Our meeting on 10 December has been cancelled - just too many other things happening!
We will gather for our Christmas Party on 17 December at the Graphic Arts Club - unfortunately bookings have closed.
President's Message
Welcome to this Newsletter of the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick Inc. Our club has been serving the local and international community since 1948.
Rotary promotes the ideal of service through fellowship. Attending our meetings allows members to enjoy the fellowship of other club members, enrich their professional and personal knowledge, and meet other business leaders in their community.
As a Club we support a wide range of projects. As well as having a broad range of local and international community projects, we are particularly focused on the Rotary projects, Australian Rotary Health, Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) and Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) together with The Rotary Foundation.
We welcome everyone to come along to any of our meetings to join in the fellowship and to learn more about what we do.
Unfortunately, by the time you get this newsletter, bookings will have closed.
We can't wait to close the year with good food, great company, and a shared sense of accomplishment.
Our last meeting
At our last meeting, our newest member, Ryan Dempsey was inducted. Ryan then told us a little about his background and work environment.
Ryan shared that he was the son of Irish immigrants and grew up in the inner west suburb of Enfield. He attended a local primary school and then High School at St Patrick's College at Strathfield.
He had had a fascination with the Police force and at 21 attended the Police Academy in Goulburn.
His first posting after graduation was the far west town of Bourke, 8 hours north-west of Sydney. It was quite a shock for a city boy, but he spent three and half years out there.
He told of some of the challenges in dealing with a high indigenous population, particularly in the Alice Edwards Village on the outskirts of Bourke, with high rates of domestic violence and poor street lighting.
After Bourke, Ryan returned to work, first at Chatswood and then Central Police Station. he then moved into dignitary protection where he worked with some notable figures, including NSW Premier, Chris Minns, State Governor Margaret Beazley, Governor General Sam Mostyn, Peter Dutton, King Charles and US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ryan was recently promoted to Sergeant and returned to duty at Central. He manned the command post during a shooting incident at Croydon Park, when a man was randomly shooting at passing cars and pedestrians over a two-hour period.
Ryan also spoke about the support services available and highlighted the significant improvements in mental health support since 2012. He talked of his personal philosophy of keeping life simple and focusing on family, friends, belonging, love, health and fitness, which motivates him to “do it now” because life is so unpredictable.
A great story - welcome to Rotary, Ryan. It is a pleasure to have you as a member of our Club.
Since the last meeting …
We are pleased to advise that the project to upgrade the Bukono primary school in Uganda has been accepted by Rotary Australia World Community Services (RAWCS). See the News Item under!
2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at the Graphic Arts Club,
182 Coward Street,
Mascot.
6pm for pre-meeting drinks and chat. The meeting, with dinner, starts at 6:30pm and normally concludes by 8:30pm.
This project, by the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick (District 9675, Australia) in partnership with the Rotary Club of Kampala City (District 9213, Uganda), aims to renovate existing dilapidated classroom blocks and construct two new classrooms at Bukono Primary School in Namutumba District, Eastern Uganda.
The school, originally established in the 1920s, now serves over 1,500 students in severely overcrowded and unsafe learning conditions.
The proposed works will include the repair and replastering of existing classrooms, construction of two new brick classrooms with iron roofing, painting, and installation of water harvesting systems.
The initiative will be implemented by AMPE Foundation Africa (Uganda) under the supervisory oversight of the Rotary Club of Kampala City, ensuring transparency, accountability, and sustainable community ownership. Local community members will contribute labour, sand, and bricks, while Rotary and AMPE Foundation will provide funding, coordination, and governance.
Upon completion, the improved facilities will directly benefit over 300 students and indirectly impact more than 1,500 families in the surrounding villages.
Rotary and the Gates Foundation are renewing their longstanding partnership to end polio, announcing a joint commitment of up to US$450 million to support the global polio eradication effort. The Botany Randwick Rotary Club has been a long-term supporter of this Program.
“While historic progress has been made toward defeating polio—90 percent of the world’s population is free from the wild poliovirus—we’re facing significant challenges from competing financial priorities to fragile health systems. Furthermore, the detection of polio in places like Papua New Guinea that were previously polio free demonstrates that polio anywhere is a threat everywhere,” said Rotary International PolioPlus Committee Chair Mike McGovern. “The extension of our fundraising partnership with the Gates Foundation allows us to reach children around the world with lifesaving vaccines, keeping every child and community safe from this preventable disease.”
Every month is dedicated to one of the major themes of our Rotary lives; this month the theme is that which RI is perhaps best known for, at least among non-Rotarians.
December is Disease Prevention and Treatment Month
The eradication of polio has of course been Rotary International's s major worldwide, corporate effort since the early 1980’s. And remarkable progress has been made. The job is not finished however and you can rest assured that we will not, cannot, set this torch down until that job is finished.
Disease prevention and treatment is one of the Rotary Foundation Areas of Focus. And for good reason. The health and vitality of a person, a family and a community can be seriously impaired by what in many cases is a preventable disease. Disease prevention is really a keystone to progress in other areas as well because of the interplay with other areas of focus like Water and Sanitation and Maternal & Child Health.
Our meeting on 10 December has been cancelled - just too many other things happening!
