Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Canberra - Issue No.: 169 Issue Date: 21 Jan, 2010

 ‘The future of Rotary is in your hands’

You will be back at our usual venue this week.  I am an apology but the meeting will, of course, be ably chaired by our President Elect Gerard.  Those of you who are not running away for an extended Australia Day celebration will I feel sure, enjoy the meeting.

 New  Club Events:

•    The Club has been asked to run an element of the parking for the ACTEWAGL Ladies Golf at Royal Canberra on 29th to 31st January 2010.  An email has been sent to all members appealing for help.
•  We have received an invitation to a Garden Party,  please invite your partners to join us.  For details of venue, time and cost please Login, scroll down to Upcoming Events and register.

Funds raised from both events will be donated to the Rotary Foundation’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal Fund (see the International section below)

District News: Would you like to be part of a RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) team going to work for two weeks at the School of St Jude in Tanzania.  The Rotary Club of Jerrabomberra are organising a group of sixteen Rotarians and partners. Please contact me if you would like all the details – they do need expressions of interest ASAP. The team will be away from the 6 - 22 August.

 International News:  An extract from an International Press Release: 

‘The Rotary Foundation has established the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund
 Haiti government officials are estimating that as many as 200,000 people are dead and millions more injured after the quake, the impoverished nation’s strongest in 200 years, crumbled government buildings, hospitals, schools, and shantytowns. Most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is in ruins.
A ShelterBox response team of two U.S. Rotarians and one from the United Kingdom has already mobilized and delivered 1,700 containers of supplies to the affected areas. Another 1,600 will be dispatched from the U.K. to Port-au-Prince. Also, more than 100 Aquaboxes are being delivered to Haiti to provide safe water.
Claude Surena, a member of the Rotary Club of Petion-Ville and president of the Haitian Medical Association, is sheltering more than 100 people in his damaged home in Port-au-Prince. He is also leading the efforts of the 17 Haitian Rotary clubs to ensure that the ShelterBox containers will be deployed effectively to the thousands left homeless.’

You can access the Haiti Updates posted on the District 7020 website.  Their District Governor Errol Alberga gives us all the opportunity to keep track of the Rotary International response to this disaster here

It is good to see that aid is arriving.  (For your information a Shelter Box is designed to house a family of ten.)

Barbara Griffiths PHF
President