Rotary International President Elect Kalyan Banerjee 2011-2012 invites Rotarians and partners to the Rotary World Convention in Bangkok in May 2012.

Welcome to Bangkok 2012 from Rotary International on Vimeo.

A $300,000 grant from The Rotary Foundation helped the Rotary Clubs of Calcutta Metropolitan, India, and Medicine Hat, Canada, improve living conditions for more than 50,000 villagers in rural India.

Make No Small Plans EN from Rotary International on Vimeo.

Annie Lennox is doing remrakable work for the AIDS orphans of Africa and here is one example of why we should all do our bit to help these, the most vulnerable children on the planet.

When Vilele and his brothers lost both their mother and father to AIDS, they became what is commonly described as a “child headed household”. There are an estimated twelve million orphaned children like them living in Sub Saharan Africa.

Since our first encounter 2007, the SING Campaign has followed their story. And with help from SING and the Treatment Action Campaign, their lives have been been supported and changed for the better.

World Polio Day is 24 October. Watch the video above for an update on Rotary’s progress in ridding the world of the disease.

Rotary International Marks World Polio Day from Rotary International on Vimeo.

Facts about polio

“On a showery, freezing morning we all travelled to Canowindra where we wandered around the town inspecting various shops and attractions, stopping for morning tea at “The Taste”, before heading to “The Age of Fishes Museum”.  This is a museum built especially to highlight the discovery near Canowindra, of fish fossils that existed before the age of the dinosaur. After that it was out to” Toms Waterhole Winery” for wine tasting and a lunch featuring homemade bread, cheese, pickles, olives etc. A Coolamon Rotary banner was presented to the winery proprietors to hang on their wall for future visitors to see. From there  we headed on to “The Falls Retreat”, a winery with 500 acres of grapes and a very impressive resort featuring a heated indoor pool, full beauty salon, massage tables, spray tanning room, and many more features, too numerous to mention.

After breakfast the next morning we all travelled to The Japanese gardens to see a very beautiful and well presented garden that remembers the POW camp and the Japanese inmates that were interred there during the Second World War. From there it was a short trip to see the relics of the actual site of the POW camp that housed Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Korean and Indonesian Prisoners of War. This was also  the site of the “breakout” by Japanese POW,s on the 5^th August 1944 that resulted in the deaths of 231 Japanese POW’s and 4 Australian military guards.”

{As told by the escapees.}

Henk and Maureen Hulsman, Ray and Maria Foley, Max and Sue Chapman, Ian Durham and Christine Lorraine as well as Marg and Garth Perkin.

Neil Munro introduced our guest speaker Michael Gibbons.  Michael goes to school at the Kildare Catholic School in Wagga Wagga and is currently in year 9.  Michael is 15 years old and has dreams of playing AFL football one day.  Michael supports Hawthorn and plays for Coolamon.

Michael spoke about his trip of his young life so far when he was selected to represent New South Wales in the under 15 team to travel to Perth to play and train in the carnival there for all teams in Australia.

The whole trip culminated in Michael being selected for the All Australian Under 15 side.

Before the trip Michael detailed his journey which included playing the Leeton Under 17s and winning by 100 points.  Michael also went to Albury with the Catholic Schools team and was named player of that carnival.  It was here that Michael was selected for NSW.

The journey to Perth included visiting Subiaco Oval to watch West Coast train and also a visit to the Freemantle Jail.  The football was exiting and they had mixed results winning some and losing some.  Michael was runner up for the best and fairest for NSW and was 3^rd overall in the carnival.

Michael finished by thanking our club for the support.  All present were very impressed with this young man and we wish him well with his dream to play AFL for Hawthorn one day and we are confident that he will.

And we’re back! The sun is shining, the birds singing and summer in Belgium is here! Monday the 14th June, a sad day. My oldie Julia (American) parted Belgium at 8am headed to the sunny state of California! The next day I attempted exams. Not my most favourite thing even when I can understand the question! But I manage to write a couple of pages of answers whether they are correct or not is another hurdle. As I am reading back through my diary I am realising that June has been an interesting month!

The next important thing that happened to me was that my tooth decided to die! After getting hit in the mouth with a hockey ball last year my tooth has been trying to decide whether or not to die. The major changing in temperature made up its mind and I had to visit the dentist. Not as scary as I thought it would be. At first we though I would just get antibiotics to stop an infection but instead I got root canal therapy! You should try speaking French that isn’t perfect, with a numb lip! Quite funny!

…………………….

And I’d like to take this chance to thank everyone in Rotary District 9700 for granting me this fantastic opportunity, and especially John Kirk who has helped me through some sticky situations, and Coolamon Rotary for sponsoring me.

Hope everyone is enjoying the rain that I sent over for you!

Yours from the land of chocolate. Millie Butt Belgium

Read Millie’s full story here:

Millie Butt October 2010