Castello's Cucina, 123 Fisher Street, Fullarton SA
President Ken Haines
NEXT WEEK WE ARE INTO UNIQUE GARDENING
Last Meeting
Venue: Castello's Cucina, Living Choice
Guest Speaker: Pip Rokkas
Guests: Richard Peake, Garry Taylor
Attendance: 18 Members 3 Guests
Introduction
Valerie opened proceedings and President Ken welcomed our guests. The Multiple Births Festival will be held on 23 April 2023 - members are asked to register and be prepared to help on the occasion. The Unley Citizenship ceremony last Thursday was an enjoyable event. Two recent Bunnings BBQs, last Saturday and yesterday, netted $1900 and $800 respectively. Jerry's quest to buy a caged trailer for cartage of goods and equipment has reached fruition through sponsorship by Bendigo Bank...see insert after the finale.
Guest Speaker: Pip Rokkas - Nursing in Utopia
Valerie introduced Pip who came to Cape Yorke from the UK on an international mission in the 1980s. Her qualifications include geography and nursing from the UK, enhanced with further training in Brisbane and a PhD from Flinders University. Her specialties include public health and communicable diseases. From 2007 she has spent most of her time with SA Health on immunisation and disease surveillance, including examination of the efficacy of the meningococcal vaccine. In the last 3 years she has worked in Bangladesh, Vanuatu, APY Lands and the Northern Territory. Tonight she will be relating her experience of working in Utopia.
Utopia is a region covering approximately 5,000 sq km of land northeast of Alice Springs and is home to around 2,000 aboriginal people. The Urupuntja Health Service was established in 1977 in Ariparra, 3.5 hours from Alice. Including that settlement (with a police station and supermarket), it serves 16 smaller communities, each with 20 to 100 inhabitants of outstations. There are 19 different languages spoken. Alcohol is prohibited.
The job for Pip was as a remote area nurse (RAN). The UHS clinic employs 3-4 nursing staff with support from Alice. Other staff include cleaners, drivers, Purple House dialysis, and help with men's and women's sheds. Most of the time there is not a doctor available there. Visiting specialists mainly from Alice include audiology, optometry, ophthalmology, obstetrics, gynaecology, cardiology, podiatry, dental, mental health, women's health services and midwifery. Medical retrieval services are out of the Alice and pregnant women are taken to Alice for their births. Clinic nurses are required to provide 24 hour primary and emergency care under the most trying of conditions. Culture and language are a challenge. Nurses also often have to do the driving, cleaning, pharmacy dispensing, animal health and welfare. Telehealth is an important tool. The CARPA Standard Treatment Manual is 'the bible' for primary treatment.
As Pip explained, the vast majority of inhabitants there live in appalling conditions without proper sanitation, in filthy and often overcrowded houses; many are disease ridden and have no access to clean water...... sores, renal failure through diabetes, trachoma, and ear and eye infections are rife. There is a high suicide rate. Domestic violence prevails.
Other challenges include distance, heat and floods, safety, nutrition, wastage of medical supplies, and transient habits. There is no attention paid to environmental health.
On the positive side, clinic staff share camaraderie, they experience new cultures, develop clinical knowledge, acquire new skills, get involved in RFDS retrievals and get to see the many wild horses.
This is heart breaking, with no immediate solutions. It will continue to be a blight!
Pip was applauded for her contribution.
Finale
Christina won the big bucks. She also reported that the last load of stamps sent to Victoria reaped $150. Oleh Bilyk was delighted to report the arrival of great grand-daughter Isabelle. Don't forget the coffee chat on Friday at Impressa.
The meeting closed at 7.50pm
New club trailer.....message from Jerry
I am pleased to advise members that, with confirmation from the Board, I was able to apply to the Bendigo Bank Community Branch for a grant allowing purchase of a caged trailer. We were successful. I applied for money to buy a top of the range double axle cage trailer in galvanised steel (low/no external maintenance required. The cost is $5,400 including a spare tyre and registration, Bendigo will pay $4,290 and the club will pay $1,110 for an upgrade to a galvanised version. It will have signage to show Bendigo’s support as well as advertising Rotary. A photograph of the trailer less the signage is attached.
The club will be responsible for running, maintenance and the signage costs.
By Rebecca Crall, Areas of Focus Manager, Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention
Rotary Peace Fellows at the Rotary Peace Center at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
In a conversation recently with a group of professional peacebuilders, one of my colleagues (and a new Rotary member) surprised me when he referred to Rotary as a “disruptor for peace.” A disruptor for peace? That was something new and unexpected.
Disruption signals great change – change that’s happening fast. It often feels like it’s taking place at a dizzying pace, and it’s associated with chaos and displacement. It’s not something we often imagine wanting more of. But my colleague’s comment got me thinking of disrupting for good: using our platform as Rotary members to disrupt violence and create peace. Can we apply this idea to build a future where peace is our norm?
When we think about the future now, we don’t seem to feel the same optimism as past generations did. People feel fear, dread and a deep sense of skepticism that change is even possible. This is logical given what we see in the news: the climate crisis, toxic political polarization. No wonder we feel unsure about the future.
But as we begin 2023, I’m challenging myself to disrupt this way of thinking: to look at our challenges as opportunities for growth and change.
