Our guest speaker today was Jeremy Hutchings. He is pictured above with his father Tim Hutchings, Cherie Benn and David Benn. David inroduced Jeremy who attended our meeting to speak about a project Jeremy organised in Fiji with his wife Jane and the Benn's daughter Rachel and her husband Matt Croft, who happens to be a best friend of Jeremy.
Jeremey revealed that he and his family along with the Crofts had visited Waya Island in the Fiji Group for a holiday. Staying in the village of Nalauwaki, they fell in love with the island Paradise but recognised the difficulties facing the inhabitants. One was the necessity of the village children travelling away from home to attend school. Jeremy and his companions decided they could do something about it and decided to fundraise to assist the villagers build a primary school.
Jeremy spoke at our Club over two years ago and asked for assistance. Through our Projects Committee our Club donated $8,500 plus $5,000 for District. The families raised $38,000 and then travelled to Nalauwaki to start the building. Getting the materials to the building site was a major job of manual labour. The children pitched in to help and it was a great bonding experience for the families and the locals. The hospitality of the villagers was fantastic and the visitors were provided with huts and hammocks and regular meals. Another Rotarian, David from the Rotary Club of Milawa Oxley brought 50 Kilograms of cloths for the children. The Rotary Club of Milawa Oxley has "Classrooms for Nalawauki Village" as a major project for their club. (Editor suggests that you look at the website rotaryclubofmilawaoxley.org to see what a website should look like and to see a vibrant Club in action) |
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 | Once the project is competed, 40 to 45 kids will be able to stay with their parents for primary school rather than being forced to live away from home. Village life is happy with villagers living a subsistence lifestyle growing their own crops. They want to build a holiday hut for Jeremy and Matt and families in appreciation for their work |
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If you would like to donate to the project you can do so by scanning the above QR code. Money is processed through
RAWCS and all monies received will go to the building of the school.
Pat Ingram, who was Projects Chairman at the time we donated funds to this project, gave a vote of thanks to Jeremy for his talk. Pat congratulated Jeremy and his companions and said it was great to see our money being so positively used. He presented Jeremy with a bottle of Olive Oil in appreciation and members supported with a round of applause.
