THIS WEEK......
PARAMEDICS - A LIFE-SAVING SERVICE
Laura and Levi are both paramedics working for Ambulance Victoria. But the main thrust of their presentation was to tell us about Paramedics Australasia (PA) which is the governing body that has supported paramedics for over 40 years.
Some of the facts about PA include:
- It has a membership of 4,600 including 1,500 students.
- It supports the paramedic profession and represents the interests of paramedics through:
- Professional development and continuing education.
- Health and welfare services.
- Special interest groups.
- Driving standards.
During question time, they also spoke about various issues including the recent assault on the paramedic whose attacker escaped a mandatory 6-month jail sentence. Needless to say, this was unanimously condemned by the PA and by the community at large.
Paramedics provide emergency medical response to more than 6 million people in an area of more than 227,000 square kilometres. In 2015-16, paramedics in Victoria responded to about 589,847 emergency road incidents – that’s one every 55 seconds.
DISEASE DECIMATES CHICKENS IN UGANDA
The hopes of having a healthy and productive brood of chickens at the Tamarind community farm in Uganda have been dashed after 300 of the 350 chickens have died.
According to Chris Ochaya and his wife Sarah, the birds contracted the Gombora virus which is very common in Africa. In Australia, this is known as IBD (Infectious Bursal Disease). All commercial poultry in Australia are vaccinated for this virus.
The chickens in Uganda were vaccinated but, until a post mortem is completed, it remains to be seen whether the correct vaccine was administered or whether the birds were infected from other sources such as people, vermin or different species of birds.
The remaining 50 birds have been re-vaccinated. It is yet to be decided what the next steps will be in terms of replacing the deceased birds.
DOLLY PARTON'S IMAGINATION LIBRARY
Dolly Parton and Rotary are working together to give the gift of literacy to kids across Australia.
The Imagination Library is a community-based program which provides pre-school children with free home-delivered books and literacy resources each month.
The goal is to help Australian children, especially those in disadvantaged communities, to gain the skills they need to start school ready to read, learn and succeed in life.
Our club is working with the Wyndham Vale Primary School to determine if the program will proceed. The initial aim is to help 30 children at a cost of $30 per child per month. Therefore, our commitment would be $3,240 per year which would be reviewed monthly and annually.
A final decision about our involvement is yet to be made.
Click here to read more about the Imagination Library.
ROTARY OVERSEAS RECYCLED PLAYGROUNDS
The Rotary Overseas Recycled Playground (RORP) program is all about Rotary clubs working together to dismantle unwanted local school and community playground equipment and bundling them for export to developing countries through Donations in Kind.
Assistance is required from our members to dismantle a playground from Wembley Primary School on Saturday 21st September. Details will be provided by Scott Reineman (President Rotary Club of Yarraville) who will be visiting our club shortly. In the meantime, please mark the date in your calendar.
PAUL HARRIS BREAKFAST
The Rotary Club of Central Melbourne is holding its 27th annual Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Breakfast on Thursday 21st November 2019 at the RACV City Club.
The guest speaker will be Dr Andrew Browning who has spent 17 years living with his family in Ethiopia amongst some of the poorest people in the world.
He specialises in treating a devastating birth injury called obstetric fistula.
Andrew is one of only a handful of surgeons in the world who have dedicated their lives to helping treat this problem. His charity has now built 3 maternity hospitals in Africa.
Tickets for the breakfast are $70 per person or $650 for a table of 10.
Click here to book for the breakfast.
Click here to see a flyer.
ALPHABET RACING - ONLY A FEW SPOTS LEFT
There's only a few spots left in the new Alphabet Racing comp which commences shortly.
Click here to learn about how the competition works.
If you would like to join, contact Ian Hovey (0409 850956) before it's too late.
ROTARY BOOK SALE
The Community Committee has agreed to run a Monster Book Sale during this Rotary Year.
We are probably looking at June 2020 during the school holidays.
We need to have the support of all members to start the process to collect about 15,000 books. As we get books we will store them in the various categories for the big day.
If you know anyone with old books, let the Community Committee know so we can arrange to pick them up.
.JPG)
