Addressed? No. Hand-balled? Yes! According to the article on pages 18 and 19 of the December, 2004-January, 2005, issue of Rotary Down Under, the question of childcare facilities at the Chicago R.I. Centenary Convention has been addressed. Addressed? No. Hand-balled? Yes! While Rotary espouses to be a family friendly organisation, and even encourages Rotarians to bring their families to the Chicago Convention, I would imagine many international visitors like ourselves will not be comfortable with leaving their children in their hotel in a foreign country while they take part in R.I. Convention activities. While not wanting to undermine the professional services offered by the recommended childcare provider, American Childcare Services, I find the suggestion that R.I. continually reassesses this issue to be somewhat patronising.

People in Moura, Qld., certainly know that the town has a Rotary club. Hard to miss the wheel in Moura In the November, 2004, issue of Rotary Down Under, David Bruce, of the Rotary Club of Whyalla, S.A., noted that he has a “larger wheel than anyone else in Rotary”. While the Rotary Club of Moura, Qld., may not have the largest wheel, we would like to let readers know about our way of showing Rotary’s presence in Moura. The photograph shows Club President, Rod Engel, standing by the Rotary wheel in the Rotary Park in Moura. This wheel is the main propel gear from the Marion 8900 dragline which was used at the nearby Moura Coal Mine. The gear is three metres in diameter and weighs 12 tonnes. The wheel is held in place by a steel column from the dragline that is embedded in a concrete slab more than two metres deep. The wheel was installed in the park by the Rotary Club of Moura and BHP Engineering in late 1986. John Hoelle Past President Rotary Club of Moura, Qld.

I wonder if anyone on the R.I. Convention organising committee has their own young children?
Why can’t a childcare provider set up a service inside the R.I. Convention centre, where parents can regularly and easily check on their children without needing to find their way across Chicago?
It is understandable that the R.I. Convention registration fee does not cover childcare, but this Rotarian for one would be more than happy to pay for the service. One could be forgiven for thinking that R.I. Convention organisers are more concerned with liability over potential incidents involving childcare on the premises, than with responding to genuine needs of visiting Rotarians.

As an organisation, Rotary has much to celebrate in its 100th year, but there appear to be some people in high places that need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century if Rotary wants to be truly appealing and relevant to younger members with younger families.
Mark Huddleston,
Rotary Club of Edwardstown, S.A. 

Beam of Hope great success
I enjoyed the illuminating history of District 9640 written by Past District Governor David Lee (Rotary Down Under, December 2004-January 2005).

Although realising that it was, by necessity brief, mostly outlining outstanding achievements, I feel compelled to mention District 9640’s first, and possibly only, Rotary International 3H Grant valued at $US152,050, awarded to the Rotary Club of Summerland Sunrise in Lismore, n.s.w., and its co-sponsors, the combined Rotary clubs of Suva in District 9220 in 1998.

This was to implement the club’s Beam of Hope project aimed at reducing the extremely high incidence of diabetic-induced blindness and visual impairment in Fiji.

Valued at almost $500,000, this project established Fiji’s first ophthalmic laser clinic in Suva in 1999 and a second in Labasa in 2004.

Since 1999, the project has provided continuing training to enable Fiji’s medical officers to diagnose, evaluate and perform laser surgery for patients with diabetic retinopathy, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness.

With 20 per cent of the population of Fiji with diabetes, and more than 50 per cent harbouring the sight-threatening disease, the project has established and maintained programs of public awareness and education, utilising the media in the three common languages of English, Fijian and Hindu.

These warned an unsuspecting public of the dangers of diabetes and the benefits of regular eye screening to diagnose the disease in its early, treatable phase before vision is lost.

The project ended in January, 2005, after six challenging but rewarding years in which many thousands have had their sight saved by laser surgery.

Considering that routine eye screening as the most effective means of preventing diabetic blindness was virtually unknown in Fiji when this project began in 1998, the effectiveness of the public awareness component in convincing more that 200 diabetic patients every week in 2004 to attend the nation’s three eye clinics in order to undergo regular prophylactic eye examination is remarkable and has guaranteed the total and lasting success of the project.
Malcolm Tester
Rotary Club of Summerland Sunrise, N.S.W.

Thanks for PolioPlus article
Thanks to Rotary Down Under for the article titled A World Without Polio in the December, 2004-January, 2005 issue.

It has been extremely useful to me in drafting a talk I gave to local schools to support Walk, Because You Can, a program of the Rotary Club of Hunters Hill, N.S.W.
Ellis Hopper
Past President
Chair of Centenary and Youth Committees
Rotary Club of Hunters Hill, N.S.W.

Editor’s note: Thanks for your encouraging comments. PP Ellis compiled a talk of 1,115 words for the students, pointing out that the goal of ending polio and its devastating consequences was within reach and that young people could help to score that goal. Walk, Because You Can is a fund raising walk and essay competition.

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