Last week was very special with Ian Bram giving us a very graphic insight on life in the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre in Parkville. Some of what he told us was very confronting but it was so valuable to be able to hear this information from the point of view of a Youth Justice Worker. Ian didn't overbear us with a lot of statistics but what was very alarming was the fact that though the indigenous population is about 3% of the total nationally they represent about 30% of the prison population and in some states, it is much higher than that. Whilst he explained there are a number of reasons for this, sadly one clearly is discrimination or stereotyping.
I know his talk was very impactful as a number of attendees mentioned to me after the meeting how moved they were by it. Also present at the meeting was Lili Teichman and Lorna Hannan. Lili was partly present in her role as District Diversity Chairperson. Lorna spoke about her idea of wanting to further diversity in North Melbourne with an idea to create a drop-in centre for anyone to drop in and mingle in a room at the Buncle St Community Centre. I was particularly pleased to receive a message from her asking if she could continue to attend our meetings. Sainab was also moved to ask for Ian's details so she can get him to speak to the Somalian community.
The latest update on the "Walkwithus", Annual End Polio Walk which still has over a week to go is that our team has now edged past $600.00 but Ted's team of Chasqui is now 10th overall with $2,865.00. This makes our combined total at $3,466.00 which would make us 6th overall out of 44 teams. This is one event that has actually benefitted from the Covid restrictions as usually, it is a one-day event with participants walking around Albert Park Lake. Recently they had been raising about $15,000.00 for the whole district. Now as a whole month event they have already exceeded $80,000.00 and look like getting to $100,000.00 by the end of the month. This is a roaring success. so well done to Kitty O'Connor for her organization, promotion, and planning.
Ted's " END POLIO WALK " MOMENTS
It's not too late to log onto https://www.rotarywalkwithus.org/ and sponsor any of our walkers.
We have had further progress with MUNA with a few more registrations so hopefully, we will get there.
On the weekend Sainab and I attended the district Diversity Zoom meeting and will be keeping in touch with their activities.
Last night I attended the Southbank Octoberfest function immediately followed by the cluster meeting.
This week Manjula has continued with the development of our new website
https://rotarynorthmelbourne.org.au/ and she has done a great job. It really is up to date so it is really worth looking at. I have even noticed that if you drill down onto the "About Us" menu and then "Media" you will immediately get the whole speech of Ian Bram delivered last which could be of interest to anyone that couldn't make the meeting.
Board Meeting
For anyone that is not a member you won't be getting a meeting invite this week as it is our Board meeting but the speakers coming up are as follows:
Upcoming speakers
At the last meeting before American Elections, you can hear about how the US Electoral College Works from Steve Marantelli. Stephen is the author of the book Three Brothers: When George Washington and Edmund Barton Sat Down To Dinner
President's Message
