The Wild Fire that has
devastated Victoria has left a trail of destruction and despair in
the wake of its fury. Many lives were lost in a most terrifying
way and more than 7,000 people have lost their homes. In the
media, we hear that the Red Cross is doing much to assist the
victims of a disaster which occurred only a week ago as I write to
you. You have probably heard very little, if anything, about what
Rotary is doing. That is because, so far, we have not been at the
forefront to assist the victims.
Rotary has traditionally taken a low-profile when assisting those
in need and so, whilst the disaster is in the media, at the
forefront of everyone's mind and already well supported by other
organisations, we leave it to those who are better equipped to
co-ordinate, manage and deal with the situation in the immediate
and short term. Rotary has already been actively organising
assistance but we have an extended timeframe. Continued and
sustained assistance is hardest to find after the disaster falls
off the front page and is no longer on people's minds. This is
where Rotary comes in - to provide that vital continued support
when it is "off the agenda" to the general public.
Our District Governor, Jim Studebaker, has already established a
trust fund in preparation for the work ahead to assist the victims
of the disaster. Response plans are also currently being
formulated at the personal, club, district, state and national
levels. Rest assured, your help will be needed when these plans
are activated and there will be much that needs to be done. There
are, however, two things you can do now:
1. Make suggestions of how Rotary can effectively assist those
victims in the medium and long term and communicate those
suggestions to our District Community Service Chair, Mev Connell;
and
2. Donate and encourage others to donate to the District
established trust fund for the disaster: The donations can be made
to “Rotary International D 9800 Bushfire Recovery Fund”, BSB
Number 013 345, Account Number 2521 12703 or mail cheques to
District Treasurer Trevor Mackey PO Box 189 East Kew, VIC 3102.
The current statistics is that over 7,000 people have been
displaced and over 1,800 homes have been destroyed. Even with a
conservative estimate of $300,000 to rebuild and equip each house,
the total cost of reconstruction will exceed half a billion
dollars. What's more, the rebuilding of these houses will take
time and the survivors will need assistance before they can be
completed. Many will be in need of Rotary's help in the coming
weeks, months, even years and our support of our club and our
district will make a vital difference to Rotary's efforts to
lessen the impact of the disaster.
Yours in Rotary,
Gabe
Our Chairman for the meeting Carl Kelson warmly welcomed and
introduced our guest speaker, Johanna de Vries, a Youth Outreach
Specialist from Open Family Australia. Carl told us that he had
known Johanna and her family since Johanna was a little girl and
so was personally pleased to be introducing her.
Johanna’s talk was inspiring and passionate; the content hit a
strong chord with members and guests present. A summary of her
remarkable story follows.
Johanna de Vries is
a Youth Outreach Specialist for Open Family Australia and has been
working with the not-for-profit organisation for 21 months. Her
passion is working with disadvantaged and at risk young people and
she is a strong believer in their capabilities to positively
influence their community. Prior to her employment with Open
Family Australia, Johanna worked extensively with homeless young
people in a Job Placement, Employment and Training program based
in Ballarat. Johanna completed a degree in Rural Social Welfare,
majoring in Psychology with additional studies in Alcohol and
Other Drugs in 2006 at the University of Ballarat and is a RYLA
facilitator in Rotary District 9780.
Open Family
Australia is a Not-For-Profit Organisation reliant on government
funding and donations. It is founded by Fr Bob Maguire in St.
Kilda in 1978. The organisation currently employs 25 Youth
Outreach Specialists across Melbourne (CBD, West, South), Sydney,
Hume & ACT.
Some of the
programs that Open Family run are ‘Back
to School’ (Variety Victoria) – Melb, ‘Links to Learning’ – NSW,
‘Colman
Scholarship Program’ – Melb, ‘Redskins Basketball Club’ –
Braybrook, ‘Go Ride a Wave’ – Melb, ‘Soccer Noodles’ – Footscray,
‘Outreach Bus’.
The Model (that
Johanna works on),
She Visits “hot
spots” after hours, engages/ develops rapport with street
frequenting young people (12-25 yrs), assesses needs,
provide information, refers and remain on call 24/7
Some
interesting facts...
Of every 60
homeless young people sleeping on the streets 42 have taken drugs
in the last 12 hours, 30 have been victims of assault or abuse
during this time. Over 80% of these young people are in this
situation due to family breakdown on conflict
Some of the key
issues that these clients are facing are homelessness, physical /
emotional / sexual assault, relationship breakdown, substance use
/ misuse, physical / mental health Issues, lack of employment /
education.
The team at Open
Family offer
support,
information,
referral,
case
management,
substance
misuse and
intervention
to disadvantaged youth of Melbourne.
A typical day in
the life of an Open Family Outreach Worker …
is impossible to define!
Some of the
challenges the workers face are
economic situation:
more work, less donations, lack of services, they can never
quite do enough, nothing is concrete, not every story has a
happy ending.
But on the flip
side, this rewarding work has many positives;
amazing young people, flexibility, countless stories of
resilience, diversity, no day is like any other
Judging by the questions Johanna’s audience showed strong support
for her clause. Thanks Johanna.
