House of Friendship – District 9620 Conference 2024

Get to know our booth holders

The Conference’s House of Friendship brings together groups and individuals engaged in impactful work. Learn about and be inspired by what they do in our District and across the world.

Check out their bios or explore their social media pages; and be sure to have a chat while at the Conference!

In Precolonial times oysters abounded the coasts of Australia, none more so than Moreton Bay Marine Park [MBMP] where oysters’ bars flourished. In those times these tasty Bivalves provided a valuable source of protein, and the remaining calcium carbonate shell provided the base for making cement for building structures. Oysters now are functionally extinct.

Without these bivalves filtering 140L of water / day, removing the contaminants from water shed, MBMP future is dire. ESRAG Moreton Bay is working with SEQ Universities, OzFish and others to research how we can bring back MBMP for future generations and there-by leaving a legacy. To find out more visit our booth or email : esrag.moretonbay@gmail.com

ROTATE has a membership of over 430 members. We all collect small recyclable items that the council can recycle. They range from plastic bottle caps to blister packs and all sort of other items.

We have a pamphlet listing the items. We collect free of charge. We have our own Facebook page and answer questions about recycling. We are in need of collection points so the recycling is made easy. All Rotary clubs can bring their items to RARE in Alexandra Hills

In 2022, there were 247 million cases of malaria and 619,000 deaths, particularly the most vulnerable women and children. Malaria continues to be more than 7 times more prevalent than Polio ever was. It is one of the world’s most deadly diseases. The debilitation caused by malaria is often accepted as a normal part of life in endemic, developing countries.

Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM) is committed to eliminating malaria from the world– and desperately needs the help of Rotarians and Rotary Clubs to continue the fight against this deadly disease.

For more information, contact Russ Stephenson (Northern Region and D9620 RAM Supervisor) rusmer1@hotmail.com or ring 0409 765 124

Teacher In A Box is a huge interactive library of community and academic resources that can be accessed without internet.

Yes, NO internet!!!

Our Teacher in a Box servers can be used for self-paced learning from prep through to university as well as classroom teaching.

Consider deploying a Teacher in a Box server, or 2, as part of your next international project. It’s easy as all the hard work will be done for you…and it’s fantastic value… just one Teacher in a Box server can support a small community.

Come and talk to us to find out how!!

The Rotary Reading Assistance Program aim is to provide a steady supply of books to children living in drought affected (and now flood and fire) areas. It is funded by some District Grant funds but mainly from businesses, and Rotary and non-Rotary clubs. It currently has 85 children. We purchase high quality, age-appropriate books for children, posting once per month with an extra Christmas gift. Children age out after December in the year in which they turn 6 years. Feedback from families is that literacy outcomes are improved and the children would not have such access to books otherwise.

Find out more on Rotary International District 9620

YOUTH PROGRAMS AND CHAIRS 2023 – 2024

White Lady Funerals is a leading provider of funeral care in Australia. Our women Funeral Specialists are here to share their strength, compassion, and guidance in times of loss. We are here to ease your burden; help you process your grief and provide your lost loved one with a memorable farewell that honours their life and strengthens their legacy.

Since 1987, we’ve helped over 147,000 Australian families from all walks of life find their strength and say farewell to the ones they love most. Today, our team comprises hundreds of strong, caring women across the country.
Every White Lady Funeral Specialist draws from a wealth of life experience to guide and support you and your family.

Meet our Platinum Sponsor Santos, a global energy company with operations across Australia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the United States.

Santos’ goal is to be a global leader in the energy evolution to low carbon fuels that help the world decarbonise and continue to provide the reliable, affordable energy the world needs for modern life and human progress.

Santos is an important Australian domestic gas supplier and LNG supplier in Asia, committed to supplying critical fuels such as oil and gas, and abating emissions through carbon capture and storage, energy efficiency projects, use of renewables in their operations and high-quality offsets. Santos will also seek to develop low-carbon fuels as customer demand evolves.

For 70 years, Santos has been working in partnership with local communities, providing jobs and business opportunities, safely developing natural gas resources and from there powering industries and households.

Santos seeks to deliver long-term value to shareholders through their diverse portfolio of high-quality, long-life, low-cost oil and gas assets, carbon storage resources and infrastructure.

