In 2008 members Joe Cauchi, Charles Hili, Max Bunter & Jim Leahy attended the June 9 to 23 Vietnam Vision Project mission to Vietnam and Cambodia.
While cleaning up today I found the following letter of appreciation from Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital in a rather expensive looking frame.

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The Salvation and Cambodian Culture Association of NSW, the Khmer community of NSW, and others including Cambodia Vision Projects combined to raise just over $175,000.00 to help the flood victims in Cambodia.

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A wonderful letter received from Christopher Harnischmacher, our youth exchange Student in 2006/2007 from Germany. We called him Smithy and he saw more of the Australian Outback then most of us will get to see. His now a family man and setting his sights on his future.

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The girls from Finland are coming here to play and will be hosted by 7 clubs from zone 4 during their stay. All 7 clubs are asked to transfer their meetings to Tuesday night 13 March for a Joint Presentation to be held at Hunts Comfort Inn with numbers requested by 28 February. Please see programme within.

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2011 saw the realization of a dream to expand the scope of charity work of VVP. For the first time, free dental treatments were provided for the poor. This dental program ran concurrently with the cataract surgery program and attracted a different set of volunteers into VVP – dentists and dental assistants.

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On the other hand, I still have ties to the country I was born in, Cambodia. I cannot fold my arms and watch those less fortunate, blind and struggle to get food on the table for their families. I could be one of them if I was still there.

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Ms Phetsami is 22 years old and has been blind since the age of 2. Since 1996, (aged 7) she has been residing at a school for the blind in Laos.
Members of the Satellite club showed their compassion for Ms Phetsami by reaching into their own pockets

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On Friday evening 9 Sep 2011 I attended the debriefing of the 2011 trip which took place in the 1st week of Aug with approx 18 passionate members, of a 29 strong team, who travelled to Kampot this year

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Bill Gates: "I describe myself as an impatient optimist. I have one simple statistic I like to use to explain my optimism. In 1960, of all the children in the world under the age of five, 20 million died of different diseases. Last year, that figure was down to 8.1 million."

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Impressions are made on youth exchange that last a lifetime. This letter was received through our contact us on our website on 21 July 2011, some 33 years after the event and I was only to pleased to pass it on to then hosts John & Joyce Mula;

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A Vocational Exchange Program to be run in April/May 2012 in Finland. Experience your vocation and the culture abroad.
The Rotary Foundation provides the most economical round-trip air ticket between Sydney and Finland
Team members cannot be Rotarians, or a lineal relation
Applications to the Rotary Club of Liverpool West close Friday 20 August.

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Henni chose over a 100 photos to remember her experience in Australia from which she made 8 collages to present to us on power point. All the photos from her presentation are then available on our website Gallery in 2 Albums located under the parent album: General

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Report attached on progress of Polio Eradication.
Report includes calendar year to April 2011 as per data available 4 May.
You can access later reports as they become available using the link provided within.

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This year we will contribute our usual $5,000.00 as well as $10,000.00 designated to be spent on a Steriliser / Autoclave Machine necessary to assist with operations on the mission.
We will also afford $500.00 assistance to each of the members that will pay their own way to participate in the trip

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Interplast volunteers provide free treatment to people living with a disability from a congenital condition such as cleft lip and palate, or an acquired condition such as burn scar contractures. Treatment is targeted to the indigent population who would otherwise not be able to afford to access services.

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The following report has been submitted from Ms Thida Yang, Volunteer and committee secretary;
We are busy planning the 2011 trip to Kampot Province (southern part of Cambodia) after a great success last year. In 2010 we went to the same province and scanned over 800 patients

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On Tuesday 5 April 2011, the Rotary Club of Liverpool West and the Satellite Club held a combined meeting at the Bar Luck Restaurant in Cabramatta to induct three new members.
During the evening a presentation was made about the recent Goodwill Trip to Vietnam by Ted Mlynarz, Charles Hili and Joe Cauchi who assisted David Westbrook obtaining interviews and film footage for Vietnam Vision

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Tues 3 May 2011 – The Gift of a Smile – Barbara Wall – LCC, 6 for 6.30 pm
Barbara Wall Rotary District 9690 Interplast Chairman will attend to speak at the Liverpool West Rotary club and tell members of the wonderful work that Interplast does in the Asian region.
Barb Wall is a member of the Rotary Club of Upper Blue Mountains Sunrise and an ex-squash Professional having turned professional in 1973, the first Australian woman to do so.

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Heide Schooling came to our meeting in September 2010 to tell us of her mission to improve the schooling and outlook for students in Mwamapala, Tanzania Past President Jim Leahy is happy to report as of this month the Rotary Club in Shinyanga in district 9200 Tanzania & the district governor Mr. Stephen Mwanje at last have signed all of the forms and we have now applied for Registration with RAWCS. Jim has also reported that Heide has a website for the project

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By Dan Nixon … Rotary International News -- 15 March 2011
Recent successes in India’s relentless effort to eradicate polio are raising hopes that the goal is in sight. The incidence of the disease is at a record low, with only one case reported in 2011
Teams of visiting Rotarians from Hong Kong, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom also took part in activities related to the 23 January NID, which immunized 174 million children.

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"If people know that I am a polio survivor, that I’ve had my career despite that, for me, that’s not really an important fact. The important fact is why go through that if you have a vaccine," he said.
The vaccine is working. But experts say it could make a comeback, if vaccines don't reach into the most remote corners of the world.

