This conference gave us a fantastic opportunity to talk to over 300 Rotarians from across our district about Project Starfish and allowed us to get the ball rolling by spiking the interest of many clubs in the area. We have the Rotary clubs of St Kilda, Dunedin, and Dunedin South to thank for the funding for this trip, we couldn’t have made it without you! The conference itself ran with the crucial presences of the District Governor Karen Purdue, the trademark character of Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt, John Prendergast, and the Rotary International President’s Representative Bryn Styles. In between their addresses and wonderful local entertainment we experience five outstanding key note speakers: Marcus Akuhata-Brown, Amanda Wirtz, Daniel Walker, Scott Gilmour, and Julie Chapman. We also heard about the various activities of our Rotary community. Each of these displayed the commitment and quality of Rotarians, a family we here at Rotaract are proud to call ourselves part of, as well as setting a fantastic precedent for the upcoming Rotary year. A particular incentive to our presence this year was the opportunity to meet Daniel Walker, who founded Nvader, an agency working towards liberating sex slaves. He presented us with a courageous and powerful message on the horrors of child sex trafficking and his emotional journey throughout his travels. Daniel talked on his times going undercover in brothels across Asia and, to a shudder and gasp of the audience, the horrors of children, as young as five or six, being brought into the room. The brothel was later raided by armed police but not all the children could be saved, some running back into the village and returning to the only life they knew. This is why we are embarking on this journey. To put an end to such atrocities and prevent the lives of thousands of children like them from falling into darkness. Daniel went on to speak about the massive emotional stress such work puts on him and the lives those around him. He was personal, profound and above all courageous, reaching every member in the audience, and particularly giving us greater passion with which to continue this project! Then came our opportunity to speak. Firstly, Lark Hare, the outgoing President of our Rotaract club, spoke first on the outstanding work we have achieved over the year. Georgia and I were up next and, leading on nicely from Daniel’s talk, challenged the Rotarians to help us tackle this issue. They were all appalled at what was happening to young children in Thailand but now was their chance to do something about it. We were both happy with how our short speeches had gone and the reception that they had received by the Rotary family. Thanks again to the Rotary clubs of St Kilda, Dunedin, and Dunedin South for getting us there and Karen Purdue and her team for organizing such a great weekend. We are looking forward to speaking again in the future and helping to spread the word of Project Starfish!
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On the 25th and 27th February, in particular being the Thursday and Saturday nights of the University of Otago's "O Week" , members of Rotary Club of Dunedin Central, Dunedin Rotaract and Dunedin New Rotary Generation ran a fundraiser BBQ on George Street, Dunedin. The object was to raise funds towards the cost of sending a volunteer team to Thailand mid-November to help with a kitchen refurbishment at the Rescue Mission for Children centre in Mae Suai. Our target consumer demographic were the hungry students who had recently returned to Dunedin, and were all out on Saturday night, as part of “O Week” celebrations. We set up around 10:30 p.m and our food supplies were completely exhausted by 2:42 a.m on Sunday morning. Some of us were really pleased to get to bed just before 4a.m!! During the night we spoke to hundreds of students about “Project Starfish” and the work we are doing to help children in SE Asia who are at risk of abduction into child slavery, and the relationship we have with Rescue Mission for Children, who are one of the organisations we support. There was a lot of interest, and many people thanked us for our work to help the children who have no voice in the world. This was such a success that we're planning on holding more bbqs down George St during the upcoming "Re-Ori Week", 11th-16th July, so if you're in the area pop on down for a good feed and even better chat.
Overall it was an amazing example of what we can do when our Rotary “family” all pull together, well done guys! So the exciting news is that we actually started fundraising before we even set up this blog! Shows how eager and proactive we are right?! So I will quickly update you on our activities so far and they have been a lot of fun. Our first wee project was carried out as a fun end of year catch up where we held a Rotaract pot luck dinner. We each made a donation on entry, had a great feast and played coin bowls (where we roll coins at a target (wine of course) and the closest one wins the prize and the rest of the coins are collected as donations). As a goal of Rotaract Dunedin we held a Summer Challenge to keep us active in service to different causes over our university summer break. It's all part of living the lifestyle of Rotary with the volunteering of time, energy or funds as part of our everyday selves, we just can't get enough! The two summer challengers that put their raised money towards Rotaract for Project Starfish were Michael and Georgia. Michael sold some video games from his collection and Georgia held a raffle for Trade Aid and Lush prize packs (thanks to Lush for their sponsorship!). Our next event was a market stall at the University of Otago market day where there was lots of food and live music! All of the clothes, shoes and bags were donated by NRG Dunedin as left overs from their Pop-Up Op Shop event. This was great fun for several new members and a cool way to engage with students and let them know what we are doing. So far it's looking really good and we're just gearing up for the rest of the year. I hope you've enjoyed reading about these activities, we certainly enjoyed doing them, and keep an eye out on our calendar as there are many more to come!
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AuthorRotaract for Project Starfish, Dunedin, New Zealand. Archives
July 2018
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