Club Activities
Induction of New Members - November 2011
Two new members were inducted to the SI Murray Bridge Club in November.
Liz Connelly is married and has two adult children, girl and boy, with three grandchildren, all of who live in Adelaide. She is now retired and has been for about four years.
Liz has been a member of Rotary for 10 years. She directs a breakfast programme at the Tailem Bend Primary School, is a member of St. Vincent de Paul Soc., is treasurer of the Murray Mallee Catholic Parish, a member of Health Advisory Council for the Coorong district. On Tailem Bend Rotary Club’s behalf she organizes comfort boxes for women and children who suffer abuse in and around this district. For as long as she can remember she has always been interested in helping this particular group of people
-------------------------------
Trish Rohrlach and husband Johathan have in the last 2 years moved to Murray Bridge from Adelaide. Trish has 2 sons, Marcus 20 & Zac 17 ½ . Johathan has a daughter Hannah 21, Ben 12 ½ & Jordan 16 ½ Marcus & Zac live with them & Johathan’s children live in Adelaide with their mother.
At present Trish works four days a week at Ielasi Carriers in the office – not driving trucks!!
Previously Trish worked for the Jim’s Group of companies for 15 years at Glenelg, where she managed the call centre and assisted in selling franchises. In 2007 the founder of Jim’s bought the call centre etc and she stayed for 1 more year to assist in the transition etc.
Trish is a member of Christ Church Lutheran Church. She has been looking for a volunteer group that she could join, as she feels that now the children are older she has more spare time and would like to contribute to society.
Sister Michelle Madigan - November 2011
Sister Michelle Madigan was guest speaker at Soroptimist International Club of Murray Bridge’s November meeting.For more than thirty years Sister Michelle has been a Josephite Nun, working for change in the community, including the NT Intervention & other local issues, and supporting Indigenous people in everyday life. Her favourite quote by T.H. Neumann “It is the rule of God’s Providence that we should succeed by failure”, has been pertinent numerous times in her life. She told us of a successful campaign which took 6 years that she was involved with an Aboriginal group, who in 2004, successfully prevented a nuclear waste dump being placed on aboriginal land in South Australia. She is seriously campaigning again, against the huge expansion of Olympic Dam Uranium mine to 3km x 4km x 1km deep, in SA which is likely to consume the majority of the artesian water and much of the state’s electricity if the development goes ahead.
Sister Michelle has also assisted many Aboriginal authors with the writing and publishing of their books. These include “I’m the one That Know This country”, “And I Always Been Moving” by Jessie Lennon, “Living Alongside the Animals – Anangu Way” by Eileen Wani Wingfield & Emily Munyungka Austin.
SI Murray Bridge goes to SI Convention in Montreal - July 2011
Two Murray Bridge Soroptimist International members, Annette Korzeba and Pauline Nutt flew to Montreal, Canada for the International Convention in July 2011. 1200 Soroptimists from around the world attended. Soroptimist International, with members in 124 countries, has donated more than A$6 million, which has helped more than 500,000 women and more than 400,000 girls mostly in third world countries and countries which have been engaged in wars. One of our current projects is the training of midwives in Papua New Guinea to help overcome a very high birth mortality rate. International Project Sierra from 2007-2011 raised over UK900,000 Sterling to help young mothers and families in Sierra Leone. Our project to help women in Solomon Islands is now complete with the building of a Women’s Centre in each of the country’s 10 provinces. The new International President for the next 2 years is Alice Wells from Soroptimist International of Arizona in the Region of the Golden West, USA. Soroptimists inspire action and create opportunities to transform the lives of women and girls through a global network of members and international partnerships.
Human Trafficking Forum - June 2011
Soroptimist International Club of Murray Bridge held a very successful Public Forum on “Human Trafficking” on 2nd June. About 100 people attended including Mayor Alan Arbon & his wife Pam, Adrian Pederick, MP Member for Hammond, councillors and interested members of the public from Murray Bridge and surrounding areas.
The Forum was addressed firstly by Sister Margaret Ng who has a ministry of the Sisters of St Joseph, based in Sydney. This ministry was established to support and advocate on behalf of trafficked persons in Australia. She works with women, children and men who have been trafficked, developing supportive relationships by providing mentoring, advocacy and support and accompaniment. Her project aims to improve their quality of life through encouraging the development of self-esteem, confidence and a sense of worth through provision of opportunities for education, skill development and work. Her group encourages initiative, independence and freedom of choice by informing them of services, government agencies and Non-Government Organizations.
