Despi O'Connor accepting a cheque for $7000 on behalf of Moonah House and presenting an update on Moonah House to the club

                                       

Mark Rodman                                                                                                                                                      Nina Desilva

 

Mark's presentation was a story of his journey from animal conservation to helping refugee children in the Kenya Korogocho Refugee Camp in Nairobi, Kenya. He started in Kenya rescuing elephants by adopting baby elephants at $50 per year from the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. In 2019  he planned to do a safari for his 60th birthday but COVID intervened and he ended up visiting the Korogocho Refugee Camp in Nairobi. There were 180,00 refugees in a camp half the size of the Leongatha township. He met a resident called Florence who had set up an organisation called KOCH as a registered NGO. The difference between her NGO  and other NGOs is that it was all staffed by locals from the camp. They raised money and spent it on the children. In 2024 Mark contacted Florence and helped her organise and fund a program to run life changing wildlife experiences and workshops each weekend for children of the camp who suffered trauma such as sexual predation or were challenged in the education. Mark was surprised that these children had never left the camp in their life and had never seen the local wildlife. Mark funded this and KOCH volunteers organised it. This started with 20 children in the first year in 2024. Now it has developed to deal with 400 children and has also developed a scholarship program for kids to go to secondary school. Secondary school is not available in the camps. All the children have English taught to them in Primary school in the camp but Secondary schooling has to be self-funded. This costs $2000 per year, covering boarding costs and education fees. $370 of this is the school fee. The weekend program now has 550 students each weekend and they join clubs which offer life skills education. The Hari Krishna group feed the children every weekend. Mark covers the admin costs for the NGO at $20,000 per year and sponsors 40 elephants at $50 each per year. The KOCH organisation has a motto of four Es. Engage, Empower, Educate and Encourage. All students are given a T-shirt with this motto. Mark's motto is 'Dare to change the world by changing the world of individuals'. Mark finished with a video showing the children and the positive impact that KOCH has on their lives. 

Mark Jones recieving his glass from Chair Carol

 

Pauline has spent many years helping Foster Care kids in Gippsland. There is a group of people who knit squares to make woollen blankets for foster kids. These blankets are given to kids in crisis, going from foster home to foster home. Pauline showed us the initial squares she made, up to the present day squares she makes. She started with 10cm squares, and she now makes 2 x 1 metre squares. She has knitted over 20+ complete blankets herself and has successfully encouraged many others to so likewise. Many from our club have been involved.

               Pauline with her display of ever increasing size of "squares" for her blankets for foster kids.

 

Sam and Chloe presented their autobiographies. Sam spoke first. Sam was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia in his youth. His main leisure interest is skydiving. In his adult life he started working in maintenance of residential units and properties for real estate agents, investment properties and private individuals. This introduced him to the NDIS where he became interested in helping neurodiverse and disabled youth. He is now a youth counsellor in the NDIS. He is a strong supporter of the NDIS in the area of youth counselling and has found it most rewarding. His latest project, with wife Chloe, is a business called Folkloure which develops programs for disadvantaged and neurodiverse youth. Initially the program was based in Rosebud and Eildon. Sam has also had a 3 year stint running a Christmas tree farm and shop in Eildon. He has been a lifelong blood donor motivated by the death of his older brother from leukemia at the age of 12. His highlight was marrying his high school sweetheart, Chloe.

Chloe.

Chloe is a local girl who travelled overseas widely when she was young and this has directed her focus into community-based activity, employment and service. She shared with Sam running the Maintenance and Christmas tree businesses. Now she is focusing on giving back to the community, working in vocational pathways and counselling for youth. The Folkloure business is the latest business she has developed. She established the studio in Rosebud and the clients are sourced from a range of youth including home schooled children, disadvantaged children and neurodiverse children. The programs include vocational guidance, presentation skills and resume writing, amongst others. She described an educational program they developed after discovering a group of young people who were hanging  out at a laundromat in Eildon, due to boredom and a lack of educational activities and entertainment. Chloe’s next event is a Health and Wellbeing expo at the Mornington Community Centre in October. Chloe finished by reporting on how impressed she was with RYLA and the opportunities that Rotary have given to her and Sam.

            

Chloe in full swing with he autobiography                                                        Sam with his presentation

 

 

                

                                                     Chair Maurie presenting glasses to Chloe and Sam after their inspiring presentations

 

 

3 Minute Speaker: Caryl Coulthard. The St James Pilgrimage (also known a s the Camino)

In 2004 Caryl and a girlfriend travelled to Europe on holiday which started in Türkiye and ended in Spain. The main highlight was the pilgrimage now known as the Camino Trail. This was well before this was such a popular venture. Each of the pilgrims was identified by having large shells with a red cross attached to their backpacks. This traditionally meant that they were to be assisted by the locals wherever they could be.

Caryl admitted that she wasn’t that fit at the start and had to walk backwards up the first hill. She started in the French Pyrenees at Ruschevel, aiming to get to Pamplona. By the end of the walk she was covering 40km a day and was much fitter. She was impressed with the range of reasons why the people were doing the pilgrimage, the friendliness of the villagers and the help she received along the way. Caryl experienced a range of accommodation from monasteries to local homes. She had to carry everything and often slept on cardboard.  There were guides at each town, based in each village square to point them in the right direction. She loved the mountains and the food and became very fond of Tapas. She was very proud of finishing in Santiago.

  Caryl delivering her fascinating talk on her walk following in St James' pilgrimage.