The Santos portfolio is value accretive and resilient across a range of decarbonisation scenarios. Santos has a climate transition action plan that will continue to evolve for the global energy evolution.

Santos has a regional operating model with a strong local focus. The Company’s operating structure comprises three regional business units focused on enabling and executing corporate strategy. Two divisions – Santos Energy Solutions and Santos Upstream Gas and Liquids – are accountable for global portfolio management and strategy.

Meet our Platinum Sponsor, Sun Engineering holding a reputation for delivering large, complex and remote projects within the Australia and Pacific region.

The business has extensive experience in fabricating and constructing projects within the mining and infrastructure sectors, the company also executes projects within the social infrastructure and manufacturing sectors, including Stadiums, Mega Amusement park rides and complex manufacturing plants.

Over the past few years, Sun Engineering has extended its international reach to more than 30 countries, delivering unique engineering and construction projects in the infrastructure and global resource sectors.

Sun Engineering is built on the foundation of family values, and extend the company’s reach through a network of companies with diverse capabilities, including steel fabrication from their facilities in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and China, serving over 30 countries. Sun Engineering’s SMP (Structural, Mechanical, and Piping) Construction teams execute projects across Australia and the Pacific Regions. Their Australian facility stands as one of the largest fabrication shops in the region.

Operating for 49 years, Sun Engineering has engaged in varied projects, ranging from constructing a 240 Mega Watt Gas Fired Power Station in Mt Isa, Queensland, to Turnkey Gold mine projects in Papua New Guinea’s highlands.

Meri Freedom Bags is a charitable volunteer network which makes sanitary bags for girls and women in Papua New Guinea.

Our purpose is to create freedom and dignity in daily life. Girls can attend school consistently and the women can function and contribute carefree within their villages.

Our plan goes beyond the network of volunteers making the bags. We believe how to make them should not be a secret kept from those who need its products most.
Therefore, our vision is to create a living bag, meaning everything can be produced and replaced in Papua New Guinea by the women. A bag is gifted with the intent to then train the women to make it and replace it for themselves.

The volunteers are predominantly based in South-East Queensland, and most have been involved since the network began in 2019. All components of the gifted bags are either donated new or purchased from donations.

To see the journey of Meri Freedom Bags, visit our Facebook page

If you wish to be involved, please get in contact on the details below. We accept interest from new volunteers and individuals, businesses and organisations who may wish to make financial or in-kind contributions.

Tenkyu.

Gay Muller (Founder/Co-Ordinator)
+61 419 650 424 | merifreedombags@gmail.com

Beefbank is a charity that was established by Brisbane
Centenary Rotary Club. The purpose of the charity is to process beef cattle into mince, sausages and stewing steak to feed the needy people of Australia. We have provided well over a million meals and are well on the way to achieving our targets for the 2023 year.

We are currently in the process of organising a cattle drive from central north Queensland to Roma which will provide enough meals for most of the country’s food stressed and needy people.

We have national agreements with Foodbank Australia, the Department of Corrections Qld and Fareshare Kitchens Australia. Along with our cattle drive we are also organising a mobile butchering facility to
make use of thousands of cattle that can’t be moved from properties in the large cattle areas of northern Australia!

All donations are tax deductible and can be processed at any location in Australia.

Smart First AED Kit provides you with the most intelligent, versatile and easy-to-use lifesaving contents in the world. The comprehensive kits are all designed with the new
lifesaving CellAED® in mind.

CellAED® is a portable defibrillator that can help save the life of a loved one, or workmate, should
they suffer a life-threatening cardiac arrest.

Be sure to meet Rohan Williamson at our House of Friendship!

Moffatdale Ridge is a family owned and operated vineyard in the heart of the South Burnett’s wine growing region Moffatdale. Jason and Susan Kinsella and their three children, Geoff, Josh and Emily, have a long family association with the region, dating back four generations, producing premium wines which are now sold all around the world.

Moffatdale Ridge crafts premium quality wine and liqueurs that are available online, or through their cellar door. Be sure to try their wines at the Conference Gala Dinner!

Rotary Bowelscan Qld is a District 9620 Rotary project focusing on lifting Awareness of Bowel Cancer throughout Queensland, and providing quality kits to the public at cost.

