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Chair Frank O’Brien opened the meeting with a toast to Rotary International. President Neville Taylor welcomed guests, Tal Shmerling and Shabnam Safa (Guest Speakers) and Tagan Paul (Australian Red Cross and RCM Peace Fellow Nominee). Neville reminded that the Social Enterprises that RCM is using has an increasing number of goods available. He encouraged members to purchase tickets for the 3 lucky people to win prizes. David Jones acknowledged member Birthdays and Anniversaries. Announcements Rob Hines advised the meeting that the Oh Kolkata! evening surpassed fundraising expectations by raising almost $5,500 toward the project partnership with Victoria Calcutta Rotary and another in the USA focused on mentoring 500 young people in their vocational development. Rob thanked Peter and Sue Duras for hosting the evening along with a number of hard working helpers. Peter thanked those involved in attending the evening, which raised just over $1,600, an excellent result.
President Neville’s Announcements included Thank you to members for their strong support in attending last week’s celebration of Kevin Walklate’s life. President Neville will arrange for Heather Walklate to attend a meeting in the near future. The 2023 RI Convention Think Tank was attended recently by many luminaries from Melbourne. Attending the inaugural closing function of the Ambulance Leadership Mentoring Program and thanking Alan Seale and Brett Jones for their efforts. Reminder of a Board meeting Wednesday evening. District Assembly on Sunday 26 May 2019 at Tabcorp Park, Melton. A very helpful forum for club leaders and new members.
Tagan Paul addressed the meeting and is RCM’s nominee for a Rotary Foundation Peace Studies Scholarship at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Tagan is ACT-based and works in the International Progress area for Australian Red Cross. If successful, Tagan hopes to use the studies to further develop her interest in protecting the vulnerable and the containment of conflict. We wish Tagan a positive outcome for her upcoming interview. Guest Speakers: Tal Shmerling – Human Rights Lawyer, Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and Shabnam Safa – Project Officer Youth Leadership Tal outlined ‘Our Stories’ – a partnership with Cool Australia, which provides free Years 8 and 9 civics citizenship lessons. The lessons draw on the experiences of refugees building a new life in Australia to deliver real-world learning and develop values of inclusivity and tolerance. The Our Stories school educational program features stories of four refugees building a new life in Australia, each arrived in Australia at a different time and from different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. Our Stories explores our common humanity and highlights both the common and unique challenges faced by our newest Australians. Tal introduced Shabnam, one of the four storytellers who then shared her story. Shabnam was born in Afghanistan and grew up as a refugee in Pakistan before she called Australia home at the age of 15. Since then she has persistently worked to positively shift the way our communities see and talk about a young, former refugee, woman of color. Her passion is to empower and motivate those around her to realize their potential, follow their aspirations and keep challenging traditional stereotypes and the status quo knows no bounds. Shabnam reminded us that not every refugee story is the same. There are similar challenges but the stories are different. |
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Frank O'Brien & Tagan Paul