In his famous book “The Moral Imagination,” John Paul Lederach challenges us to use our creativity in peacebuilding. He describes this creativity as understanding current situations – such as destructive behaviors and violence – but then pushing past them to imagine a world that transcends existing reality.
This may seem trite. But if you truly think about how much we take for granted in our day-to-day lives, you can see how much room there is for improvement.
As you think about the future, try to find creative ways to build more inclusive and resilient societies. Use Lederach’s four disciplines as a guide.
Recognize the importance of relationships. Peace is fundamentally about relationships. As we acknowledge our interdependence and connection to one another, we can understand the context in which violence happens – but also imagine a context in which we can transcend violence and build peace.
Practice paradoxical curiosity. While this sounds complicated, paradoxical curiosity is a matter of respecting contrasting truths. Acknowledge different sides in every situation and look for what lies beneath the face of things. By looking beyond appearances, you can discover new opportunities for healing and peace.
Provide space for creativity. Respect creative acts and believe that humans can create something new. This attitude is typically grounded in everyday interactions. Use your creativity to imagine and eventually love things that are new and unexpected.
Take a risk. When we risk, we step into something unknown. While it may seem counterintuitive, many communities subconsciously stay in conflict because that’s what they know. Building peace is about taking the risk to journey into something unknown. It’s also about letting go of what you know.
Moral imagination is ultimately the capacity to conceive and generate something different without denying our current realities. This may seem impossible at times. But by applying these four principles, you can ask the right questions and hopefully find the right answers.
Coffee Chat at Impressa, Unley Shopping Centre
10.30 am on the first Friday of the month is good for a chat with Rotary friends and a caffeine fix! Next one is this Friday 3 February 2023
Upcoming Meetings
Tuesday 7 February 2023 6 for 6.30pm Castello's Cucina, Living Choice
Guest Speaker: Sandro Iuliano Developing a Unique Gardening System
Attendance and welcome: Rhonda Hoare and Brenton Judge
Tuesday 14 February 2023 6 for 6.30pm Castello's Cucina, Living Choice
Guest Speaker: David Watchow A Twig is Bent
Attendance and welcome: Rhonda Hoare and Brenton Judge
Apologies and Meeting Enquiries to: Secretary Greg McLeod on 0417 811 838 or email to secretary@unleyrotary.org.au
Venue Set-up Enquiries to: Bulletin Editor Stephen Baker on 0403 687 015
Saturday Thrift Shop Roster
Early Shift: 10.00am to 1.00pm Late Shift: 1.00pm to 4.00pm
Early: Jerry Casburn (Greg Mcleod) & Wendy Andrews | Late: Virginia Cossid & Vera-Ann Stacy
Week 3: 18 February 2023
Early: David Middleton & Nathan White | Late: Vera Holt & Rhonda Hoare
Week 4: 25 February 2023
Early: Stephen Baker & Judi Corcoran | Late: Jason Booth & Vera-Ann Stacy
Week 5:
Early: Bob Mullins & Wendy Andrews | Late: Virginia Cossid & Paul Duke
Rotarians, who are unable to attend as rostered, please arrange a swap or as a very last resort contact: Vivienne Wood 0408 819 630; e-mail: vwood@ozemail.com.au
Mitre 10 and Bunnings Barbeques
The Mitre 10 BBQs are the first and third Saturdays of each month. Morning shift 8.30am - 12 noon; afternoon shift 12.00 - 3.30pm, then clean-up.....next one is Saturday 4 February 2023
ALL the Bunnings Mile End Barbeque shifts are from 8am to 5pm
We have been allocated the last Monday of each month.....next one is Monday 27 February 2023.
The Tale End.....
Jerry's contribution to your happiness
Think you are having a bad day?
Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned-out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba tanks on his back, flippers, and face mask. A post-mortem test revealed that the man died not from burns, but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive identification. Investigators then set about to determine how a fully clothed diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire. It was revealed that on the day of the fire, the man went diving off the coast, some 20 miles from the forest. The fire fighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible, had called in a fleet of helicopters with very large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the ocean and emptied at the site of the forest fire. You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next, he was doing the breast stroke in a fire dip bucket 300 feet in the air. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.
Valerie introduced Pip who came to Cape Yorke from the UK on an international mission in the 1980s. Her qualifications include geography and nursing from the UK, enhanced with further training in Brisbane and a PhD from Flinders University. Her specialties include public health and communicable diseases. From 2007 she has spent most of her time with SA Health on immunisation and disease surveillance, including examination of the efficacy of the meningococcal vaccine. In the last 3 years she has worked in Bangladesh, Vanuatu, APY Lands and the Northern Territory. Tonight she will be relating her experience of working in Utopia.
I am pleased to advise members that, with confirmation from the Board, I was able to apply to the Bendigo Bank Community Branch for a grant allowing purchase of a caged trailer. We were successful. I applied for money to buy a top of the range double axle cage trailer in galvanised steel (low/no external maintenance required. The cost is $5,400 including a spare tyre and registration, Bendigo will pay $4,290 and the club will pay $1,110 for an upgrade to a galvanised version. It will have signage to show Bendigo’s support as well as advertising Rotary. A photograph of the trailer less the signage is attached.
