President Rhonda opened the meeting.
Birthdays: A reminder to Neil Matson that it is Dale’s birthday tomorrow. No wedding or Rotary anniversaries.
Guests: Stu Corlett (speaker).
Notices
- Trust Treasurer: a replacement is sought for Neville Whitworth as Trust Treasurer. The role involves taking oversight of the Trust finances and attending Board meetings.
- Bulletin: due to a few departures from the club we need some volunteers to go on the roster for preparation of the weekly Bulletin. This role involves taking notes at the meeting, preparing the text for the Bulletin, and sending it to Dave Woodhouse who prepares and distributes the Bulletin each week.
- Bob’s Barbecue: 4 pm 28 February. $10/head. Please make payment to R A Sutton 02 0432 0426865 000.Please tell Bob what food you intend to bring so we don’t end up with an oversupply of desserts.
- Shiv is looking for volunteers to help with the Multicultural Festival. He needs help putting up and taking down tents on Friday 19 March 3-6 pm and on Saturday 20 March 7-9.30 and 5-7 pm.
- Heart Foundation collection has been cancelled so the fines today will be donated.
- Bob reported on the RYDA (Rotary Youth Driving Academy) session at ASB which involved shepherding pupils from Mount College around various modules. Bob said it was well organized and interesting, and well worth supporting.
- Wayne reported that Dave Woodhouse is booked in for an operation on Tuesday and will be in hospital for about 10 days – visitors appreciated.
Our speaker was Stu Corlett, who was introduced by Lynda with admirable brevity (not surprising since she thought she was doing the speaker thanks….)
Stu is heavily involved in an organisation called Circuit International which does development work in Myanmar. Stu advised that the difference between referring to that country as Burma or as Myanmar is one of pronunciation with an overlay of politics.
Stu is just starting a 2 year tour of New Zealand armed with a Ute and a caravan, telling his story. Circuit International has an annual income of about $500,000 and Myanmar gets virtually all of that. Circuit’s goal is to get people out of the poverty which causes Childre to be trafficked.
Stu is a professional photographer, raised in Tolaga Bay. He attended boarding school, trained as a pharmacist, and originally went to Thailand as a Baptist missionary. In 2007 he joined a US development agency working with refugees from Myanmar but found their attitude to be a bit paternalistic. Circuit International focuses on helping people develop themselves.
Circuit works with rural communities which have problems funding their agriculture. It operates in the Shan state in the north-eastern corner of the country. As a side note, much of the methamphetamine which is sold in NZ originates in that part of the world. The farmers need to borrow money each season for seeds, which can require payment of interest rates of up to 90%. They have to provide their land as security and when the loan shark comes calling it is the children who have to be sold (he said the children frequently volunteer for that to save their family from losing their land). Circuit goes to a community and does a deal to lend the community say $6000 for seeds. The community decides the interest rate and is responsible for repaying the loan, and the interest, before the next season. Circuit accumulates the interest and then lend that to another community.
Stu presented his talk and his journey through his photographs with the changing faces showing his progress. Circuit gets no public money and is always looking to build connections. They look for supporters, encouragers, and donors. It is an apolitical organisation which in Stu’s words flies “below the radar”. One way to help is to go online and buy Gumboot Coffee
www.gumbootcoffee.co.nz which comes from that area.
Speaker thanks was delivered by Henry Keyser.
The Raffle was won by Ross.
Bob Sutton started with a warning about the diminishing length of time until next Christmas. He continued with a rundown on a number of historical birthdays including William (Smokey) Robinson, and George Harrison who in 1983 was successfully sued for plagiarism for the tune of “My Sweet Lord”. On a happier note, Bob reported that the Black Death which raged from 1348 until 1353 killed somewhere between 60-75% of the population of Europe.
Parting Thought came from Shiv: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”
