Club First Lady Saira Griffin and I attended Rotary Club of Central Melbourne's 'Oh Kolkata!' fundraising event on Saturday 4th May 2019. You guessed it right, it was a night of celebration with an Indian flavour designed to raise funds for their international project in Kolkata with the Rotary Club of Calcutta - Victoria and Sierra Madre California.

The Kolkata project will provide an opportunity for under privileged men and women to receive training in basic skills to enable them to find employment. Over $5,000 dollars was raised through donated auction items from India and sponsor throughout Victoria. We thoroughly enjoyed the night and thank you President Neville Taylor and members from the Rotary Club of Central Melbourne members.

Special mention to Peter & Sue Duras for inviting us to their lovely home for this special night!

Photo from left to right: Sue Duras, President Neville Taylor and Peter Duras

President-Elect Sally Page presented her Member Behind the Badge segment on Tuesday 23rd April 2019 where we had a number of visiting Rotarians particularly from Rotary Club of North Melbourne, Rotary Club of Brighton and Rotary Club of Melbourne South to hear about Sally's upbringing, social + work life, hobbies and her ambitions in Rotary.

It was a great opportunity to hear her share about her life & achievements and we are superbly exicited having Sally Page leading Rotary Club of Southbank in the 2019-2020 Rotary year to not only encourging us to still "Be the Inspiration" but to emphasie that "Rotary Connects The World" through "Service Above Self".

We like to acknowledge the visiting Rotarians that came:

• Rotary Club of Brighton
  • Assistant Governor / District Governor Nominee-Designate Dale Hoy
     
• Rotary Club of Melbourne South
  • President John Wall
     
• Rotary Club of North Melbourne
  • President Mary Zindilis
  • Past Assistant Governor Neville Page (Sally's Father)
  • Rotarian Judy Page (Sally's Mother)
  • Rotarian Cheryl Long
  • Past President Susan Robb
  • Rotarian Larry Robb

On Wednesday 17th April 2019, President Amritpal Singh attended Rotary Club of Melbourne's lunch meeting to hear Professor, The Reverend Gary D. Bouma (AM, FAICD) topic on "Changing Religious Diversity in Australia:  What is and What is Coming". It was a fascinating topic and got everyone's attention - marvelous job to President Robert Fisher and his team for hosting a great luncheon meeting!

Throughout the meeting, President Amritpal Singh was sitting next to Past President David Jones (1992-1993) from Rotary Club of Melbourne who shared his stories and achievements when he was president of the club. One of the few highlights that David shared was that he was not only the president in 1992-1993 but also the organiser of the first (1st) Rotary International (R.I.) Convention in Melbourne back in 1993. He was also the Past President of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (M.C.G.) who instrumented the redevelopment of the 1928 Members' stand, the 1956 Olympic stand and the 1968 Ponsford who has enabled the stadium to cater for than 100,000 capacity. David is full of life and such a lovely person ~ he does look forward to attend the 2023 R.I. Convention back in Melbourne!

The Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) is a grassroots education and learning development program conducted in many Rotary Districts around the world. Although RLI is not an officially endorsed Rotary International program, it continues to gain support and provide a valuable experience that helps Rotarians understand the wider world of Rotary.

In District 9800, RLI is a District Managed Program that provides participants with a high quality experience, that engages and involves them in the education and learning process.
RLI is now a four part program in 2018-19 over 2 days, that will enlighten and help you understand how the world of Rotary works, and equip you with the knowledge, understanding and skills to take on future responsibilities within Rotary. It is a great learning experience!

For more information visit www.rotaryleadershipinstitute.org & RLI International on Facebook

Dates (2018-19)

Metropolitan Program (Part 1 & 2): Sunday May 5, 2019
Metropolitan Program (Part 3 & 4): Sunday May 19, 2019

Rural Program (Part 1, 2, 3 & 4): Sunday July 28, 2019

Venues:

South Melbourne: Montague Continuing Education Centre, 100 Montague Street, South Melbourne
Bendigo: Golden Square Primary School, 19 Maple Street Bendigo

On Tuesday 16th April 2019, Rotary Club of Southbank had its fourth (4th) and final face-to-face board meeting for 2018-19. We had observers (club members) who came along to discuss on the nine (9) months that past (Jul'18-Mar'19) and plans for the remaining quarter (Apr'19-Jun'19).

