Disability Inclusion

History with Rotary – she was sponsored to go to NZ.

Disability inclusion is something we need to observe in workplaces, neighbourhood, communities.

 

Romana is currently residing in South Melbourne, with partner John and 3 dogs. A 3yearold guide dog, 1 retired guide dog (her first guide dog), and another fur baby. Romana has been involved in various professional roles, mostly in relation to trainings, sales, customer support.

She studied Bachelor of arts major in linguistics and she is a member of environment Victoria.

 

What is most common cause of making someone feel excluded is the natural unconscious bias we have towards others, which mostly originated from stereotypes, media portrayal, cultural beliefs.

Disability inclusion is about having a better understanding of people with disabilities and their needs, and how we are able to help fulfill those needs.

 

It is also interesting to note that 90% of people with disability has what we call invisible disability, or one which we cannot see immediately. Making sure we are doing our part in ensuring our environment is inclusive of these people is very important. Benefits of inclusion includes referrals, repeat clients, etc. These people are also people with creative ideas and money. They can contribute as much as anyone.

 

Another thing most people with no disability usually does is end up referring to someone with disability who is able to have achievements as inspirational. There is an interesting ted talk by Stella Young, a person with disability, and gives perspective from their eyes. Ted talk title is “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much” on youtube.

 

Finally, the most basic way to practice inclusion is to ask “how can I include you?”. 

 

President Therese read the citations and Puja gave her speech.

Puja Ganguli thanked RCM. The idea of speaking in front of the club intimidated her, however her father’s wisdom which always followed her won over this. She remembers his famous quote “When you're faced with fear and a challenge, the only way to know is a to give it a red hard go”. Puja was referred to as  “The rotary baby”. She was the poster child of polio campaign.  She learned the joy of service, by actually experiencing it, due to her parents and family’s involvement in Rotary. The joy of service is what has brought her back to rotary. Being  Suvam's sister is no easy task as Suvam constantly sets the bar higher and higher. So Puja, instead of walking in her brother’s or father’s footsteps, Puja has definitely set out to make her own mark. She is a trained chef and experienced food journalist. She moved to Melbourne 3yrs ago, attending Monash Uni, she promoted environment sustainability and established an environmental friendly organisation called “Earth”.

 

Melburnian by birth, Rohan follows Carlton Football Club. His family relocated to Brissy when he was 9 and pretty much grew up a Queenslander and finished Chemical Engineering in University of Queensland.

Rohan has been with Shell for 28 years and this career has brought him lots of travel opportunities. He had stints across Europe, Singapore, and Belgium, and also spent time in Shell's Research and Technical facility in Holland. He is an expert in converting heavier parts of crude oil to diesel!

He then moved to Geelong to work in the refining process facility, which is when he met Sue during one of his visits to Canberra. That is the start of their long distance relationship which eventually sealed the deal.

 

Anne King shared links to useful information on how to keep and maintain wellbeing during this pandemic.