Community
Our community efforts continue to focus on funding and donating grocery items to charitable organisations that provide direct support for those in need. Three projects headline our current endeavours.
Beaumaris Rotary helps fund the meal service provided by Matt’s Place. This is a weekly meal service for those doing it tough, served at St Matthew’s church, in Cheltenham. This Christmas we will also be funding and helping to pack hampers for their clients who need help.
Recently Matt’s Place’s parent organisation Bayside Community Care asked for our help in sourcing non-perishable food items for their food bank. Club members responded by adding items to their regular shop, so we have been able to make a worthwhile contribution. We have also made a cash contribution which allows the folks at Bayside Community Care to bulk buy items they need.
The ongoing need to support families in need is the reason for our support of BayCISS both with cash contributions and nonperishable food collections.
Other Projects planned for 2024/25 include:
- Funding for Sandringham Hospital to assist with the purchase of equipment for their day surgery facility.
- Toy collection and packing for the Prison Fellowship Australia Christmas Angel Tree appeal.
- Packing and wrapping gift bags for Impact for Women at the Sandringham warehouse, and making deliveries on their behalf.
- Regular volunteering by members to support clients at the Sandybeach Centre in Sandringham.
- Providing management help and manpower to support the annual Concourse Car Show and the Christmas festival held at the Beaumaris Concourse.
Youth
The Rotary Club of Beaumaris has helped fund programs at Beaumaris Secondary College which aim to support disengaged students in Year 9 and Year 10. The initiatives have helped them find meaning in their school attendance and a sense of hope for their future. It has allowed them to have a safe space where they could share their feelings and their stories. This helps them feel heard and acknowledged. For 2024/25 we are helping to fund a Rite Mentoring program which will further develop the concept of student support.
We are also keen supporters of Team Sports 4 All. The aim of this charity is relatively simple: no child should miss out on the opportunity to play team sport. For the boys and girls that TS4A helps, sport can be a ray of hope – a circuit breaker for them and their families. Kids learn positive social behaviours – teamwork, respect for coaches and officials, self-discipline, and the rewards of hard work.
As a new initiative at Beaumaris Rotary this year, we will be picking up the relationship that the Rotary Club of Cheltenham had with the Southern Autistic School. Our first event will be running a barbeque for them in the spring.
After a long COVID induced break, we are very pleased to be participating in this year’s Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program. Beaumaris Rotary is sponsoring two young people to attend this intensive leadership experience organised by Rotary clubs and districts. The participants learn to develop their skills as a leader while having fun and making connections.
Indigenous Support
Since 2015 our Club has been a supporter of Australia’s first nations people. We formed an Indigenous Support Committee recognising that Indigenous support did not fit naturally into Community or Youth. Our major commitment has been to the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School. In addition to obtaining Rotary District Grants, we have organised multi club funding, allowing us to extend our support. Together we have been able to assist MITS to purchase furniture for their new Year 8 Girls dormitory
International
International Service is one of Rotary’s Avenues of Service, which form the foundation of Club activity. Issues such as literacy, hunger, malaria, disease and access to clean water affect us all. Through International Service, Rotarians lead the way in needy communities to find solutions to these global concerns.
For many years the Rotary Club of Beaumaris has supported these areas of international focus with activities on the Indonesian island of Sabu (see Sabu Island Story). This year we will complete the furnishing of three student hostels, upgrade a kitchen facility and will fund the replacement of a water tank destroyed in Cyclone Seroja.
Beaumaris Rotary contributes funds and donates items for new mothers, babies, and toddlers to The Highlands Foundation. This organisation aims to take simple and practical steps to strengthen the existing healthcare facilities in Papua New Guinea with the aim of decreasing the infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates. There are many challenges to obtaining health care in PNG. The rugged terrain causes difficulty with communication and distribution of medical supplies between villages. The many rural villages scattered throughout the countryside and a low commitment to healthcare contributes to the high mortality and morbidity rates in PNG, amongst the highest in the world.
The country has an infant mortality rate of 35.9 per 1,000 (Australia 2.8 per 1,000) and a maternal mortality rate of 215 per 100,000 (Australia 5 per 100,000). The Highlands Foundation was our President’s chosen charity for 2023/2024 and we now regularly assist with sorting and packing goods for shipment.
September 2024 Pack & Wrap in Altona saw seven members of our Club help fill a container of medical supplies and equipment (packed to the rafters) with donated and purchased goods to help the Foundation service remote PNG villagers receive maternal care for new born children.
There are no medical facilities in most of these villages. Midwives/nurses visiting them go prepared for anything with birthing kits to perform deliveries as they go, provide expertise and guidance to mothers, essential maternal care for newborns.
In 2024/5 we will be looking at ways to support Yimba Uganda. This organisation is a Uganda based non-government organisation that equips Ugandan youth with sustainable income generating skills through vocational training and education. Yimba Uganda was founded in 2013 by Emmanuel Kusasira Edwin, in partnership with Anne-Marie Reddan. Yimba Uganda was previously supported by the Rotary Club of Cheltenham whose members have now joined the Rotary Club of Beaumaris.
This year we plan to revisit our support for TeamMED Nepal. This is a student-run organisation that provides Monash University students with opportunities to experience and contribute to global health. TeamMED provide a platform for students to pursue their passion and begin making contributions for global health, with a focus on the health needs of rural and regional populations. At the end of 2023 participants of TeamMED Nepal travelled to Bhakanje to assist with a 5-day health camp organised by their partner, the Himalayan Guge Organisation.
