Geelong Rotary and Macuata

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And a thank you from Dreketi.
A letter to the Editor of the Fiji Times published Thursday.
Vinaka Rotary

A VERY sincere vote of thanks to Rotary Australia. I was pleasantly surprised (10/08) when the Caucasian lady waiting to be seen by the doctor, slowly walked into the room, shook my hand and introduced herself as being a representative of Rotary Australia.

We, the staff of Dreketi Health Centre were overjoyed in receiving the large supply of dressing materials, medical textbooks and healthcare books, surgical instruments, automated blood pressure machines and many more items. The sheer variety of items donated was very impressive.

Thank you Rotary Australia from all the people of Dreketi.

Dr Monish Nandan
Medical officer in-charge
Dreketi Health Centre
Macuata

Farewell to a friend of Koroipita

from w
A fine gentleman, Barry Bell from Geelong, Australia, was such a friend of Fiji, with his inspiring Donation in Kind work, especially for the development of Koroipita, the new village named after Peter Drysdale of Lautoka. Today Peceli and I attended Barry Bell's funeral at St Mary's Basilica with over 700 other people to pay tribute to an outstanding life of commitment to family, community, overseas projects in the South Pacific, and indigenous projects within Australia. It was a beautiful service, with singing of 'I have a dream' (there's a line that goes - something good in everything I see - what optimism!) 'What a wonderful world' and hymns. Afterwards we went to the Truffleduck Reception Centre for food and drink and to view an exhibition of Barry Bell's watercolours which are optimistic and showing our beautiful Corio Bay and nearby places. We knew Barry mainly through Rotary projects to Fiji and Donation in Kind. He was an intelligent but humble man with a vision that humanity can be served by helping others, sending practical gifts in containers, by working alongside strangers to put up houses, kindergartens, water projects. Emails were read this afternoon from Peter Drysdale and from people from the island of Yanuca off Deuba where a rest house had been built for the people coming and going on the outboard boats. Vinaka vakalevu Barry for a fine life of compassion and service for others.

Donation in Kind gets to Nadi

from w
Peceli took some photos when he stayed in Nawaka village (Nadi) recently for a funeral and also visited the places where some of the Geelong Donation in Kind goods are being used.

Donation in Kind in the Pacific

from w
A couple of weeks ago our friend Joy Baxter addressed a Rotary Club in Geelong about her recent trip to Fiji and the unloading of a container with goods for Vanua Levu, mainly for the Dreketi area. I was disappointed a few weeks ago to read in a Fiji Paper a statement by someone in a NGO that criticized the Uplift Fiji project of providing bras to the women in inland villages and settlements. Their argument was that this encourages a dependency situation. I don't think so. The women who started this project thought the gifts would be good medically not just socially. The donors that I know and the volunteers at the Geelong depot work very hard and those who do travel to the Pacific Islands on work-camps develop a good relationship with the local people. I do not think it is about dependency but about relationships and good will.

Donation in Kind particularly focus on schools, hospitals and rural projects. so, is it desirable to give computers to the children of the South Pacific? Yes, I think so.

More about Donation in Kind

from Peceli
Here are some pictures about collecting for our Donation in Kind projects - a truck bought to send to Papua New Guinea after a tsunami, closing a container for Fiji, a woman giving us her knitted singlets for babies in Fiji. I'm a member of the Grovedale Rotary Club, mainly for my interest in international projects. A container arrived in Lautoka a couple of weeks ago and the goods are currently being distributed up the Sigatoka Valley Road to villages. We do not just send any kind of left-over secondhand goods but respond to a 'wish list' by a group of people in a Pacific or South East Asian country, trying to match their requests for useful donations. We do have to throw out some things given to us because they are not suitable so we recycle these in various ways. Our depot is part of Geelong Council land behind the Maritime Museum and Osborne House but there is a council plan going on to develop the site as it is located beside the sea in North Geelong.

Uplifting the women of Fiji

from w
The daughter-in-law of one of our Rotary friends who helps a lot at the Donation in Kind Depot has been collecting bras for the women in rural areas of Fiji and the Age ran an article about her project - called Uplift Fiji perhaps - you know, like a kelpie dog chasing sheep - round 'em up and point in the right direction. Okay, no more bust jokes. Anyway the young woman got a phone call this week from someone who said they had a few for her. 20,000 pairs! Mostly new I think. So that will certainly be nice gifts for the Fiji women up to size 26 F I believe.

So when we were talking about this yesterday, one guy said that someone had rung up that they had excess stock of surgical gloves and would Rotary Donation in Kind like them to send on. Yes. Well, a semi-trailer arrived with them. Well, I think that surely is an exaggeration!

Then, Heather, not to be outdone, and she has just returned from 3 months in Fiji distributing goodies to villages and settlements, including bras for the women, said that she went to church in a village and the women were not listening to the sermon, they were just checking out the nice lines on the other female singers in the choir! Hmm. And then we remember the time in Oz a few years back when we were getting rid of our bras and swinging along freely!

Peceli and I go to the Donation in Kind depot once or twice a week to sort books, linen, furniture etc. to send to Vanuatu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and other neighbouring countries. Last week three young woman and a little girl from near Werribee came to help us sort books. Thank you Lutu, Mere, Kara and Elisapeci - they hail from the island of Tuvuca on paternal side,... and Gau on the maternal side, but don't hold that against them!

(added later) Link to the project website is here. And a picture from Liz's website. I presume they mean Serua, not Gerua.

A gift of a wheelchair and a computer

from Peceli
Here are two photos I took when I visited a Labasa family. The Geelong Donation in Kind had given this girl a wheelchair and a computer a couple of months ago. the girl is rom Bulileka village and also in the photo is the District Officer Northern.

All Saints Secondary School

From Peceli

All Saints High School Labasa

This school is still going strong with a long history of developing education for multiracial students in the Northern Division. It started off as a boys school, but then became co-educational.

Because it is next to the Qawa River east of Labasa on the road to Vaturekuka where the government headquarters used to be. Floods happen quite often in Labasa and All Saints School gets flooded. We call this area Vulovi, the low hying part of the Qawa river. It is not far from the Labasa Sugar Mill.

There’s a song called ‘Vulovi na vanua ni vanua ni salusalu.’

When I was in Labasa a week ago I visited All Saints School with Father Emosi Petueli, an Anglican priest. The lady principal showed us around and told us about how far the flood reached. It was the worst flood damage in the history of Vulovi she said.

We were there to give them books and computers and teaching material from the Donation in Kind Geelong. The container we sent included gifts for about twenty schools in the Labasa area.

Response to Labasa floods with a container

from w
The floods were in February but it has taken an involved process to get a container of donated goods from Geelong, Australia, to the schools in Labasa. Hopefully the container sent from Rotary Donation in Kind International will reach Macuata by tomorrow morning. The goods will go mainly to schools where there was severe flood damage such as Holy Family Primary School (coloured picture) and Guru Nanak Primary School,(black and white picture) both in Labasa township area which is low-lying and flood-prone.

Help for Fiji children through Donation in Kind

from w

Heather Van Vlokhoven, Tevita Nakalevu, Caroline Caldwell and Jan Bullock are pictured here with boxes to fill a container to go to Lautoka for Fiji school children. The boxes include kits of school supplies and stationery packs for teachers, textbooks etc. Rotary clubs in Geelong contribute to sending containers to several South Pacific countries each year. This particular container has been filled through the assistance of sue Bolton and the Lara Girl Guides.