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Rotary
Club of Wishart Inc.
About Rotary
Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders
that provides humanitarian service, encourages high ethical standards in all
vocations, and helps build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2
million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000 clubs in more than 200 countries
and geographical areas.
Rotary club membership
represents a cross-section of the community's business and professional men and
women. The world's Rotary clubs meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious,
and open to all cultures, races, and creeds. The main objective of Rotary is service
— in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians
develop community service projects that address many of today's most critical
issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment,
illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational
opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other
professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary motto is Service
Above Self.
Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous
service programs, all Rotarians worldwide are united in a campaign for the
global eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to
immunize the children of the world; by 2005, Rotary's centenary year and the
target date for the certification of a polio-free world, the PolioPlus
program has contributed US$500 million to this cause. In addition, Rotary has
provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national immunization
days in polio-endemic countries around the world.
The Rotary
Foundation of Rotary International is a
not-for-profit corporation that promotes world
understanding through international humanitarian service programs and
educational and cultural exchanges. It is supported solely by voluntary
contributions from Rotarians and others who share its vision of a better world.
Since 1947, the Foundation has awarded more than US$1.1 billion in humanitarian
and educational grants, which are initiated and administered by local Rotary
clubs and districts.
AUSTRALIAN ROTARY HEALTH RESEARCH FUND
(ARHRF)
In
1981, Ian Scott, a member of the RC of Mornington, proposed that a fund be
established to raise funds through Rotary
clubs in Australia, with the income from the invested funds to be used for research.
His District, 9820, accepted the proposal and took the suggestion to the Zone
Institute, the annual meeting of present, past and future officers of Rotary
International. ARHRF was up and running.
The
ARHRF definition of ‘Health’ encompasses a wide vision and includes all aspects
of community health. The aim is
to be a catalyst for projects that will
improve the quality of life of all Australians.
Grants have been awarded to research on
– Cot Death (1986 to 1994), Environmental Health Problems of the Aged
(1989 to 1995), Adolescent Health (1996
to 1999), Evaluation of the Rotary Bowelscan (1998), Ross River Fever (1998-
2000), Pre-Hospital, Emergency Care
(1999-2001), Malaria (2000). Since 2000, the major focus has been on Mental
Illness research, and removing the
stigma associated with this debilitating illness, although a range of other
research
projects have received funding.
A record amount has been allocated to
health research in 2006. The fund has announced that $1.4 million will be
invested in Mental Illness research and
a further $800,000 in other areas of health under the Funding Partners program.
Included in the $1.4 million in Mental
Illness research are 24 research project grants, 9 PhD scholars (Ian Scott
Fellowships)
and 2 post-doctoral fellows (the Royce
Abbey Fellowship and the Geoffrey Betts Fellowship).
Research in Mental Illness covers a
wide range of topics including –
*Caring for a partner with mental
illness. *Better mental health for farmers.
*Helping parents with suicidal
teenagers. *Eating disorders.
*Parenting program for families of children
with autism. *Post traumatic stress disorder.
*Managing depression in cardiac
patients. *Dementia research.
*Mental health first aid. *Bipolar in
older Australians.
*Schizophrenia
In the ARHRF Funding Partners program,
funds have been allocated to research in Multiple Sclerosis, Bowel Cancer,
Prostate Cancer, Motor Neuron Disease,
Malaria, Parkinson’s Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Breast Cancer.
The CEO of ARHRF is Joy Gillett, whose
contact details are, Ph 02 8837 1900, email joygillett@arhrf.org.au or by
mail to PO Box 779, Parramatta, NSW,
2124. The ARHRF website is www.arhrf.org.au.
Please consider the ARHRF when you
allocate your club’s funds this year to help continue with our pledge of
funding
health research – by Australians, for
Australians.
·
RAWCS
is a public company limited by guarantee. The
governing body is the council, whose
members are all of the Australian
Rotary District Governors of the day. The Board consists of, Chairman,
Vice-Chairman, Secretary, Financial
Controller, 5 Regional Chairmen plus representatives of
both the District Governors and
District Governors Elect.
District 9630 is represented through
Northern Region.
PROGRAMS & PROJECTS OF RAWCS - are
Project Volunteers (sometimes still called
Project Funding, DIK (Donations in
Kind),
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY - RAWCS was
accredited by AusAID as a Base Agency and as such is eligible for
subsidies through the ‘AusAID NGO
Cooperation Program’ subject to an extensive ‘Re-Accreditation Review’ every
five years.
While accreditation by AusAID
guarantees the status of RAWCS as an NGO and grants tax deductibility of funds
for aid
programs, it does not guarantee
funding. That decision is dependent on the number of accredited agencies and
the total
funding available for overseas aid from
the Federal Government.
·
A QUOTE OF NOTE !
"What is Rotary? What is it all about? Beneath Rotary's many and varied activities,
there is the
unchanging undertone of goodwill,
goodwill, goodwill."
Paul Harris' message on the 39th birthday of
Rotary, - February 23, 1944. ( Rotary had its 100th anniversary in 2005 )