Various topics surrounding the five (5) areas of service which includes club administration, membership, community, international and youth was discussed to understand the opportunities taken and what lies ahead. This includes preparing the transition from President Amritpal Singh to President-Elect Sally Page before 1st July 2019. Key call out from the board meeting is to submit the Rotary District 9800 Recognition forms as the club deserves recognition on the work that all club members, friends of Rotary and others have done throughout 2018-19. 

President Amritpal Singh thanked all board members for their contribution and efforts plus encouraging everyone to finish the 2018-19 on a high! After the board meeting, we caught up with Rotarian Stephanie Woollard / Seven Women from Rotary Club of Melbourne who happened to be at the Belgian Beer Cafe, Southbank - such a delight to see her after a long time since the fundraiser for Seven Women last year in December 2018.

On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank the following observers for coming:

• Nicholas Kane (member)
• Jasmin Dhillon (member)

Remember to keep the following dates free and to RSVP on our website:

• 23 April - Sally Page (Member behind the Badge)
• 30 April - Club Planning Day @ Belgian Beer Cafe
• 2 May - Ambassadorial Scholar Katie Wilford (event of Rotary Club of North Melbourne)
• 4 May - Fundraiser for The Father Bob Foundation (event of Rotary Club of Melbourne South, Rotary Club of Port Melbourne & City of Port Philip)
• 4 May - Oh Kolkata! (event of Rotary Club of Central Melbourne)
• 5 May - First Friends of Dandenong Creek 20th Anniversary Celebration
• 7 May - Rotary & Rotaract Joint Meeting
• 11 May - Forum Day (event of District 9800)
• 14 May - Community Building for Better Business
• 21 May - Southbank Conversations & Meetup (informal meeting)
• 26 May - District Assembly 2019
• 28 May - Club 20th Charter Anniversary (Details to be confirmed soon)

I was given a wonderful opportunity to share my story with Rotary Club of Southbank on Tuesday 9th April 2019. As always after our lovely gathering and talking about some inspiring work that our club has contributed recently, I had the opportunity to share my story.

Prior to the event I was struggling to find a perfect speech. Being a perfectionist, being perfect all the time is one of my core goals. However something inside me kept saying that I should share my raw self and be open and honest and share my journey; failures, mental struggles of becoming what I'm today.

After so many hours of self talk, that's what I exactly did I opened about my struggle with mental health and being lost as a teenager in this country and having to leave up to the highest expectations from my parents. Not knowing where to go and how to get help and almost certainly not knowing that I actually had a mental health issue that I needed help.

Coming from a Sri Lankan background as a family we didn't talk about mental health. It's almost certain that my parents believed that as children we had everything. Yes we did we were given lots of amazing opportunity to succeed, financially looked after and loved and cared for but never given opportunity to talk about how we felt inside.

And that cycle of patterns plus struggling to make my way up in a country ( Australia) that I'm new too and working really hard to finish my education and live up to my parents expectations put me in a very dark place. I remember one day close to the age of 18 and telling my mother that "I don't feel okay inside and nothing brings me joy anymore" (in reality all I wanted to tell her was I'm ready to give up life). She looked at me deep in the eyes and said "But you have everything".

That's all she knew. As the saying goes your a product of your own culture for someone like my mum mental health was never a important issue. I never blamed her for that because you don't know what you don't know.

From that moment I made a promise to myself I'm going to figure this thing out. The first step to healing was to understand that I had "major depression" and needed medication to fix my serotonin levels in my brain. Being a stubborn teenager I refuse to believe that I needed medication and remember walking out from the doctors room saying "I can fix myself " and that's exactly what I start doing. I read every single piece of article I can find about depression and learn about the importance of "gratitude". I learned I'm the master of my own ship and I took looking after myself as a greater responsibility. I hang out with inspiring people and learn how to properly meditate and listen to positive podcasts and affirmations everyday, I learn to appreciate small things in life from morning sunshine to a warm hug.

