Thanks to Frankie, Rob and Byran for rounding out our "3 good things" exercise this week - which will be the last one for this Rotary year. Frankie shared that her good friend in Australia was awarded a Queen's service award, while Rob shared the positive experience he and Dan had over the weekend planting trees with students as part of the Trees for Survival program.

 

Byran topped off the good news by sharing that Sir John Key and Tom Scott are part of the line up for the Battle of the Suits event in August. Gill shared that 150 tickets have already been pre-sold and that we are targeting to sell another 150. Please contact Gill & the team if you would like to buy tickets or if you have anything you'd like to offer as auction items.

 

Many thanks to Gill, John Boscawen, Byran & David Grant for their efforts on this major fundraising event. If you are keen to help out or to learn more, please join them for the weekly meeting on Wednesday morning at Rydges Hotel - the Cut restaurant. 

 

 

Our 5 minute speaker today was Rumbie Muzawazi who many of you have met at one of our weekly meetings. Rumbie is the Acting President of Rotaract Auckland City (she'll take over officially as President in July) and has a history of volunteerism starting from when she was in high school in Zimbabwe through her university years in Zimbabwe and Auckland and now as a working professional. Rumbie works in IT at Datacom and she shared with us how fortunate she's been to participate in a number of life changing Rotary activities - such as RYLA, Rotaract, District leadership roles which have also provided her an opportunity to meet with Prince Harry & Duchess Megan when they came to Auckland this year. We look forward to hearing more about her plans for Rotaract in the coming weeks ahead.

 

 

Our main speaker was Dr. Ann Hood, CEO of Refugees as Survivors New Zealand (RASNZ). Ann is a Clinical Psychologist and has been leading RASNZ for the last 4 years. RASNZ is a non-profit mental health and wellbeing service for people from refugee backgrounds living in Auckland. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there are 68.5 million forcible displaced people around the world. While a large majority are internally displaced, 25.4 million are refugees and 3.1 million are asylum seekers who have no choice but to seek safe refugee outside of their home countries. Surprisingly a large majority of the refugees end up in developing countries such as Turkey, Uganda, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iran. New Zealand accepts 1,000 refugees per year. While the countries of origin change annually, in the year to April 2019, our country accepted 210 from Burma, 147 from Cambodia, 147 from Syria, 89 from Afghanistan, 76 from Pakistan and 72 from Palestine. Ann spoke with us about the "refugee journey" and experience which includes resettlement challenges and oftentimes discrimination due to language and acculturation issues.  

 

 

As a child of first generation migrant parents from Taiwan who didn't speak English when they moved to Canada, memories of my childhood came to mind when Ann shared about the psychological challenges refugees & migrants face when they have to start over in a completely different country with no friends or network to rely on. It is an extremely challenging journey with so many layers of complication starting from deciding who to trust, to learning a new language, to finding employment so that you can feed your family. On top of the current existential issues, many refugees have to find ways to build resilience and recover from the horrors of persecution and separation from their home countries.

 

I was heartened to hear about RASNZ service offering to refugees and migrants who enter into the Mangere Resettlement Center and subsequently are resettled throughout New Zealand. These services include advice and counselling through interpreters, "body therapy" and "talk therapy" as a way to help them release some of the trauma (as many have been tortured in their home countries), and cross-cultural support to help them learn skills and to build confidence so that they can feel like they have a chance at a new life in a welcoming environment. 

 

Next week is is our last meeting of the Rotary year. Please come and hear about the great progress we have made this year. Also join me in recognising the hard work and efforts of fellow members who have made a positive difference to our Club and to the community.

 

Have a a great week everyone & see you next Tuesday!

 

Lucy