International Service

The new International Service Committee is a healthy and exciting mix of newer members and some older experienced Rotarians nearly all with international cultural ‘connections'. We are focussed on setting and achieving realistic goals and objectives during the course of our year and wish to give preference to projects which involve some ‘ownership’  and hands on opportunities at club level and which are also in our closer regional area. 

As they say, charity begins at home and we think that there are worthwhile and good project opportunities in the Asia Pacific region. We also want to ensure that we get maximum benefit from club funds, so we are particularly concerned to ensure that we have good governance at the receiving end so that funds or resources are not unnecessarily depleted.

 As a result some recent projects conducted in Africa are seen to be potentially more risky and problematic because of general political instability.  Further we feel that clubs in Europe are also particularly active in Africa and that our focus should be in our own region. That is not to say that previous projects in Africa and the Sub Continent are not as valuable or worthy  but reflects that we have limited resources and Rotary is about service, not just donations.

 Additionally, President Rob has indicated in his annual objectives that he wants to see a successful international  project closer to home.  We will of course continue to support the Rotary Foundation in its larger projects internationally.

We are currently looking at possible opportunities in PNG, East Timor and Vietnam.  A number of other very worthwhile projects have been passed over to us through the club members for assessment and I would like to sincerely thank all those members for their interest. We will ensure that our progress is regularly reported back to the wider membership and of course once our projects are up and running we will be seeking some active involvement from all members.