Michael Carris opened the meeting and welcomed acting President Sam Tartaglia to the podium.
Acting President Sam firstly welcomed our guest speaker, Chris Hrynevich. Sam gave Gaye Cariss a special welcome, along with our newest member, Clovis Nehme.
Sunil Perera was invited to update the club on Bendigo Bank’s grant for the current year. It is $10,000.
Maria Kouppas gave a detailed account of the status of our Royce Abbey wards.
Currently we have 590 RA awards, with nineteen more coming up in the next few months.
The Royce Abbey awards started n 2004.In November 2023 RCE celebrated 500 RA awards.
America, the Philippines and New Zealand have all been involved.
RCE is now doing forty awards per year. The 600th award recipient will be celebrated in the not too distant future.
Maria ended her update by informing this meeting that the RA committee comprises David Abbey, Roger Leask, Colin Styles and herself.
Maria also received an email from Ron Brooks regarding our going contributions to UNICEF.
"Dear Maria
Wonderful to catch up with you this afternoon for coffee in Kew where you handed over the 3.1kg donation of coins which would be worth about $90. A fantastic contribution for UNICEF. Your club has now contributed 50.1 kg of coins and notes, the largest of any club. I don’t know how you do it, you are a champion. This now gives us 21.3kg towards the next 60kg batch we can send off. I have attached an up to date write up of the project status which I’d love you to put in your next Newsletter/Bulletin to thank to members of your club for the wonderful work they are doing.
Until we meet again (soon I hope!)
Regards
Ron"
Christine Hilbert introduced the guest speaker for tonight who was Chris Hyrnevich. Chris led us very well through the ongoing work being done for Ukrainian refugees, both in Ukraine and overseas.
Chris has qualifications in psychology and marketing. Since 2022 Chris has concentrated on helping new Ukrainian arrivals to settle in and assimilate as much as possible to life in Australia. She works as a volunteer for the Association of Ukrainians Victoria.
DIK is a regular destination for these new arrivals to get fabric for sewing and garment making . Chris notes that ‘we are constantly interacting with Rotary.’ The aim is to make money and to maintain community awareness of the on-going losses of life and limb in the Ukraine.
This slaughter started with the Russian invasion of February 24 2022. Chris told us that an estimated 2.3 million fled across national borders in the first two weeks of the war. Local Australian Ukrainians were inviting their Ukrainian families to their homes here. Most of the arrivals were women and children since men between 15 and 50 were prohibited from leaving the country.
Chris noted that no government subsidies were provided to help find work.
Recreational activities were regularly held. One of the outcomes of such activities was the start of the Book Many Colours of Home. Chris explained that ‘kids drew up images of their life in Australia, Mothers were also involved.
Chris noted that the kids and mothers ‘still thank us for the book’. The book production process was also helped by the contributions of graphic artists, media post graduate students, printers and publishers, and a host of other sponsors. This quote is from he back page cover o this inspiring project
‘Many Colours of Home reveals the shared realities of being forced to make a decision of whether to stay or seek safety; the struggle for starting over , the bonds formed within communities, and the quiet heroism of ordinary people responding to extraordinary circumstances. It is a record and celebration of resilience, compassion, and the human spirit.’
Chris commented that grants are being applied so that the book can be acquired by libraries
During question an answer time, Chris updated us on the destination countries of the almost 7 million Ukrainian refugees who have left their home country since early 2022. The vast majority escaped to Europe, with Germany (1,333,000), Poland (980,000) ad Czechia (397,000) being the largest receiving nations. Of non European countries, Canada was popular; Australia has accepted around 4,400 Ukrainian refugees.
Chris also noted that some Ukrainian refugees went back to the Ukraine as they could not get worthwhile jobs here.
Sam Tartaglia finished the meeting with a thank you to Chris and all who attended.
