Guest Speaker Tony Rumble. Conditions experienced on Christmas Island and at Weipa in northern Queensland, whilst working for the Department of Immigration during 2009-2012 were presented to us by former member and 
President of Albury Hume, Tony Rumble. Tony indicated that Christmas Island was a thriving community with readily available facilities, serviced by air and sea from Perth and Malaysia … a location of unique and raw natural beauty in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a diversity of plants, national forest, whale sharks, crabs and abundant bird life… also, recreational swimming, diving and snorkelling are popular with the locals. Although the housing of refugees and processing them for eligibility for final transfer, is the main focus of its existence in the public eye, Christmas Island is home to a wide cross-section of the community. Tony enjoyed the friendship of many locals, including many of Chinese and Malay origin and appreciated the many challenges they have in providing for the needs of the current increasing number of refugees. All supplies come from external sources as no food is grown on the island. Housing of the refugees is an on-going challenge resulting in the growth of an unsightly ‘container city’. Tony was also stationed at Weipa in far north Queensland for nine months. The present town of Weipa was constructed mainly by Comalco (now called Rio Tinto Alcan), the large aluminium company, which began making trial shipments of bauxite to Japan in 1962. The bauxite mine is the world’s largest with expansions increasing the margin over other mines in 2010 … most definitely a mining town. However, Weipa has a public library, visitor’s centre, swimming pool, bowling green, golf club, tennis and squash courts. There are netball and basketball courts as well as football fields. At Nanum the shopping precinct has a Woolworths supermarket, bakery, coffee shop, travel agent, clothing shop, post office, newsagency / sports shop and butchers. There is also a chemist, camping and fishing store and within walking distance is a gift shop, furniture and whitegoods store, credit union and Centrelink office. At Evans Landing you will find a hardware store and a number of mechanical workshops. No swimming or surfing due to presence of numbers of ‘nasties’, including saltwater crocodiles !
Polio Plus Program
The Polio Plus Program In 2012 the effort to end polio made historic progress. The year 2012 ended with the lowest number of new polio cases in the fewest places ever. There were fewer than 250 reported cases compared with 350,000 cases in 1985 when Rotary began the fight to end polio. There are 71 polio free countries and 125 polio endemic countries. So the fight is not over. If we do not finish the fight to eliminate this disease more than 10 million children under the age of five could be paralysed by polio in the next 40 years. Rotary Albury Hume contributes to the polio plus program annually however I urge you to go onto the website endpolio.org and donate individually and spread the word. For as little as $15 you can make a difference: $15= 25 doses of polio vaccine just 60 cents will protect a child for life. $25 = 50 Poster’s promoting immunisation day – This promotional tool is essential in getting parents to bring their children to vaccination areas. In India, more than 172 million children are vaccinated during a single national immunization campaign. $50 = buys 100 bright yellow vests help those seeking vaccination to recognize health workers and volunteers easily. $100 = buys 800 finger markers – After children receive the vaccine, their pinky fingers are stained with purple ink to show they’ve been immunized. This is an effective, affordable, and safe way to ensure every child is reached. $350 = 350 Vaccine Carriers Oral polio vaccine must be kept cool to remain effective. Please ask Habbie to put this in the next Bulletin to raise awareness. Thanks …Nicole Doughty.
Club Meeting 28 August 2013
Guest Speaker Anthia Packer from Parklands Albury Wodonga gave us details of the organisation and its involvement and support within the community. Parklands Albury Wodonga is a not-for-profit community managed organisation that operates as a social enterprise. It works in partnership with the regional community to enhance over 4,000 hectares of bush parks in the Albury, Wodonga, Indigo and Towong local government areas including Huon Hill Parklands, Kiewa River Parklands, Gateway Island Parklands, McFarlanes Hill, Eight Mile Creek Parklands, Padman Park High Country Rail Trail and Bonegilla Block 19 Migrant Experience Centre, Federation Hill, Nail Can Hill, Red Light Hill (One Tree Hill), Murray River Parklands (under development, Eastern Hill and Mungabareena. The primary focus of the board and staff is to facilitate the involvement of local community in each project. By so doing, it aims to ensure that the community accepts ownership and responsibility for the long term viability and enhancement of all its regional parklands. In the past year, Parklands Albury Wodonga worked in partnership with 75 partner organisations to implement in excess of $656,000 worth of on ground activities across the regional bush park network. In essence, parklands is about ensuring that the local community has areas of open space which have been set aside, in perpetuity, for recreation, preservation, and conservation.
Kitenden Pre School, Tanzania
Greetings to all Kitenden Preschool Class Sponsors. Deborah ,and I visited the Preschool on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th. It was an amazing and at times emotional experience. Deb was overwhelmed by the transformation of the school since she was there 2 years ago. We were greeted by the children, their parents, village elders and the staff. There are now 52 children at the school – 29 girls and 23 boys and you will see from the photos They have a uniform – so cute – which is in the Tanzanian national colours. They all look very healthy – they have liquid porridge for breakfast and rice with vegetables for lunch. Their smiles are just so captivating. Kitenden is actually the name of an area – say like Table Top – and the children walk to school and home. Some of them walk as fair as 6/7 Kms so not surprisingly they are often late. As they are only 3/4/5 years of age they need to be escorted. They all bring a piece of wood for the kitchen fire – some so big they drag it! We camped overnight in the school grounds and on Tuesday morning we were with the children in class. They start with Assembly outside the classrooms – say prayers with their little heads bowed, sing the National Anthem and then sing Swahilli songs – very loudly- as this keeps their interest and helps retention. They are also taught English with many of there teaching posters in English as are all the numeracy posters. The classrooms now have the Australian Flag and our Rotary Pennant hanging up. We all should be very pleased and happy – the contribution we are giving is making a huge difference for the future of the children. Thank you all ….. Deb and Howard
Club Meeting 21 August 2013
Guest Speaker – Peter Cerexhe – Border Music Camp – Peter gave an overview of the music camp and what it was achieving for participants. It started 40 years ago and Peter acknowledged the part played by Kate Davis, wife of Albury Hume Charter and long-term member Ian Davis and the support given in the past by our club. He then showed a video made by students to support his earlier talk. The week long camp held at Scott’s school involves about 300 people made up of 220 students (8-17 years), 20 volunteers, 50 staff and 6 conductors. The camp gives Country kids Capital city experience. About 120 children live in during the camp 9 children were given financial support this year costing $235 for non-boarding and $750 for live in with full board. Three of the top 10 in last years HSC were from Albury and had attended the camp. More information can be found on the camps web site. http://www.bordermusiccamp.org.au