On 29 November 2023, we enjoyed Fellowship at Thien Long Restaurant with Tan Beng Sooi, a Past President of the Rotary Club of Johor Bahru in Malaysia. Beng is on one of his many visits to Australia to see his son, a doctor in Croydon.

We hope to see Beng again in the near future.

In partnership with the Rotary Club of Meru, Kenya, Bayswater is managing the sinking of a borehole in Kithima/Maili Saba, Meru County, Kenya. Water is desperately needed for stock and crops in this severely drought affected part of Africa. See the brochure for information on the people to contact to make a donation.

For more information and to make a donation, see this brochure.

Kithima_Kenya_Borehole_Project.pdf

This year, the Club is working with First Friends of Dandenong Creek and many other community volunteers at several tree planting days:

• 4 June along Dandenong Creek, Bayswater
• 31 July at Taralla Wetlands, Croydon
• 11 September along Ferny Creek Trail, Knoxfield

In all, the aim is to plant well over 10000 plants.

A giant sale of second hand books will be held at the clubrooms in Marie Wallace Park Bayswater.

Fiction and non-fiction books on a wide variety of subjects will be available.

Prices start at $5.00.

The Club's next Giant Book Sale will be held on 21 and 22 October at the Clubrooms in Marie Wallace Park, Bayswater.

Event

Date From : Sat Mar 2, 2024 : 10:00
Date To : Sun Mar 3, 2024 : 16:00

The 2024 Knox Art Show will be both a physical and an online virtual Art Show, at the Churchill Waverley Golf and Bowls Club.

Event

Date From : Fri Nov 8, 2024 : 19:00
Date To : Sun Nov 10, 2024 : 16:30

Hybrid Meeting technology allows members to meet either face to face or online.

In 2021, the Club will be planting 100 trees along Dandenong Creek near Ricdanic Drive, Bayswater, to commemorate 100 Years of Rotary in Australia. The event will occur on 17 July 2021. This is part of a much larger project approved by Melbourne Water and Knox City Council, which aims to plant 4000 trees along the creek. The Club is working with First Friends of Dandenong Creek and other community groups to revegetate the area along Dandenong Creek with indigenous trees such as manna gums.

If you are interested in volunteering to assist, please let us know.

Loans have been given to over 190 needy people, such as:

• Lilian from Kenya to buy cereals to improve her farm and secure the future of her school-going children.
• Giang from Vietnam to purchase school supplies and pay tuition fees for her children.
• Sharifakhon from Tajikistan to pay for her son's tuition at the lyceum.
• Sanjuana from Mexico to pay for her son's eye operation.

The loans are organised through KIVA, a not-for-profit organisation involved in arranging microfinancing. KIVA works with microfinancing institutions on five continents to provide small loans to needy people.

The loans are made to people who usually cannot borrow through normal banking sources.

In 2011-2012, the Rotary Club of Bayswater contributed $250.00 towards a microfinancing program. A number of Club members donated further amounts towards the program funds.

As loans are repaid, the funds are recycled into further loans. Recycling is the key to the whole program.

To date, this has enabled the Bayswater team to loan $4800.00 through 190 microloans.

Dolly_Parton_Imagination_Library_-_Sign_Up_Form.pdf

It's no secret that giving all young children - newborn until they turn 5 - the opportunity to learn to read - gets their education off to a great start. That is the aim of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Now, with the generous support of the Bendigo Bank, the Rotary Club of Bayswater funds the program in postcode 3153, Bayswater.

To register children, use the Sign Up form.

Believe it or not, the new greenhouse at Bayswater Secondary College is finally finished.

In 2018, the school approached the Club and asked if we could help erect the greenhouse, which is to be used by students studying horticulture at the college. Simple, we all thought.

However, it was not to be. Bad weather delayed completion until today, nearly 12 months after the frame was first assembled. With the plastic cover now installed, the students will start to grow a range of plants that need a warm, moist environment to thrive. We look forward to seeing the results.

Believe it or not, in 2016-2017, there were 285 rough sleepers seeking the help of Uniting Care Harrison. This included 127 people sleeping on the streets and in parks, 115 people sleeping in cars, 15 in tents and 28 in improvised buildings such as squats and construction sites.

Department of Health and Human Services figures show there were 1513 people on the public housing waiting list who have applied at the Ringwood office, which includes the Knox area.

Since then, the numbers has increased even further.

To help these people in need, in 2019, the Rotary Club of Bayswater, led by its Youth Exchange students, raised $2600 towards the purchase of 13 Backpack Beds for Homeless. The backpacks are designed and distributed through a not-for-profit founded by a former Youth Exchange student, Tony Clarke.

The Club will be raising further funds this year to provide this much needed assistance to young people and couples who do not have a place to live.

What is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library?

It's a program started by Dolly Parton that provides free books to children from newborn until they turn 5 years of age - one book per child every month. In 2016, the number of books distributed around the world passed the 1 million mark.

Rotary International President, John Germ, a keen supporter of the program, sees it as one way to help reduce world poverty - and recognises a lot more needs to be done.

