Rotary Club of Parramatta City Newsletter 15 May 2011

1. Rotary Club of Parramatta City
COMMUNITY NETWORKER
ROTARY CLUB OF PARRAMATTA CITY
PRESIDENT MESSAGE ROTARY YOUTH
One of the highlights of year is the annual Australia Rotary Health Phd’s DRIVER
Scholars night. Our club has a commitment of $30,000 over three years AWARENESS
to support 6 young people complete their PHd’s in medical research (RYDA)
over a number of areas. Last Monday night was a rewarding night,
particularly now that for many of the scholars we have seen them from
their first presentation to their last presentation for two of them over the
last three years. This is also a great example of our club working in
partnerships, firstly with the David Henning Memorial Foundation and
Young people aged 17-25 represent
then with the Rotary Club of Dural in combination to assist with the less than 15% of the population yet
account for over one quarter of deaths
funding of additional scholars. and injuries on our roads. In 2000,
a group of concerned Rotarians
This Monday is ARH Hat Day and Joy Gillett has asked everyone to turn decided that something must be done
up with a hat to demonstrate your support for the ARH. Remember our to stop this tragic loss of young people
and established the Rotary Youth
Fund what us (the community) to lift our hats to reveal mental health Driver Awareness (RYDA) program, a
road safety education program for
issues and not keep it covered. (see details below) year 11 students.
I can advise members that recently John Jenkins had another fall and RYDA was initiated in District 9680 on
the north shore of Sydney and each
was kept in hospital for a while under observation. I am pleased to year around 10,000 students from
over 90% of schools in the district
report that he is now home and I am sure he would enjoy a call from attend RYDA. The program has now
been adopted by 12 other Rotary
members. Districts and has rapidly spread
Don’t forget the Red Shield Appeal is on again Sunday morning 29th to venues across NSW and interstate
to Queensland, Tasmania, South
May and Bob Rosengreen has offered his home again for our Club to Australia and Western Australia. Last
year over 25,000 students attended
assemble with family, workmates & friends to door knock the local RYDA at 23 venues located across
area. From the ARH Scholars night was an offer from many of the Australia and to date over 100,000
students have participated in the
scholars to assist our club on such community projects, so it may be an RYDA Program. RYDA is unique as it
attempts to influence “attitudes and
occassion to door knock with some very bright people. behaviours” of both drivers and
passengers before they get their
Attached to the newsletter is a speech Chris Joycene made at the
licences. Peer pressure from
90th Birthday celebration for the Rotary Club of Sydney, a very good passengers has a major effect on
the way young people behave behind
read. the wheel - by addressing students as
both drivers and passengers, the
program aims to change the
environment in the car rather than
focusing solely on the driver.
The one day RYDA Program includes
six sessions that are designed to be
interactive and cover a broad range of
topics including hazard perception,
stopping distances, safe celebrating
and fatigue plus financial
responsibilities - all aimed at
influencing the attitude of young
people before they get behind the
wheel of a car. RYDA is conducted at
an out of school venue that makes the
day special and dramatically
highlights the road safety message.
Students get to meet and speak with a
person who has experienced a
devastating road accident;

2. Rotary Club of Parramatta City
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
May ROTARY HEATLH MONTH
16 Hat Day – Trivia Quiz on Hats, Rotary and Mental Health
21 Australian Rotary Race Day- Rose Hill Gardens
23 Eric Stanley – Be Happy Be Rich – 9 keys to a Happier & Richer Life
29 Red Shield Appeal Day-Bob Rosengreen’s Place
30 PDG Dick White – ethical dilemmas
JUNE FELLOWSHIPS MONTH
6 Police Officer of the Year
13 PUBLIC HOLIDAY
20 Keith Henning – RI Convention report
27 Club Change-over
JULY
2 District Changeover- Penrith Paceway
4 First meeting
7-11 Prashanth’s Wedding
OUR COMMUNITY SERVICE
Hat Day
Australian Rotary Health is launching a new mental health research awareness day!
More than four million people are affected by mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia,
Alzheimer's, anxiety and bipolar disorder at some point during their lives. Not only does mental illness affect
the quality of life of these Australians, but it also represents a huge cost to families, communities and the
economy.
In an effort to bring the importance of mental health research to the fore, Australian Rotary Health will be
holding a fundraising and awareness day in May, 2011. ‘Hat Day’ will be a day you and your Club can get
behind as a way to promote the importance of mental health research.
While the official day is Friday, the 20th of May, you can hold a Hat Day celebration any day during the
month of May. You might like to encourage members of your Club to come along wearing a hat during a
regular meeting, or organise a community event in an effort to spread awareness and help raise funds for a
great cause.
Remember, mental health is not something you want to keep under your hat. Help us help your
community by getting involved in this exciting new event.

