Social Work and in Community Development. She is currently undertaking a Master of International Relations and National Security degree. She is Immediate Past President of Rotary North Melbourne.
Sainab spoke about the work of the Zainab Sheikh Foundation which she founded in 2020. The Foundation works in Somalia on issues such as health care, education, food security and clean water. It has developed partnerships with Rotary North Melbourne, Rotary Brighton North and Rotary Geelong East. Through its work, a hospital has been built and equipped with medical equipment from Donations in Kind. The Royal Beled Hawo Hospital is in Gedo region and has 15 rooms and associated facilities.
There is need though for improved electricity and water supplies. The local power supply is unreliable and thus unsuitable to run some of the medical equipment and water is drawn from the Dawar River and is poor quality and scarce in times of drought (which is occurring at the moment). The partnership is exploring options for self contained power systems and bore water extraction. A Rotary Foundation grant is being explored.
Members Announcements
Campbell Chambers asked for volunteers to fill two spots at the Bunnings Barbeque at Port Melbourne on Sunday January 29th. Neville John reminded members that the next BBQ at Collingwood is on February 18th and 3 volunteers are still needed there.
Presidents Announcements
President Rohan informed the club that it had been advised of a very generous bequest from the estate of Charter member, the late ian Angus OAM.
The Board at its recent meeting also approved membership applications from Grace Davidson, Jo Garretty and Annet Brouwer.
The Rotary Club of Osaka Midosuj-Hommachi will have members attending the RI Conference in May and has been in contact regarding opportunities to catch up over that time.
President Rohan also noted a strong start to the fundraising program for this year.
Presentations
President Rohan was presented with a banner from the Rotary Club of Shanghai by Rotarian Richard Da Zhang; and from the Rotary Club of Rotterdam by Rotarian Annet Brouwer. Our Global Scholar Tomoya Iizuka also made a presentation.
Next Meeting
The next is an Zoom meeting on Tuesday 31st January. Our guest speaker will be Daniel Williams, who will speak to us a about how machine learning is being used and some of the ethical issues this presents.
WomenCAN Australia is launching a new initiative called Driving to Employment, and looking for support to help female learner drivers aged 23+ from migrant/refugee backgrounds to learn to drive. We will focus on migrant communities in Maribyrnong and Dandenong/Pakenham regions. We are funded by the Department of Transport to support 50 women to learn to drive, including professional driving instruction, testing fees, etc.
