Rotary story: Ian and Heather YarkerThese Australian Rotarians have now made public service their full-time job, travelling the globe to satisfy their 'Rotary habit.'
By Alan Steinberg 5 July 2005 Every true Rotarian has a story to tell, a defining moment that captures the essence of Rotary. The Rotarian offers another instalment of "Rotary story," a regular feature in which individuals describe how the hands-on experience of being a Rotarian — putting Service Above Self — has affected their lives. They routinely complete each other's sentences. They always say "we" rather than "I." In fact, Ian and Heather Yarker share just about everything, especially their passion for Rotary service. It's not just projects for their local club, the Rotary Club of Ashmore Gold Coast, Australia, and District 9640 activities; nowadays, international service occupies most of their time. If they're not helping to build mud brick houses in Fiji or a center for the disabled in the Solomon Islands, they're busy arranging for fistula operations in Ethiopia, eye camps in India, irrigation systems in Thailand, or an orphanage in Indonesia. "I was never driven this way by anything," Heather says. "That's why I wanted to become a Rotarian. I wanted to belong to the greatest service organization in the world. Before 1989, I could not be a member. But I told Ian, 'I'll be a Rotarian one day, you watch!' " "Now we can't stop volunteering together," Ian adds. "Maybe it's because we both come from families that had absolutely nothing, and our parents believed in community service. Or that we share Past RI President Clem Renouf's belief that Rotary gives ordinary people an extraordinary opportunity to do more with their life than they ever dreamed possible. Because that's happening to us every day." After meeting on a blind date that both claim was love at first sight, Ian and Heather married in 1966 and had three children. Ian joined Rotary in 1975 and Heather in 1990 "to help others wherever we could." From the beginning, they sought out innovative international projects. Ian says some Rotarians have trouble stepping beyond local work. "They won't travel because they can't afford it or have other obligations or a fear of the unknown. Whereas Heather and I are ready to go nearly anywhere." Ian abandoned his career in rural real estate appraisal and Heather left teaching to start an indoor plant nursery that afforded them more flexibility. Eventually, they ceded control of the business to their children so they could work and travel full-time as emissaries of Rotary hope. But this commitment sometimes came at enormous personal cost. "We don't have time for our private life anymore," Heather admits. "And we're missing out a good bit with our friends and our kids and grandkids. Some people think we have money; we haven't. We spend a lot of it making a difference for others." Ian adds pointedly: "Some people buy alcohol or cigarettes or football tickets. Instead, we've got this hobby that's a natural high. It's our big addiction; we call it our 'Rotary habit.' And it has transformed our lives!" The transformation was most apparent in January 1995, during Ian's year
as governor of District 9640. On their first international service outing,
he and Heather led seven other volunteers on a pay-your-own way project on
Karkar Island in neighboring Papua New Guinea. The goal: Connecting
Rotarians and non-Rotarians to complete an 80-bed girls' dormitory for the
island's When the team approached the school's playfield, they were welcomed by hundreds of students applauding and singing just for them. It was, says Heather, "a gesture of friendship and appreciation that made us feel safe and right at home." The dormitory construction took two weeks. The school and the New Guinea Education Department provided funding and materials, while Rotarian volunteers provided muscle and encouragement. Heather served as leader for the six-man, three-woman team that included the Yarkers' 23-year-old daughter, Peta, the youngest in the group. Guided by the team's sole skilled builder, everyone chipped in. At first, male villagers were astonished at the sight of females working alongside men as equals. Each day, more arrived to peer incredulously at the three strange "Marys," as they called the women, installing fly screens, hauling boards, hammering nails. Days later, some of these same villagers were pitching in themselves. Quickly, acceptance and trust helped build up the effort like mortar and nails. According to Ian, the Karkar Island experience affected Peta's life profoundly: "She was a reserved farm girl, smart and capable but with little experience in the outside world. Working and sharing with those who lived so simply expanded her respect for other cultures." Karkar changed Heather and Ian, too. The trigger was an impromptu sortie Heather and Peta made to Gaubin Hospital, a jungle facility with 200 beds, one doctor, and a midwife. The hospital's lone x-ray machine was pre-World War II vintage. The bathrooms were squalid and raw sewage seeped into the ground aquifer outside. When Heather returned the next day with Ian, they saw how much was needed. "There were few usable mattresses, and patients were sleeping on cardboard or