Rotary Group Study Exchange helps keep Alaskan Eskimo babies warm

Following the successful visit of the District 5010 Group Study Exchange Maternal and Child Health focused team from Alaska and the Yukon, USA earlier this year, the Rotary Club of Otahuhu in Auckland, NZ liaised with Inbound Team Member Brenda Lamont, a Case Manager at the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital, to see what District 9920 could do to help. Her suggestion was baby beanies as a start!

Brenda is married to Russell, who is a Yupik Eskimo, and she is very committed to the families of the region. Almost 90% of the Yupik Eskimo women are on public assistance of some sort, and live a subsistence lifestyle of living off the land. Their life is hard in this remote and isolated area where the winter temperatures fall to 40 degrees below Fahrenheit. Often the mothers are forced to leave their families for a  month prior to giving birth, to ensure that they are able to deliver their babies more safely.

The call went out, and in no time at all, knitters were mobilised.  Members, partners and friends of Otahuhu Rotary have knitted more than 100 spectacular woollen hats in a rainbow of colours and a wide range of styles.  Special mention is made of Past President Jeanette Drysdale who has already knitted 80 beanies. 

They are on their way to Brenda in Bethel, Alaska, with some also going to the Rotarian Team Leader Vivian Finlay to distribute to other communities in outlying areas to help in the northern winter. But we won’t be stopping there because there is also a great need for woollen baby blankets and clothes (3-6 months preferred), nursing nightgowns, and sewers who can make nursing covers for breastfeeding mums.

This is a great example of the practical benefits arising from a vocationally-oriented GSE Team.  Four other clubs are keen to join the action.  If you can also help, please contact Past Assistant Governor Penny Leyland via email penny.leyland@gmail.com.

ROTA 1960 celebrates the early days of GSE

With several districts currently hosting Group Study Exchange teams this story is very timely in looking at some of the history of the programme from which GSE sprang.

ROTA 1960 NEW ZEALAND TEAM TO INDIA AND CEYLON - CELEBRATED 50^th ANNIVERSARY

The Rotary Overseas Travel Award (ROTA) 1960 New Zealand Team’s five surviving members gathered in Auckland, New Zealand on 19-21 November 2010 to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of their group study tour to India and Ceylon by seven young New Zealanders and their Rotarian leader.  ROTA was the forerunner to Group Study Exchange (GSE). 

Back: ROTA 1960 Team Members Pat Baker (Papakura), Bill Tawhai (Opotiki), Rod Littlejohn (Huntly),  Douglas Day (Putaruru), Joe Runga (Kaitaia) and  David Botting (Auckland)

    Front: John Broun (Newmarket) and 1960 ROTA Team Leader Les Colgan (New Lynn) 

(Their sponsor Rotary clubs are in brackets)

Pictured are ROTA 1960 New Zealand Team Members  

wearing Ghandi caps presented in India 50 years ago and

50^th Anniversary medals prepared for the occasion by John Broun

 (from left) Pat Baker, Douglas Day, John Broun, Wiremu Tawhai (since deceased) and David Botting, with District 9920 GSE Chair Don Leith and

Dick Vernon (son of the late ROTA ‘founder’ PDG Dr Ralph Vernon)

Then Past President (who subsequently became District Governor) Les Colgan of the Rotary Club of New Lynn, Auckland, led a ground breaking study tour of India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for almost five months from 22 November 1960 to 1 April 1961, which included three weeks each way by ship.

Their 50^th anniversary weekend began on Friday night with an authentic Indian meal for team members and partners. On Saturday there was a full day of activities including a New Zealand lunch with a 50^th anniversary cake for a wider group of 18 people, including family of deceased team members.

Sadly, Team Leader Les Colgan was called to higher service (on 2 July 1987), as were Rod Littlejohn (1 September 1981), Joe Runga (9 February 2005), and just two weeks after these celebrations, Wiremu (Bill) Tawhai passed away (2 December 2010) having courageously attended from his treatment at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton.

Two ROTA 1960 Team Members are Rotarians:  Pat Baker, of the Rotary Club of Drury, was formerly on the District 9920 World Community Service and New Generations Committees; and Douglas Day, of the Rotary Club of Pencarrow, is District 9940 Rotary Foundation Alumni Sub-Committee Convenor.  Both Pat and Douglas have received Paul Harris recognition. 

ROTA HISTORY

The concept of ROTA began in New Zealand as a District project to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of Rotary, through the vision of Dr Ralph Vernon, President of the Rotary Club of Auckland 1953-1954. Five New Zealand ROTA groups travelled across the world: the first in 1955 to the UK; the second in 1958-1959 to Rotary districts in the Pacific states of the USA and Canada; the third in 1960-1961 to India and Ceylon ; the fourth in 1962 to Japan; and the fifth in 1963-1964  to Malaysia. Return visits from counterpart districts followed in each case.

In 1963, details and guidelines on the ROTA exchange programme were formally presented to The Rotary Foundation for consideration as a world-wide programme, and Ralph Vernon was invited to Chicago, USA to help shape up how it might be applied internationally. Plans for Group Study Exchange were approved in January 1964. The programme has been subjected to some policy and procedural modifications throughout the years, but the primary aim of ROTA which became GSE, of helping to improve international understanding and peace through the exchange of promising young professional and business people, has not changed.

For further information on ROTA 1960, contact Douglas Day on +64 4 568 8088, or email dwaday@xtra.co.nz.

Rotary Programme Promotes International Goodwill

Mark Graham, Past President, Pukekohe Club, and Funeral Director has just returned from leading a  wonderful Rotary Foundation sponsored exchange to Texas, USA.

Mark led a group of five non-Rotarian adults from within Rotary District 9920 on a Group Study Exchange (GSE) to the Fort Worth – Dallas area of North Texas . The exchange took place between 9^th April and 8^th May. Making up the team were Sarah Miskell, a Chartered Accountant and Director of Campbell Tyson Cooper White, Pukekohe, Len Casey, a Police Constable from Ellerslie, Susan Wharerimu, a PE and Health Teacher from Tuakau College and Sarah Tuki, a Clinical Dietician with the Waitemata District Health Board.

En route to Texas, the team enjoyed