Tonight’s guest speaker was Ben Wood who spoke of combating malaria in South Western Uganda. He is helping raise funds to implement basic preventative measures against malaria. Currently there are not enough malaria medications or treated nets to go around. Consequently the number of children and pregnant women becoming infected is very high. He is helping education communities to use their existing supplies more effectively and to help them properly understand what malaria is and how it is spread. He is also helping to reduce the number of stagnant water sources in order to reduce the breeding opportunities for the mosquito.

Tonight’s guest speaker was Tiziana Botti from Southern Water. She gave us the facts of the water meter roll-out for the greater Hobart area. She told us how water meters will help people find water leaks, and will in the long run save money for Southern Water.

Tonight’s guest speaker was Jenny Kerrison (also a Rotarian from the Rotary Club of North Hobart).  She spoke of her recent experience of nursing in Bangladesh.  She did a study of nursing care involving the Kumudini Hospital in the city of Mirzapur (North west of Dhaka).  Jenny talked about the country of Bangladesh and of the city of Mirzapur.  Most of the population is Muslim but the area around the Kumudini Hospital is Hindu.  There are high rates of illteracy and mortality.  Most of the employment is in agriculture and garment making.

Kumudini Hospital is a private, not-for-profit hospital.  It has 750 beds with segregated wards, but has no intensive care.  It was established in 1943 by P R Shaha.  The hospital has a fistula ward to help with those suffering this debilitating condition around childbirth.  The staff make their own gauze squares and roll their own cotton wool.  Their facilities are run down and old; they still use blackboards, use very old & out of date nursing books, and some of their classes are outside due to lack of space.  Jenny was able to receive a grant from the Australia High Commissioner for $30,000 for a new nursing lab for midwifery training.  She is looking at getting more volunteer nurses from Australia to assist in training up the local nurses.

Tonight’s guest speaker was Alina Schertenleib, a Rotary exchange student from Switzerland. She gave us a presentation of her time in Tasmania. She stayed with several host families during her time, including Anita Orchard who hosted her for 2 months. She has grown quite remarkably in her time in Tasmania and she shows a maturing well beyond her years. She leaves to go back to Switzerland in a few weeks and we will all miss her.

Tonight’s guest speaker was Stephanie Cheung who we sponsored to go into the National Youth Science Forum in March. She went in the physics group (there were others such as engineering and chemistry). Stephanie enthusiastically told us about the many projects, talks, tours and the scientists she met. They all received coaching on public speaking and on how to plan their career in science.

Tonight’s guest speaker was Christine Coughanowr from the Derwent Estuary Program.  She talked about the various issues that affect the Derwent River from above Bridgewater to the Bruny Island / O’Possum Bay.  Some of the main problems include pollution, both toxic chemicals and high levels of organic matter and introduced species.  It was reassuring to know that they constantly identify areas that are unsafe to use or fish from, and that things are slowly improving in the river.  She told us of the programs to help endangered handfish that only occurs in Tasmania, and penguin colonies along the shores south of Hobart.

Last night our guest speaker was Annette Psereckis from Laughter Teams Tasmania. She talked about the benefits of laughter and techniques to use laughter to reduce stress in everyday life. At the end of the talk she led our club to practice some of these for several minutes. It was lots of fun.