“Early Detection is your best Protection” is the message we promote.

Submit a sample every year to any Sullivan Nicolaides centre in Queensland, and you can be quietly confident you won’t be a victim of Bowel Cancer.

Fifteen and a half thousand Australians are diagnosed positive every year. One third are diagnosed as terminal. This is a horrific social and economic cost to Australia.

Our email address for further information, or to order kits is #QLDROTARYBowelscan or bowelscanqueensland.org.au

District 9620 Youth Exchange Program is Chaired by Bernie Wilson and her Youth Exchange Committee.

The current program is on par, and in some instances leading the way in safely selecting, training, and placing our students in homes all over the world. These Young Ambassadors are our future, as they go through a 12-month process preparing for their year prior to exiting the country.

Their year abroad includes learning a new language, immersing themselves in a new culture, and having experiences that will give them better coping mechanisms for the future.

In return we also have the benefit of seeing the world through the eyes of our incoming students, therefore giving us a learning experience as well.

For further information on sponsoring an outbound student, come and see us at our table in the House of Friendship.

The RYE team

RAWCS and its predecessor FAIM has proudly serviced the Rotary Districts and Clubs of Australia for the last 59 years.
With Keith Hopper of the Rotary Club of Inverell, as the founder, FAIM was subsequently developed into a Rotary activity with the aim of recruiting multi-disciplinary volunteer teams to undertake construction projects in developing countries. The first FAIM project was construction of an orphanage in Indonesia in 1964.

The first FAIM project in PNG was construction of a wharf at Wasu in 1967. The Australian Administration of the day had plans for the Wharf at an estimated cost of $65k and a construction time of seven months. Three FAIM teams each of 20 volunteers assisted by local labour completed the task in six weeks at a cost of $12k.
FAIM continued to grow and in 1987, an Australian Incorporated Company named Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) was formed and was formally recognised by Governments as an NGO representing Rotary World Community Service. FAIM therefore became RAWCS.

Major Achievements:
1) Kokoda Memorial Hospital Project: At the request of the Australian Government and funded through the Department of Veteran’s Affairs with a grant of $2.3 million, 300 RAWCS volunteers in 612 trips to PNG, completed the construction of a 36 bed hospital, Doctor’s Residence, 3 staff cottages, and other buildings in December 1995.

2) Raihu Hospital at Aitape: On the 17th July 1998, the north coast of Papua New Guinea experienced a massive tsunami in the Aitape Area. Funds raised by Rotary Clubs and Districts in RAWCS Northern Region was allocated towards the upgrading of the Raihu Hospital in Aitape. A new Paediatric Ward as well as a new X-Ray/Lab/Medical Store were built and all buildings were connected by raised covered walkways.

3) Assistance to the Drought Areas (RABS): RAWCS has been directly involved with the raising of $17 million plus and its distribution direct to farming families and their local communities during the 2018-19 financial year. During the 2019-20 year, RAWCS has also partnered to deliver the $5 million Drought Communities Outreach Program to farming families impacted by the drought through the provision of information events and $500 debit cards to eligible farming households. The Rotary District 9630 Drought Relief Program has been delivering aid to drought affected communities since early 2014, using our “Whole of Community” approach. This aid is broken down to 3 main areas: Card System, Family Days and Rotary Reading Assistance Program.

RAWCS has also been delivering aid to other disaster areas such as the recent floods throughout Australia as well as the tsunami affected areas of Tonga and the situation in Ukraine.

Visit the RAWCS display at the Rotary District 9620 Conference and learn more about RAWCS and the exciting new “RAWCS Projects Fair” planned to be held in the near future in Rotary District 9620 and adjoining Rotary Districts.

Australian Rotary Health (ARH) is one of the largest independent funders of mental health research within Australia. Alongside mental health research, we also provide funding into a broad range of general health areas, provide scholarships for rural medical and nursing students, as well as Indigenous health students. We are a project of the Rotary Districts of Australia, supported by Rotary clubs and individuals.

Our vision is to be a catalyst for change by improving projects that improve the quality of life of all Australians. In 2023 we have begun funding research grants aimed at the mental health of children aged 0 to 12.