Many Clubs in District 9790 are achieving great things in the area of literacy. Some are continuing with established programmes that have already proved themselves whist others are investigating new projects.
In September 2010, the Rotary Club of Yea had 10 Rotarians visiting Papua New Guinea and working with the Rotary Club of Salamanca Bay on the Mando Project. They were providing help with literacy, numeracy and computing as well as converting oral tradition into written stories for use in school texts. This is an important contribution towards preserving their local culture.
Yea has also been active in providing bush fire relief for surrounding schools as well as bursaries for their students.
The Rotary Club of Bright has an ongoing project where they support the North Gem Sponsorship programme which has a school of 63 primary school students in Mutumba, Northern Gem Province, Kenya. The Club also supports 6 high school students in the area.
The Rotary Club of Albury North provides dictionaries for a school in Northern Thailand and the project in South Africa which was undertaken by last year's Vocational director, Ruth Konig, is also continuing to prosper.
The School of St Jude's in Tanzania, the only one that teaches English, receives support from the Rotary Club of Alexandra.
Locally, many Clubs participate in the Early Literacy is Fun (ELF) day and provide dictionaries and text books where needed. The distribution of books to newborn infants has also been a popular programme with the aim of encouraging parents to read to their children, as has the annual distribution of Bursaries.
"The River of Stories" Secondary School Writing and Poetry Competition, run by the Rotary Club of Albury-Hume has been a great success and in 2009, 13 schools participated and nearly 500 entries were received. The Club has indicated that it would be willing to widen the competition to include the District. This would be a wonderful opportunity for students to develop their imagination and to improve their literary skills.
Other Clubs that have interesting literacy projects might wish to send details to the District Literacy Projects Co-ordinator.
Rotary Club of Diamond Creek
District Literacy Projects Coordinator
(H) (03) 9436 1059
0433 708 556
Email: jhodge@rtoadvice.com.au
| PP Colin Hay (Katy Richmond) Rotary Club of Ivanhoe Chairman District Vocational Service Committee (H) (03) 9499 3725 (M) 0439 826 252 Email: vocational@rotary9790.org.au |
