Paul Harris Fellow – 25 November 2020
Mark Pinoli joined the Rotary Club of Melbourne on 16 August 2017 with the Classification: International Development – Children.
Mark hit the ground running, active in the Peace Fellowship, Welfare of the Young, and International Committees. His involvement in other Rotary committees has been extensive, including profiling Melbourne Rotary in social media, and bringing his skills to bear at every turn. He has put his shoulder to the wheel to record our meeting speakers, helping to upload the recordings as a podcast to our website and, as an outcome of COVID-19, jumped to the task of broadcasting our first virtual regular weekly meeting which was so seamlessly delivered – that being the address by our Hon Member, Professor Peter Doherty AC on the 18th March.
He is a physicist and social anthropologist having graduated with Honours from the University of Western Australia in Social Anthropology in 1999 and a BA with Honours in Physics in 1992. Which explains his unusual skill base. From 2001 to 2006 he was an Assistant Director at the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia; and was a Director of Mental Logic from 2006 to 2016.
Mark’s love of the Himalayan region began in 1997 when he spent six months traveling through Northern India and Nepal. Since then, he has returned numerous times to travel, trek, photograph and film in the remote mountain regions of India, Tibet and Nepal.
These journeys to the Himalayas motivated Mark to help the children of Nepal and he founded the Logged On Foundation Ltd in 2011, a development agency which provides computer centres and education programs to rural schools. The Foundation has helped many thousands of children spread across 30 villages in eight Districts of Nepal. He completed a documentary about the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the impact the disaster had on rural communities, and the struggles they now face to provide a quality education for their children. The film won an international film award and was screened at the ACMI and at UK, US and Nepalese film festivals.
Mark has also been sharing his enthusiasm for Nepal by creating pathways for adventurers and volunteers to spend time in the villages where the charity is working. This has included placing pre-service teachers from RMIT and La Trobe Universities into Nepalese schools to deliver transformative educational programs for children.
In Rotary, Mark is our International Director, and is a member of the committees he overseas as well as supporting the Website & Social Media Team. He is a valued member of the President Elect’s Horizon’s Team and the Club’s Sir John Reid Community Service Award Committee. Last year he received the Axle Award representing a Rotarian who has given that little bit extra in their ‘Service above Self’.
Mark has privately volunteered as a tutor to children at Melbourne City Mission and at the Adult Multicultural Education Services in ESL to new migrants.
In our Club, Mark is also now applying his technical skills to continue livestreaming the content of our regular meetings so as to maintain member engagement and create a broader reach within Rotary and the wider community. He has also stepped up to assist members to engage on ZOOM technology and has built websites for the Rotary Give Every Child a Future campaign and the 2021 Peace Symposium.
Mark, on behalf of the Members of Rotary Melbourne I name you a Paul Harris Fellow and express our grateful thanks for your willingness to apply your skills and to work with us to achieve a fairer world.
