Rotary Theme: Youth Service Month
Report of Meeting May 29th, 2018
Presidents Report:
Invitations to our change over dinner have been sent to all members. This is a partner’s night. Please RSVP to Pearl. We have received a request from the Salvation Army for donations of socks, either direct items or a monetary donation. Please give these to Marian Walton. We have received a request from the Uniting Church for help to a family to clean up their garden. This will involve some heavy pruning. If you can assist, please see John Calnin.
Chair: Richard Clay
Administration: Graeme Chamberlain.Forms outlining members’ preferences for allocated duties are being received. All respondents have been allocated according to their wishes. The others will go into the general help category.
Secretary: Pearl Macmillan.The Rotary Youth Volunteer Information and Declaration Form and the Members Details Form need to be filled out if you have not done so already. Please contact Pearl with any queries.
Social: Richard Grimmett.They are looking for a new dinner venue. The Rally will leave the Ocean Grove Bowling Club at 3 pm on Sunday, 17thJune. Please contact Richard if you wish to participate.
Gordon King reported on a make-up visit to the Rotary Club of Tokyo, which 6 members from our club made while on the Japan trip. The Tokyo Club has 380 members, mainly businessmen but few women. While it is relatively formal, they do have a choirmaster and ‘singalong’ each meeting. It is held at the Imperial Palace Hotel and they usually have about 4 international visitors in a month. A banner from the Club was presented to President John Calnin.
Dick Clay provided a brief history of our connections with the Solmaid School in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2012, Ian Bent, a former member of our club, mentioned that his brother-in-law, CEO Craig Salmon and teachers from the Dhaka International School wanted to establish a school for nearby poor and marginalised children. The free private ‘Solmaid Community School’ was officially opened in January 2013 with 100 students. It is funded solely from donations from overseas and the local community including the Rotary Club of North Dhaka. Lessons are delivered in Bengali and English following the Government curriculum. It takes students from grade 1 to 5. The Rotary Club of Ocean Grove began support in 2013 with a Food Funding Project, which provides the midday meal. We also sponsor five students over a school year. A sheet showing these students was distributed. They currently range from nursery to grade four. Ocean Grove received a matching District Grant to provide books and shoes to students at the school.
Guest: Speaker Craig Salmon
Craig Salmon provided information on life in Bangladesh over the past 18 months. He said that Australians were highly regarded over there. Meetings of Rotary in Dhaka were very formal. But they were also very generous funding many educational and health programs, including a professional development program for teachers in village schools. The current issues in Bangladesh are:
· Traffic congestion with endemic accidents. The road rules are very flexible. 1,500 new vehicles enter the roads each week. Buses and trains are in questionable condition and overcrowded. People often travel on the roofs, which is free.
· Climate change with the monsoons becoming more intense. They had the highest rainfall in 200 years last year. It started six weeks early this year and the air is already very humid. Dhaka has high population density and the streets regularly flood. Crops are lost causing food shortages. 216 people died from lightening strikes in 2016, mostly on farms. There have been 70 deaths already in April – May 2018.
· 60 Million people still do not have electricity. Power is lost regularly even in the cities and is common in the villages.
· Politics is ‘interesting’. The AWAMI is currently in power and the same family have more or less been in power for the last 40 years. It is common practice to jail the opposition on charges of corruption. Both sides of politics do this.
· One in four of the population live in poverty. Six and a half million live in slums in Dhaka. Half the girls marry before the age of 18, many younger than 15. Most marriages are arranged but are often successful. The number of children per family is declining and education for girls has increased rapidly leading to health improvements.
· Air quality is very bad. Dhaka has been rated the third worst city for pollution in the world.
· The Rohingya Crises is seeing one million refugees per year moving into Bangladesh. They must live in camps where there is little infrastructure. Agencies from throughout the world are providing support.
Nevertheless, things are improving in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
· Poverty has halved since 1990.
· Health and life expectancy is improving, and infant mortality has halved.
· Access to education is improving and literacy rates are rapidly increasing.
· Society is relatively peaceful.
Bangladesh is a beautiful country located predominantly on a flood plain. It offers unique scenery and experiences such as floating markets and fishing using trained otters.
This year Solmaid graduated 15-20 students at grade 5 out of 130 students. There are 600 on its waiting list. Craig showed a video of the children currently supported by the Rotary Club of Ocean Grove.
Marg Campbell expressed our thanks to Craig Salmon.
Thanks, Ann Hodgkinson
