Rotary Matters

RYLA is a week long residential personal development course for 18-27 yrs old, which gives young people a chance to come together in a supportive environment to learn about teamwork, communication and  motivation and to develop life long leadership skills. We meet RYLArian Luke Prangell who attended RYLA 2018 and John Steel, from St Ives Rotary Club who directs RYLA in this area. An inspiring...

Dr Radha Simhadri is a qualified audiologist with special expertise in paediatric and adult hearing and assessment. From her base in Sydney and with some help from Rotary, she supports and manages nine clinics in rural Mysore, India allowing for early detection of hearing loss and installation of cochlear implants. Radha also leads a program in remote rural areas of India enabling the disabled to...

The Rotary Youth Exchange program enables school students to spend a year abroad, going to school, learning the language and customs of another country. We meet Zoe Evans from Sydney who is soon to go to Chile and Barbora Wallova from Germany currently in Sydney. We find out their expectations and how this unique program may fashion their future career thinking.

Although Cambodian families have been slowly building their lives since the Khmer Rouge genocide, Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Rural areas of Cambodia still face severe poverty, lack of health care and low levels of education, economic opportunity and resources. Tony James from the Upper Northern Beaches Rotary Club in Sydney determined to correct the imbalance and r...

Nusa Tenggara just a few hundred kilometres north of Australia is a poor country where people live on less than US$1 per day. Chris Curtis and colleagues from Lane Cove Rotary Club in Sydney raise funds to make small grants to install water tanks, sanitation, education facilities and agriculture advice making a huge difference to this community.

Epping Boys High works closely with Epping Rotary Club in Sydney raising funds and providing water and other essentials to help the disadvantaged community at Oecusse in Timor L'Este. We meet year 9 students Maea Applegarth and Harry Bowen and discuss how this volunteer work complements their school work and influences their career thinking.  Bruce Jacob from Epping Rotary Club outlines the s...

We meet enterprising Rotarian Rob Edwards from Corrimal New South Wales who launched Its Time, a scheme providing solar power to schools in Fiji. Also with us is Laisa Digitaki from the Rotary Club of Suva, to discuss the impact of the program and its potential to assist many more schools in saving money and enabling them to connect to contemporary electronic communications systems. We also learn...

We meet Di Barnes the power house from St Ives Rotary Club on Sydney's upper north shore describing all the good things to be found at the St Ives Food & Wine Festival, 8 September 2019. A wide variety of tasty and unusual food, wines from the Hunter and from Mudgee. Lots of entertainment for children and stalls from many local community service organisations. Proceeds from the event enable &n...

We meet Peter Kirkwood OAM a Rotarian and all round community leader who throughout his life has always put  service above self. Peter's commitment to youth and community development is exemplified in the driving role he played in the creation of the thriving  Police Citizens Youth Club in Waitara, on Sydney's upper north shore. An inspirational Australian.

Modern day slavery exists in many forms....forced labour, human trafficking, debt bondage, forced marriage, the sale of children and sex slavery. We meet Doug Malcolm, Rotarian, founder and driver of Paint4Freedom a National Art Competition  dedicated to raising awareness of slavery and raising funds to counteract it. www.paint4freedom.org

Today we meet Doug Reid long time Rotarian and newly elected President of Wahroonga Rotary Club in the upper north shore suburbs of Sydney. Doug outlines the club's active  support and engagement on a range of  youth, community and international projects. And Doug shares his thoughts on how he intends to pursue this year's international theme  that Rotary Connects the World.

Rotaract Clubs pursue the same values as Rotary Clubs in providing opportunities for service above self. We meet Joshua McKenna, President and Charlotte Weatherall, Secretary of the newly formed Rotaract Club of Hornsby and Kuring gai. They outline their plans and how to get involved in this exciting new initiative targeted at 18-30 year olds. https://www.facebook.com/HKRotaractClub/

Social problems in Ethiopia have been increasing at an alarming rate due to poverty, HIV/AIDS, various diseases, drought and conflict. Among other social problems the number of orphans and vulnerable children is increasing rapidly. We meet Karen Kendall, Australian who founded and runs an extraordinary orphanage and place of refuge for children, marginalised women and the wider local community.

The National Youth Science Forum runs residential programs to encourage young people in their passion for science, technology, maths and more. We meet Chloe Kneebone a Year  12 student from Sydney who explains her experience at NYSF in Brisbane, what she did, who she met and how it has impacted her thinking on what to study and where it might lead. Also on the show is Peter Crawley, Rotarian...

We meet John Corney from Epping Rotary Club in Sydney who details the creative and life changing projects he leads in the Oecusse region of Timor L'Este to provide villagers and a remote school  with potable water. using bio sand filters.  But it isn't only water.....recent donations include computers repurposed from Epping Boys High School and from local businesses. Another inspiring st...

We meet Kim Pearce and Kath Davis visionaries from Sydney's north shore who founded the Possibility Project empowering a community in Jaipur India to realise their potential through recycling, re purposing and bringing to market a range of colourful, hand made fashion items from clothes to beads to accessories under the slumwear 108 brand. Their philosophy of social entrepreneurship has led to oth...

School for Life is an Australian non profit organisation working in rural Uganda building holistic education models to empower communities to help themselves. Today we meet co founder Annabelle Chauncey OAM from a sheep and cattle property at  Canyonleigh NSW who at the age of 21 travelled to Africa and started what is now, twelve years later, two primary schools, one secondary school, 1000 s...

Teeth and Toilets is an inspirational initiative of local dentist  Dr Sandra Meihubers AM, a Rotarian who has devoted her working life to improving oral health and sanitation in outback Australia, in Timor L'Este, Nepal and Bangladesh. Working under very difficult conditions often following natural disaster, Sandra leads teams and develops policies to tackle significant health problems often...

The Rotary Inspirational Women's Awards are dedicated to recognising and acknowledging the achievements of women who best exemplify Rotary's motto of "Service above Self". The community service performed by women above and beyond their normal role. RIWA is discussed by Sue Hayward, District Governor and stories of recent winners are provided by Rae-Anne Medforth, Chair of RIWA. Questions by Ian St...

The remarkable story of Dr Nuli Lemoh and his wife Margaret who raised funds and set up a children's hospital in the town of Bo, Sierra Leone. Poverty, illiteracy, poor nutrition and limited access to sanitation, health services and safe drinking water are among the main reasons for the high mortality rate in a country wracked in the past by civil war and in 2014 by the Ebola epidemic. The hospita...

A dedicated team of teaching and medical staff runs a four day Children's Holiday Camp, with a set of activities designed to help the children. Each child is teamed up with two Year 11 students from Shore and Pymble and the students enjoy the experience , the joys, challenges and demands involved in caring for a child with special needs- a life changing experience for the students as well. Rotary...

Hornsby Connect supported by Wahroonga Rotary Club is a low cost food distribution centre in Hornsby (a northern suburb of Sydney) for those experiencing financial hardship providing bread, milk, groceries, fruit and vegies as well as offering a café with free tea, coffee and cakes. We meet Stuart Armstrong outgoing President of Wahroonga Rotary who also explains his club's recent initiative to la...