Continuing our story on our project in Timor Leste:
In May this year, we provided the first images of our school garden project in Batugade, Timor Leste.
Today we have received more photos of the garden and it is hard to comprehend the amount of growth in the 3 weeks since the last update.
We are past the wet season and work on the School Garden project in Batugarde School - Balibo has begun.
This two year project creating a School garden from bare earth is now underway. We needed to wait for the wet season to pass, and for the installation of a new water pump and tank, but we are now underway.
The Project vision:
"To significantly increase the reach and impact of Rotary and Rotaract in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands".
You may recall that in September, as a club we voted "yes" to the proposal for a pilot project to commence. The pilot project is now underway with the next milestone, being the April Board meeting of the Board of Rotary International. It is at that meeting that the proposed budget for the Pilot project will be assessed and approved (or not).
The pilot is planned to operate from July 2023 to June 2026 and will operate in parallel to our current operating structure which built around the concept of districts that are defined by geographical references. The over arching goal of the project is to look at how we can make Rotary service to our communities easier, simpler and the governance and administrative detail more streamlined and less time consuming - in short, how to take us into the next 100 years of service to our communities.
A special moment in the life of our club, when we have as our guest speaker - Mark Lane who is the Mayor of City of Whitehorse
Mark updated us on the new representational structure of the Council, there are now 11 wards with one elected councillor for each ward. Mark represents Mahoneys Ward but was here today as Mayor to speak about current and recently completed Council projects. Mark has previously served our City as Mayor in 2012.
Guest Speaker on Wednesday 25th January was our own, Professor Geoff Rose. Geoff is a professor (retired) with the Monash Institute of Transport Studies located within the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Geoff ‘s research and teaching activities cover sustainable transport, travel behaviour, advanced technology, and transport policy.
Guest Speaker – Dr Tiffani Howell, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University.
Tiffini recently completed a four year study funded by the Commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs, to understand the effectiveness of assistance dogs as an adjunct to treatment for veterans with PTSD.
Tiffani began by clarifying the definition of an assistance animal (usually a dog...there is one assistance cat on the books in Queensland!)
Star of The South - Bringing Offshore wind power, to Victoria -- Offshore, wind turbine power, generated off the Gippsland Coast.
