Editor has included this week, the Citation written for RCM's Ruth Carlos Martinez on being awarded the inaugural Zone 8 "Humanitarian of the Year Award". Congratulations Ruth.
Annually, in October, the Rotary Club of Melbourne supports the Around the Bay in a Day riding event. Sign to ride, or help run the event. Funds raised are given to The Smith Family Learning for Life program which helps children from disadvantaged families complete their schooling.
Trachoma is the world’s leading infectious cause of irreversible blindness. The disease disappeared from Australian cities and towns over 100 years ago. But we remain the last developed country in the world where this disease is still considered endemic. It persists in some of our outback Indigenous communities. It does so in communities where living standards are inadequate, where there is a lack of functional, maintained washing facilities, and where homes are chronically overcrowded. Current personal and community hygiene practices allow the frequent spreading of infected secretions from one child to another, and although trachoma is easily treated with antibiotics, it is the frequent recurrent infections that damage the eyelids and cause blindness.
Bulletin Editor received the following email from our fantastic Member Ruth Carlos-Martinez who is presently returning from yet another mission to the Philippines. Ruth was checking out a Global Grant and her amazing story follows.
Rotary Donations in Kind Store (DIK) Footscray. This Rotary created warehouse is a hub for collecting goods donated in bulk such as hospital beds and equipment, and school desks for charitable purposes. Rotary volunteers support DiK store by helping to sort and load containers for shipment to local and off-shore projects.
For more information on how to become involved, contact the club office.
RCM members volunteer weekly to collect surplus fresh food at the Queen Victoria and Prahran Markets. Second Bite then redistributes donated food to community food programs for the disadvantaged. Volunteers donate 2 hours of their time to collect donations, and are rostered up to 6 times a year.
In Australia today, on any one night, 105,000 people are homeless. Of these 46,000 are women and 63,000 are 34 years of age or less with 18,000 children under 12. Get involved in projects to end homelessness and support the homeless in Melbourne particularly among young people, working with other like-minded organisations.
In September 2017, the International PolioPlus Committee provided this latest update on the eradication of Polio:
1. The goal of the PolioPlus program:
The goal of the PolioPlus program is the global certification of polio eradication. By eradication, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Commission on Certification and Rotary mean the interruption of the transmission of all polioviruses.
Led by the Rotary Club of Melbourne, the “EndTrachoma by 2020” project unites Rotary clubs across Australia, to work towards eliminating trachoma by preventing the spread of infection that causes this avoidable blindness. This project is endorsed by 2017-18 Rotary International President, Australian Ian Riseley, and Zone Director Noel Trevaskis, and has been endorsed as a project to commemorate Rotary Australia’s centenary year in 2021.