Peter was a conduit for the development of a historic Sister Club relationship with RC Shanghai and maintained our presence with other Asian sister Clubs including facilitating the Future Business Exchange with the City of Melbourne and Rotary Osaka in 2008 and travelling with a group of four Rotarians, (Wang, Abotomey, McCarthy and Nink) along with two partners, and again, for the RC Osaka 90th celebration in 2012.
Peter had a distinguished career in information Technology leadership. Peter has provided Mentoring and support via the projects of the Club’s Vocational Service committee including the Vocational Service Award selection committee and served as Vice President for Mev Connell.
When a Club speaker told us about Leprosy advances, that since 1981 MDT (Multi Drug Therapy) had been used to provide an immediate cure for leprosy however the numbers in Cambodia were too highly represented due to conflict and corruption, this lit a fire in the bellies of the Club’s International Committee and Chairman Keith Brierley put together the ‘gang of four’ who negotiated the Cambodia Leprosy Project with Dr Stephen Griffiths, former Medical Co-Ordinator in Phnom Penh – now five –
Peter Abotomey (Liaison Bangkok Sister Club)
Keith Brierley
Alex Buchanan (Matching Grant)
Geoff Renton (Chair – with plans to visit Osaka Sister Club)
George Tippett (all things medical, including visiting medical staff)
The 2004 project supporting CIOMAL in Cambodia to introduce the School Posyandu Program, so successful in Indonesia, which provided an answer to the gender imbalance of male against female diagnoses. It was understood by these Rotarians that to eradicate the causes and consequences of leprosy meant addressing the underlying causes such as poverty, ignorance, stigma, fear, isolation and disadvantage.
Peter we are grateful of your service to Rotary and the Community and look forward to many more years to come.