Although I was struggling inside, from the outside world I was a high achiever. I completed my higher education with high marks, created a successful business by the age of 25 and start building a school while sponsoring 7 children in Africa and Sri Lanka while trying my very best to look after myself. Giving back to the community and knowing that I had the opportunity to change someone's life was a great part of my healing journey.

So here I'm at the age of 29 being pregnant with my beautiful baby, married to love of my life and living the life that I always wanted. It's not because of I was lucky but only because of I made a choice to not to give up.

I hope and pray who ever reading this; "May universe give you the power to understand your own potential and believe your journey is unique and inspiring exactly as you are and you have the power to become the best version of your self!".

Our club had the pleasure and honor in inducting our newest member for 2018-19, Jaqui Clark who was referred by a common Rotary family friend of President Amritpal Singh who happens to be Past President Peter Durrant and Rotarian Kay Durrant from Rotary Club of Karrinyup, District 9455 Western Australia (W.A.). Jaqui's vocation is in financial services and part of her New Year 2019 resolution is to join an organisation to give back to communities locally and worldwide. We are so pleased in having Jaqui in our club and with her induction, she has increased the club's male:female ratio being closer to 50-50.

We like to acknowledge the Guests that came:

• Guests of Zeenath Zareen
  • Lucy Owens
  • Lily Chuah
  • Hong Tan
     
• Guest of District Governor Nominee Philip Archer
  • Sandra Murray

On Sunday 31 March 2019, three (3) members from Rotary Club of Southbank (Immediate Past President Liam Jones, President-Nominee Jasmin Dhillon and our newest member Jaqui Clark) and two (2) friends of Rotary participated in the MS Melbourne Cycle + 1/2 marathon, Run/Walk to fight MS.

The team were inspired to participate after a talk from Martin & Diana Taurins from Rotarian Action Group of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness (RAGMSA) in December 2018 last year.  Where they shared their story and tireless work they do to raise awareness of MS and fundraising for research into a cure, and support services for sufferers. Some of the participants also helped out at the RAGMSA BBQ fundraiser on the day, which was a great success.

MS is a silent illness, that mostly affects young people with the average diagnosis between the ages of 20-40 years, although children as young as 10 years have been diagnosed.. It also affects more women than men with 3/4 of MS sufferers being female.

The team had a goal of fundraising $1000, and have managed to raise over $3000 and counting. It is not too late to support the team's fundraising efforts, just following the link and select a participant to support - click here!

Rotary Club of Southbank look forward to contributing further to RAGMSAand the overall cause, of raising funds and supporting people with neurological conditions. By example, our very own Past President Stuart McArthur recently redesigning the RAGSMA website and Kay Ledson (Warrior Mumz) raising a substantial amount for people suffering from spinal cord injuries.

Stay tuned for further initiatives in this space.

On Tuesday 26th March 2019 evening, we had Hao Teo, the founder of iDibs, gave an insightful talk about EASE (Evolution of a social enterprise). A social enterprise has adapted and changed into different models over the past decades. Hao has provided us with the conventional model of a social enterprise which relied heavily on rich donors or large contributors. He talked about the new different models which are sustainable in nature.

Hao discussed the business model where social enterprises are moving to a balance between sustainable financially and developing social good in Australia or the world.
He also talked about his business, idibs. iDibs helps internationals to find services they require in an environment of Accountability of services providers, convenience and trust. Being a social enterprise too, he also explained the financial sustainability of the business model and how it brings value to internationals in Australia.

Hao finished off with a positive note on working with Rotary and how iDibs can work with Rotary to introduce volunteering to Internationals and benefit both ecosystems with a cultural exchange and social good.

We like to acknowledge the iDibs team who came:

• iDibs
  • Hao Teo (Guest Speaker)
  • Linhan Li
  • Angie Duong Thao Nguyen
  • Alwy Christyo