The second speaker was Paulette Cairns, Director of RAHAB in SA. RAHAB is an initiative of Youth With a Mission SA, visiting 90 (yes 90!) brothels in Adelaide where many girls feel trapped in the industry, unable to make a move to freedom. Paulette runs a team of 30, providing outreach services offering assistance to these victims also teaching them English. Each time a member of the team visits, they take different personal gifts for the girls which hopefully will bring some happiness. A very lively and emotive question time followed the presentations.
Follow up action was suggested by both speakers. We can take action by buying “Fair Trade” products and clothing when possible, being educated and learn about the issue of trafficking locally, in Australia and internationally, inviting people to speak at our schools, parishes and groups. Be aware and contact relevant person when aware of a suspicious situation where a person could have been trafficked. Advocacy was another suggested follow-up, by writing to international corporations requesting that they purchase their cocoa from Fair Trade Sources. Writing to Ministers for an improved visa framework by adopting a human rights framework, reviewing the provision of accommodation to offer more options to trafficked women; putting in place civil proceedings for the provision of access to compensation for victims.
IT Training for SI members - May 2011
The May meeting of Soroptimist International Murray Bridge took the form of an IT training session held at the Library. Di Lockwood (SA Region Training), Sandra Richards (SA Region Programme UN Liaison) and Marilyn Seidel (SA Region IT) ran the training session to familiarise MB members with logging on and navigating the Soroptimist International website.
Fundraising Luncheon - April 2011
In April we held a fundraiser for 40 people with “LUNCH AT THE WHITEHOUSE”. The event was held at the beautiful home of one of our members which overlooks the river. The exquisite menu was prepared by members of the fundraising committee and their partners and it was cooked to perfection. This day was shared by current members and partners along with some past members and friends of the club.
Camobian Volunteers - April 2011
Fascinating guest speakers for the April meeting of Soroptimist International Club of Murray Bridge were Janet and Graham Munt from Murray Bridge, who are frequent visitors to Cambodia. They shared a snapshot of their experiences from their annual trips to New Hope Community Centre at a village called Mondul 3 near Siem Reap, one of the poorest slum areas in Cambodia. Janet, a teacher and Graham, an engineer, volunteer a month of their time each year, taking with them donations of money and clothing for the families at the Community Centre. “Free education for all” is one of the main priorities for improvement of quality of life in Cambodia and Janet assists this aim by teaching the locals English. Graham lends his support to engineering projects such as facilitating clean water supply and housing to the desperately needy families. This was a very informative presentation which shows us how blessed we are in Australia and how we all can help those less fortunate than ourselves, which is one of the main objectives of Soroptimist International.
International Women's Day Breakfast - March 2011
In March we joined with the local Women’s Health Team and hosted a free Multicultural Breakfast to celebrate International Women’s Day. The event was open to the local community between 8am and 10-30 am , with a variety of different foods to sample (there was even an opportunity for some women to sample vegemite for the first time). The event was funded by SI Murray Bridge, a Local Government Community grant and in kind support from a number of community members. The event was attended by approximately 90 women from a variety of different cultures, we had an Egyptian woman as our guest speaker who spoke about her experience coming to Australia. This was a great opportunity to network with a variety of women in our community and to showcase the work of our club.
Scholarship Winner! - March 2011
At the March meeting of Soroptimist International Club of Murray Bridge, the winner of the 2011 scholarship, Alexandra Weston, was presented with her cheque. Alexandra attended Norwood/Morialta High school in Adelaide and has studied at Unity College in Murray Bridge since year 10. After her brothers were diagnosed with autism, life changed and Alexandra helps her mother to care for her 3 brothers (aged 6, 5 and 3). Alexandra studied applied behavioural therapy to assist with the care for her brothers. Alexandra is now studying Health Sciences paramedics course (with TER cut off score of 94.1). She started at Flinders University at the beginning of March and wants to be a paramedic working in the mines or an air medical team. The course is three years at Uni and one year on placement – it was preceded with medical and fitness assessment which Alexandra has already completed.
The Scholarship committee presented Alexandra with a cheque as part of her scholarship.
New Club Officers - February 2011
At the Annual General Meeting held recently of Soroptimist International Club of Murray Bridge, the Executive Officers and committee were elected. The 2011 Officers are Heather Bishop (Treasurer), Bronwyn Heard (President), Denise Fowles (Secretary) & Natalie Hay (Immediate Past President).In 2011 we are continuing to support the local, national and international communities with projects such as:
-
Work with the Breakfast Club at Frazer Park,
-
Currently interviewing applicants for a worthy winner of our perpetual $5,000 Tertiary Scholarship.
-
Hold our annual fundraisers – wine bottling and dinners.
-
Continue advocacy in local, state and federal issues.
-
Continue with our KESAB campaign at Sturt Reserve.
Where We Are 