Since 2014, the Rotary Club of Bayswater has supported the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in The Basin.

With the generous support of the Bendigo Bank, in August 2016 the Club expanded the program to Bayswater.

They saw an elephant in the room  - no one knew about the great stories in other Rotary Clubs, the inspiring projects, the great achievements - and wondered, "How do we get rid of it?"

Local monthly Rotary magazine, "Rotary Down Under", would probably not exist without the leadership and persistence of some visionary Bayswater members in the 60s. It was their insistence on better sharing of stories and ideas with other Rotarians throughout Australia that lead to the founding of RDU.

The results are in. Youth Exchange is a life-changing experience for the young people who participant in this renowned Rotary program. Chiara Zwickl, one of our recent incoming Youth Exchange students, arrived from Austria to a warm welcome from Bayswater members.

The Rotary Club of Bayswater Inc was chartered on 7th April 1961.   

Members are community minded business and professional people who believe in the ideals of Rotary, which involves “Service above Self”. Numerous fundraising projects over the years have allowed us to raise over $500,000 to assist deserving individuals, families, schools and needy causes both locally and internationally.

To celebrate 100 years of Rotary in Australia, the Club plans to plant 100 trees along Dandenong Creek.

Event

Date From : Sat Jul 17, 2021 : 10:00
Date To : Sat Jul 17, 2021 : 14:00

Ordinary people working together can achieve extraordinary things.

Food for the hungry, promoting health, reducing poverty, encouraging literacy and peacemaking  - these are just a few of the areas where the 1.2 million Rotary International volunteers serving humanity around the world are Making a Difference.

What a difference manure and water make.

Children and villagers in the Kenyan village of Kariakomo will soon have further improvements to their diet and living standards, with the first crop of bananas and maize about to mature.

With the help of a Rotary Australia World Community Service project, in early 2015 the villagers planted the first 2 acres of bananas in the village and have now turned a 30 acre plot that was bare without water and manure into a thriving food source.

The bananas and maize will further improve the diet of the children and villagers, adding to the benefits from the milking cows and goats project that has operated since 2009.

Many children living in poor countries do not have access to medical treatment for deformities and life-threatening illnesses - conditions like a herniated brain or complex heart problem. Without the right treatment, many would die or be ostracised by their communities.

Since 1988, Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) has brought over 400 children from the Oceania Region to Australia or New Zealand for the life-saving or dignity- restoring treatment that has restored their health and self-esteem.

"More than 105,000 Australians are homeless on any given night, and we have strong indications from our members that each day this number is climbing, particularly due to the crisis in housing affordability ..." says Glenda Stevens, CEO of Homelessness Australia.

Swags for Homeless, an Australian not-for-profit charity, aims to provide emergency relief backpack beds for every homeless person turned away from shelter. The award-winning design provides shelter in all weather conditions - and saves lives.

In 2016, over 40 million people were living in slavery, according to the International Labour Organisation. Nearly 25 million were in forced labour and over 15 million in forced marriages.

The Rotarians Action Group Against Slavery (RAGAS) aims to raise awareness of this world-wide issue and support projects to help people free themselves from slavery.

Family violence is a major problem in our community. Every person needs to speak up when they observe family violence and let perpetrators know that it is not okay to abuse others in a family situation. Rotary aims to assist in dealing with this issue and is supporting organisations such as Safe Futures Foundation, whose mission is:

“Every child, young person and adult has the right to live in a safe family, within a safe community, to have stability and the opportunity to reach their potential.”

Conventional furniture, with its sharp angles, can stress children on the autism spectrum. One school that is solving this is the Eastern Ranges School in Fern Tree Gully, Melbourne. With funds from local Rotary Clubs, the school has been able to purchase furniture designed specially for these children. Of the 31 classrooms in the school, four have been furnished to date.

It's no secret that ordinary people working together can achieve extraordinary things.

Food for the hungry, promoting health, reducing poverty, encouraging literacy and peacemaking  - these are just a few of the areas where the 1.2 million Rotary International volunteers serving humanity around the world are making a difference.

Children and villagers in the Kenyan village of Kariakomo have gone bananas. With the help of a Rotary Australia World Community Service project, they have planted the first five acres of bananas in the village. These will further improve the diet of the children and villagers, adding to the benefits from the milking cows and goats project that has operated since 2009.

Bowel cancer is one of the major causes of death in Australia. Regular testing is a key preventative measure. Each year, many lives have been saved through the Rotary Bowelscan project.

Children with access to good books from an early age develop much better literacy skills, research has shown. Children from birth to 5 years of age living in The Basin, Melbourne, can now receive a free book every month through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a Rotary project in partnership with United Way, Australia.

Access to nutritious food has improved the lives and learning of children in Kariakomo, Kenya dramatically. Milking goats and cows provided through a Rotary Australia World Community Service Project have lifted the children from the lowest preformers at school to some of the highest in the country. By products of the goats and cows have also made the villagers more self-sufficient.