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In response to the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March, The Rotary Foundation has established the Rotary Japan and Pacific Islands Disaster Fund, which will support long-term recovery projects in affected areas

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How to be kept updated, channels for directions of Tax Deductible Donations followed by a report by PDG Stuart Batty on what Rotarians are already doing plus things you should also know listed under 2nd heading Christchurch Update.

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The first thing that stood out to Adrian, was that he left our Summer with Mid 30 degree temperatures to arrive about 30 hours later in Finland and be greeted by their Winter temperatures of minus 20 to 25 degrees. Fortunately his hosts gave him a warm greeting.
Soon after Adrian managed to visit Lapland where he got to experience minus 30 to minus 35 degree temperatures. Adrian was informed that minus 35 is too cold for skiing and that he had arrived to experience one of the harshest winters for Finland in 70 years.
Naturally when it is too cold for skiing, the in sport is swimming

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RI President-elect Kalyan Banerjee announced the ‘2011-12 RI Theme’, during the International Assembly in San Diego, California.

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ROMAC currently has seven children being treated and a further eight scheduled to arrive in the first few months of 2011. In addition they have 59 pending

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We thank our good friend Too for bringing us into her home, introducing us to her family and to members of the Rotary club of Nakhon Phanom. We did more than I mentioned at every day is memorable. Too succeeded in endearing all to us and I don’t believe she could have done any better an itinerary in the time provided without sacrificing the feeling of bringing us into her home. We were also very pleased to catch up with Koy and meet her friends, who came a long way for a short while. Koy was also wearing a coat Doris gave to her in 2006.

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Heide Schooling, has been teaching voluntarily in a school Utawala in Mwamapala, Tanzania during 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Heide has now been promoted to head teacher and has made it her mission to educate more students to year 12 so that they can be more productive in their country.

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20th Century Fox has offered Rotary pre-release rights to the movie Conviction to help raise funds to End Polio Now, a campaign born from the initiatives of Australian Sir Clem Renouf.
See movie preview, ticket information and flyer here.

Information regarding Rotary's efforts to eradicate Polio and the vision of Sir Clem Renouf may also be accessed here.

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SIR Clem Renouf born in Ingham (North Queensland) on April 19, 1921 became only the second Australian to be elected president of Rotary International in 1978
Inspired by the World Health Organisation’s eradication of smallpox, he came up with Rotary’s Health, Hunger and Humanity program that would initially see 6.3 million children immunised against polio in the Philippines at a cost of just $760,000.

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Starting works closely with the Rotary club, and has grown to become the largest Rotary Club project in the world, with affiliates in eight countries as of August, 2009

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ShelterBox, Disaster Aid Australia, Aquabox are all Rotary Recognised programs

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We had an outstanding speaker in Col. Sandy MacGregor to tell us about MiVAC. The MiVAC Trust is the initiative of Australian Vietnam Veterans who cleared landmines in Vietnam

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The inbound teams from D3470 Taiwan and D3860 Philippines will arrive on 9th March 2011 and depart 6th April 2011. The teams will consist of a team leader and 4 team members each.

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Federal Parliament House debates Monday, 25 October 2010

Grievance Debate Vietnam: Human Rights; Vietnam Vision............

There are a number of other organisations operating in Australia who have a focus on making a difference for the better in Vietnam. One of those organisations is Vietnam Vision. In my electorate the Rotary Club of Liverpool West provides annual funding

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Since joining Rotary (Liverpool West Club), I had heard about the club’s involvement with the Vietnam Vision Project, a group who travelled to Vietnam and surrounding countries to perform cataract operations. I began making enquiries with members who had been on trips and commenced to get a better grasp of the operation.

Not to bore everybody with events, next thing I knew, there I was (with fellow VVP travellers) at Sydney airport at 6:00am unloading a truck with what appeared to be an endless number of boxes and containers. These had to be loaded and unloaded several times during the trip.

I was allocated to the Support Staff and apart from loading, unloading and being a general “do as you are told” person (a few people did tell me what to do, or was that, where to go!). The position of Assistant Autoclave Operator (what a title) was bestowed upon me, this gave me the opportunity of being in and around the operating theatre and I was able to observe

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In July we commence hosting an exchange student from Finland, Henni NIEMI comes from Seinajoki a town of around 60,000 people, she is 16 and will be attending James Ruse High School during her 12 months in Australia. Apart from her studies Henni is a keen volleyballer and likes all other sports, she likes to read and meet people. We are in need of host families for her stay, this involves having Henni live with you family for a period of up to 3 months between July 2010 and June 2011. We need to finalise this as soon as possible as Henni is about to arrive. If you are able to help contact President Elect Peter Beadle as soon as possible on 0417 416 231 or peter_beadle@worxpace.com .

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The Rotary Club of Liverpool West Inc. is looking to sponsor suitable candidates who wish to be considered for these opportunities.

In the Rotary year 2010-11, the Rotary District which our club belongs to will have 2 Group Study Exchange (GSE) Teams. One team will be going to Taiwan and the other to the Philippines. The team that will be going to the Philippines will be a focus team with a theme of emergency services.

The Exchange period both teams is from 12th February 2011 to 12th March 2011. Team members may wish to take advantage of personal travel at the conclusion of the exchange.

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