Tonight’s guest speaker were Anjie Penneyston and Angela Woodward from BlueLine Employment. They specialise in supporting people with disabilities to gain and maintain employment. They help people gain the skills and the confidence needed to gain and keep employment. They are constantly looking for employers who are willing to take on someone with a disability.

Tonight’s guest speaker was Carmen Jenkinson from Diabetes Tasmania. She spoke on what diabetes is, what are the risks, how to reduce your risk factors, and how to better protect yourself from the damage it causes.

Lola Cowle from the Tasmanian Community Fund spoke about the grants they offer. $55.5 million has been given to 1600 projects since 2000. Types of projects/organisations that receive grants are Rotary, Rotaract, Lions, Lionesses, Apex, Salvation Army, Lifeline, Mission Australia, Literacy programs for women’s shelters, PCYC, Scouts, Guides, Churches, Diabetes Tasmania and many more. The programs have to be not for profit, incorporated organisations and projects based in Tassie. There are 5 categories; Children and young people, Community participation and recreation, Community well being and life skills, Connecting communities, and Culture, arts and heritage. They do not fund ongoing operating costs, one off events, expos, forums etc, projects with private benefits, already happening or completed projects, individual or for profit organisations or anyone who has become reliant on grants. There are 2 grant rounds; one for less than $10 000, and one for greater than $10 000. 80% of grants are for less than $50 000. For more information contact admin@tascomfund.org or www.tascomfund.org.

Tonight’s guest speaker was Robert McCafferty from the Ron Barwick Minimum Security Prison at Risdon. In an effort to reduce the prisoner recidivism rates that around 40% the prison is developing programs with the community to help the prisoners find meaningful skills and outlook on life when they are released. He mentioned quiet a few existing programs but he is interested in reaching out to community organisations such as Rotary to see if there are more projects that they could be involved in.

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.