2023: Report from President Annie Stonehouse

It was great to finally be able to return to Thailand and to the gorgeous children in our ‘Hands Across the Water’ homes. This year’s Renovation Taskforce was at Khao Lak and was to covert a previous childcare building into the new headquarters for Hands Experiences Thailand. This Social Enterprise will support HANDS’ Thai operations and deliver unique HANDS experiences like Ride to Provide. Young people from HANDS’ homes will be trained and employed at the Social Enterprise as Tour Guides, as well as in Hospitality and Café operations, and in bike maintenance. As always, it was a great group of volunteers who got an incredible amount of work done in the week – this time assisted by many of the children.

Physically and mentally, this was a hugely rewarding experience, seeing children who have what we would consider as having so little, so happy because they had each other, a safe place to sleep, delicious food in their bellies and the support and love of adults around them was grounding and challenging. It served to remind me not to sweat the small stuff, to laugh and hug and care about others every day and that by working together as a team, almost anything is possible.

Each time I have taken part in one of these Renovations Task Forces, I come away having received so much more than I have given and for this I am so grateful to HANDS. For those who are cyclists and bike riders – there are 500 km and 800 km fundraising rides you can take part in January 2024 (maybe my next challenge!!)

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These projects reflect a diverse range of assistance, addressing immediate needs such as disaster relief, housing, and community development, as well as contributing to ongoing initiatives related to healthcare, youth development, and sports. The Rotary Club of Carindale’s commitment to international service is evident through these efforts, making a positive impact on communities around the world.

2016 & 2023 – Mercy Ships Volunteer

Our member Dr Ross Stewart, has twice volunteered for periods on the Mercy Ships, visiting countries on the African continent to lend his dental skills.

Tonga:

August 2022

Our member, Dr Ross Stewart, joined the Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) volunteer team for the Tongan Dental Health Project 2022

The project will help to equip a fully functional dental clinic and a medical isolation ward for Queen Salote College, Tupou College and ‘Apifo’ou College.

On the Rotary Club of Nuku’alofa’s Facebook page, they welcomed the RAWCS group, adding that the project will also provide medical equipment, supplies and dental chairs to the Ministry of Health Tonga, and that two 40-foot containers had arrived with supplies for the project.

2016 Report from Arch Downie:

Fellow member Annie Stonehouse and I volunteered at ‘Baan Home Hug’ orphanage in Yasothon, Thailand in November 2016. We were part of a group of approximately thirty people, 7 of who were Rotarians or had an association with our Club. This visit had been arranged by ‘Hands Across the Water’ an organisation founded by Australian Peter Baines, after the Boxing Day Tsunami. They were there for a full working week, during which they carried out a number of tasks that included painting, concreting and construction work. On day one, they helped build a concrete footpath between some of the buildings so the children and staff didn’t have to walk across the wet and muddy ground in the wet season. They all put their hand prints in the concrete with their initials before the concrete set. Unfortunately, there was a big storm that night and all the hand prints were washed away and the concrete set overnight after the storm. Later in the week they spent at a day building a roof over that path so that everyone could walk along it in rain without getting wet. Their biggest and most physically challenging job came in the middle part of the week. There was a concrete water tank behind the buildings and the roof had leaked. The roof had been jackhammered to collapse it. We don’t know why they did this but to get the tank operational again, we had to remove the concrete roof from the bottom of the tank where it all fell when it was jackhammered. Annie and a couple of others were gumboot deep in whatever was in the bottom of the tank (I think she tried hard not to look at what might have been in there) loading up the buckets. I was standing on the wall of the tank with another two guys and we were lifting the buckets up (full of concrete), emptying them and lowering them back down to be refilled. An estimated 6 tonnes of concrete came out of the bottom of that tank by hand and bucket over one afternoon and one morning. Oh, and the weather was pretty similar to what we have experienced here in the last couple of weeks. Hot and very humid.

Early in the week, I recall replacing some guttering on one of the buildings and later in the week, we built a new kitchen and washhouse so the children were able to to have a covered purpose built facility to wash their dishes after meals. The highlight of the week was, of course, our interactions with the children who lived at Baan Home Hug. These interactions were many and varied. Regularly through the week, we would hear a scream followed by squeals of laugher from somewhere on the site. When we heard it, we knew “they got another one”. There were several eskies on site for drinks etc. The children’s favourite trick was to get a small container and fill it with the cold water (melted ice) from the bottom of the esky, sneak up on some poor unsuspecting soul and pour it down their back. The scream came from the person who received the cold water and the squeals of laughter came from the children. No one was spared and we all received our turn at least once through the week. It was hard to be upset with them once you heard their squeals of delight and turned around to see their smiling faces. Once you got over the initial shock, the cold water was very refreshing. Nevertheless, when it happened to you, you still felt like you had been “had”. Prior to Hands Across the Water being involved with Baan Home Hug, they were losing one child every week to AIDS. They could afford to feed the children or medicate them but they couldn’t afford to do both. Hands Across the Water got involved and paid for the medication. Since that day, Baan Home Hug has not lost a single child to AIDS. Two of our favourite activities with the the children were riding on the school bus with them. Seeing how they get to and from school in the chaos of Thailand’s traffic, both vehicle and foot, was amazing and they had a system and a process for everything. The second activity was our dinner with them on our last night, the Thursday night. This was held in a function room not far from Baan Home Hug. We sat around the tables with a spare seat on either side of us. The children walked in and sat between us. Some of them were so small, they needed help pulling in their chairs or cutting up their food so they could eat it. Dinner was accompanied by various speeches, songs and performances from the children, a lot of them English. We were showered with gifts and letters of thanks, in English too. I still have the gifts and the letters.

As the children filed out the door and onto their bus to go home, we watched the bus drive out the driveway and we stood there, heavy hearted, knowing that our time with them was coming to an end. At that moment, one of our leaders said “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we do what we do”. In that moment, we all got it. It was touching end to a very special night.

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

International Projects we have supported since we began:

Phillipines:

Typhoon Haiyan Relief: A $5,000 grant through the Kalipay Negros Foundation was allocated to construct houses and fishing boats for the affected communities. Additionally, a District Grant of $1,500 was provided.

Water Pump Donation: A $675.00 donation for a water pump was made to the Rotary Club of Kadanga/Tacloban City through a sister club arrangement.

Community Development Grant: A grant of $1,500 was utilised to supply Pedicabs (Tuk Tuks) and pigs to the local community, with matching support from the Rotary Foundation.

Laos:

Nursing Services: A $1,000 contribution to support nursing services in Laos.

Zimbabwe:

Youth Development: A $500 grant was allocated for the purchase and supply of soccer balls to benefit youth in Zimbabwe.

Thailand:

2016: Hands Across the Water: A $1,500 contribution was made to support the Hands Across the Water initiative in Thailand. Members Annie Stonehouse and Arch Downie attended.