cloth on floor. There were sticks for bedposts to support mosquito nets - only there weren't any nets," Ian recalls. The Yarkers soon recognized that the hospital's most critical problem was malaria, which had infected nearly 50 percent of the patients. Says Heather: "The hospital was on the edge of a mosquito-infested swamp, full of people so used to family dying from malaria that they kept having children so someone would be there for them when they got old. Back then, the Papua annual health budget was about US$4 per capita. I thought: They make happiness with nothing. But they need help — self-help." Back home, the Yarkers proposed the project to The Rotary Foundation and received a grant. The following September, after training with the World Health Organization [WHO] and others, Ian and Heather returned to Gaubin Hospital for a month-long stay. Working closely with hospital staff and village leaders, they tested the villagers for malarial infections and taught prevention methods, especially the use of bed nets. With the help of the village chief, they explained malaria issues by telling villagers a story of how malaria spreads through natnats, or mosquitos, accompanied by a cartoon of the process sketched by the team's microscopist. Notes Ian, "Walking from our office — the only desk around and a small bench under a mango tree at beach's edge — we'd see the comics pinned to the hut walls. So we knew they took it seriously." Some 29 percent of infected villagers already had what Heather called "the bad malaria" ( Plasmodium falciparum, or cerebral malaria, which can be fatal). Others had "normal" malaria ( Plasmodium vivax), for which they gladly took the medicine supplied to the hospital by District 9640. The Yarkers taught villagers about bed nets and how to dip them in the insecticide permethrin. Though many had already received nets from WHO and the New Guinea Health Department, they either ignored them or used them for catching fish. The reason: the villagers would only appreciate nets they felt they had earned. For example, a villager who had collected two bags of coconuts — worth enough purchase a net — would feel entitled to use it. After Ian and Heather facilitated this exchange islandwide, the bed nets became almost a custom. Their efforts to fight malaria continued. In 1997, the Yarkers helped to facilitate an $800,000 Australian government grant to the Rotary Club of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and the Papua New Guinea Health Department, to provide malaria education and 400,000 bed nets. Another 400,000 are expected this year. The Port Moresby Rotary club runs an Adopt a Village program, promoted by TV, radio, and newspapers, reminding people: "It's time to treat your nets!" Gaubin Hospital has remained part of District 9640's World Community Service agenda, with the Yarkers encouraging the collection, funding, and distribution of equipment and supplies. Over the years,Heather and Ian have led seven more volunteer teams to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Thailand, and Indonesia. "The original Papua project touched us deeply because the people were so beautiful — how could we let them down?" Heather says. "It also taught us how much two little people can matter. And we learned that service ought never be about 'do-gooding.' Rather, you must make the effort to understand the culture and values of the people you're helping, and do nothing to interfere with that." The villagers considered the Rotary team unusual in that they hadn't asked for anything in return for their efforts. In the past, Heather says, outsiders took advantage by illegally exporting wildlife or timber and offering nothing in return. "Not Rotary; we didn't want anything, not even recognition. They respected us for that - another important lesson about the right way to serve overseas." Ian adds: "What do they say: 'You make a living by what you earn, and a
life by what you give?' That's what Rotary provides: the power to give of
yourself completely, so adding purpose to your life. There is no greater
organization that I am aware of that allows this kind of self-expression
so effectively on behalf of others. Or one that offers the embracing of
such a multitude of endeavors, from literacy to administering two little
polio vaccine drops, to providing bed nets and houses, to helping young
achievers and underachievers of all ages, to aiding students and creating
peace scholars — where do you stop? Rotary is quite simply the paradigm of
striving to help improve the world." This article is © 2005 Rotary International and is provided for the non-profit use of Rotarians worldwide; commercial use is prohibited. The article may be quoted, excerpted or used in its entirety, but the information should not be changed or modified in any way. Read more information in the RI copyright notice.
Report from the District 9640 Conference 2007 -
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL SERVICE ABOVE
SELF AWARD TO PDG IAN YARKER:
Since that time Ian and
Heather have continued to provide wonderful leadership for the District in
all avenues of Rotary Service.
Congratulations and best wishes to both of them.
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