What an amazing District Conference last weekend.

Some stand out moments for me was Port Macquarie midwife and registered nurse Louise Harper working with the Humanitarian organisation Australians for Women's Health.

 

Louise spoke about the dreadful situation with young mothers to be, usually birthing their children at home and the problems that this creates.

 

To put it in perspective, to lose a mother in pregnancy in Australia is rare, it's about six per 100,000 births.

In Nepal every four hours a mother dies, and every 15 minutes a baby dies — usually from preventable causes.

 

So the plan was to build a hospital, clinic, and training centre.

 

The raising of the money was slow to start with and then there was the earthquake that killed 9000 people plus covid made it difficult. But then Louise said, Rotary came on board. I felt very proud when she made that comment.

 

Rotary is fitting out the complete hospital, Then we heard all about rubbish.

 

That was such an interesting presentation.  The presenter made a very important comment about what we put in our red bin. He says 45% of what we put in our red bin could be recycled.

 

He also shared that the 10cent recycling drink can program that SA has had for ever, will be coming to Victoria in 2023. That is such a great incentive for everyone and good pocket money for children.

 

A short but informative presentation regarding LLEN - Local Learning Employment Network to find out more click here . It was to encourage all club youth chairs to be more involved with this program.

 

Sometimes, to support the participant finically or by offering 5 days free accommodation, while the student is involved with their work experience. And then we were introduced to Simone O’Brien, speaking about Domestic Violence. Simon said “It started with emotional & psychological abuse, stealing, and insults.

 

It ended with me being beaten with a baseball bat to within an inch of my life. Somehow, I pulled through, with lots of determination and support from family and friends, I would encourage you to read more about this remarkable woman click here.

 

Those are just a few of the speakers that made an impression on me, and I was only able to be involved on the Saturday. I’m sure the Sunday line up was just as impressive.

 

Congratulation to all involved. There is always so much to be done to help in many places for many people.

 

Thank goodness we can make a difference by working together with our fellow Rotarians.