3. Rotary Club of Parramatta City
OUR INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
UPDATE on RAWCS PROJECT – Provision of Van for ST PETER’S JUNIOR SCHOOL,
NORTHERN UGANDA
The total cost of the project is $18,000.
The David Henning Memorial Foundation has agreed to match $ for $ up to $9,000.
The target is $9,000. Donations to date – 4th May
Cumberland Home Loan Group $2,000
Other donations 1,647
$3,647
Keith Henning
FORMER ROTARY PEACE FELLOWS START THEIR OWN PEACE
STUDIES PROGRAMS
by Susie Ma Rotary International News -- 13 May 2011
Prakash Tewari, a former Rotary Peace Fellow, is developing a course to help New Delhi’s civil servants
prevent and resolve conflicts. Photo courtesy of Prakash Tewari

4. Rotary Club of Parramatta City
Many former Rotary Peace Fellows are at work around the world, promoting peace in their communities
through education. Some are creating their own programs, aimed at achieving far-reaching goals.
Among those fellows in Asia are Maria Saifuddin Effendi, Jianrong Chen, and Prakash Tewari.
Acting on convictions
Maria Saifuddin Effendi is assistant professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at
National Defence University in Islamabad, Pakistan. She and some of her colleagues established the
department in 2009, the first of its kind in the country, in spite of opposition.
“There was criticism and resistance from [academics] to close down the department,” who considered it
“useless,” says Effendi, a 2007-09 peace fellow at the University of Bradford in England. “But we have
survived with dignity. It’s a great pleasure and satisfaction seeing [the department] grow in my country.”
Effendi’s book, Understanding Ripeness in Kashmir, is based on the master’s dissertation she wrote as a
peace fellow. The book explores the South Asian region’s readiness for dialogue and peacemaking to
address longstanding conflict.
Effendi also participates in conflict prevention/resolution symposiums and workshops sponsored by
universities and nongovernmental organizations like the International Peace and Security Institute in
Washington, D.C., founded by friend and former peace fellow Cameron Chisholm. These events, she
says, “encourage me to work in the field of peace and for peace in Pakistan.”
Dealing with conflict
Jianrong Chen believes that China has a special need for peace studies because of the diversity of its
people. With a population of 1.3 billion and 56 different ethnic groups, interethnic conflict is common.
Chen, a lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China,
wanted to equip the younger generation of Chinese with tools for dealing with conflict.
“In the past, we stressed harmony and we almost forgot that we have conflict,” he says. “If we cannot
look at conflict in a way that it should be, how can we have peace?”
After completing the professional development program at the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn
University in Bangkok, Thailand, Chen began teaching an introduction to peace and conflict course at
Jinan University. He is hoping to recruit other academics working on conflict issues at the university to
create a peace teaching team. He also plans to hold a peace workshop at his university on China-Africa
relations in July.
“What I am doing now is just the very beginning of this long-term journey in my dream,” Chen says.
Community dialogue
Prakash Tewari works in the defense ministry in India and is a former army colonel. After attending the
Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University, he received a request from the president of his
sponsor club, the Rotary Club of New Delhi, to create a peace studies course based on his peace fellow
experience.

5. Rotary Club of Parramatta City
Tewari says the course, projected to start at a university in New Delhi in September, will offer the city’s
large number of civil servants an opportunity to receive training in conflict prevention and resolution.
He hopes the course will “get different sparring groups together to work on dialogue skills --
government workers, activist groups, and civil society groups.”