Donations In Kind a project of RAWCS – Northern Region Districts 9600 - 9630 - 9640 June 2014 Rotary International 750 - SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY CONTAINERS 100- to750 the Solomon’s and 700 in Yes, that’s right! Seven hundred and fifty containers have been loaded and dispatched from DIK total Northern Region since the first in 1991. Just a minor celebration as you can see by the picture below when the container was packed, locked and made ready to be picked up for dispatch to the Rotary Club of Madang. I can well remember how excited we were when we celebrated container number 100, sent from the Tennyson Power station in February 1998 and I suggest we would never have considered reaching 750. It has been a long journey, achieved by our Rotary Clubs accepting the ‘roster system’ for packing the containers. I cannot recall an occasion when a Club from District 9600 or 9630 was unable to come along and help when called for by the roster, just as I cannot recall an empty store and wondering how we can fill the containers.. So what does it mean? Elsewhere here-in (attached) will show figures and funding. Let it be explained by suggesting the project captured the enthusiasm of Rotarians with a ‘hands-on’ project, from sourcing the donations to send to our neighbours. .....AND WHAT NOW? Well I guess the show will go on and no doubt somewhere down the line there will be container number 1,000 to celebrate. While it is good to see these numerical ‘landmarks’ let’s not forget the purpose of the project is to provide aid to our friends in the islands by sending our surplus health and education supplies. As noted above, the store is always full with donations sourced largely by Rotary Clubs and all we need is to maintain the flow of goods and, of course the funding that pays for the shipping. have donated war and aircraft books to an RSL library. 100 CONTAINERS IN SEPTEMBER 1998 John and Bill (don’t they look young!) DIRECT TO PNG Over recent months DIK has been over-run with offers of hospital and care-home beds and associated bedside cabinets. School desks and chairs by the hundred have also been received Many of these have been sent to Rotary Clubs in Honiara, PNG and Fiji and with ‘contacts’ in PNG we have been able to interest the PNG Government to assist in sponsoring the shipping costs for selected donations. This has been most welcomed as recent funding from Clubs has not kept pace with the overpowering volume of School and Hospital supplies and equipment NEW CLUB IN BUKA? There is talk of a new Rotary Club in Buka (at the top of Bougainville). The would-be President attended the 9600 District Conference and the DIK Store. Add to that DIK has been visited by Barbara Parker who confirmed the possibility of a Club in Buka. Barbara was with RC Port Moresby until she ‘went finish’ a year or so ago and has since sent DIK goods to Buka. Guess all we can say is, ‘Watch this space’ DENTAL CHAIRS Which reminds me. We have three dental chairs in the DIK store one of which is requested for Buka via Barbara. Trouble is that the chairs, modules and electronics are in one big bundle and before the chairs can go anywhere we need the services of a knowledgeable user/friendly Dental Technician to sort out the tangle. Any offers? TED’S TROLLIES Ted Horsbrugh fitted a table upside down on the wheel base of a damaged hospital bed and. made a large trolley for use in the store. We told him it was ‘very handy’, so he made another! CRUTCHES BY THE THOUSAND! By the thousand? Well, not really, but hospitals will always give new unused crutches to patients which means DIK receive the ‘once used’ items.. BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS Yes, I know you know the rules, but let me go through them again. We prefer books for Primary School level. The thought behind this is that if a child can read well then the rest of his/her life is wide open. High School, we send suitable school fiction and non-fiction, we do not send High School text books. There is no guarantee that where we send our containers there is a ‘Public Library’ to receive adult fiction and non-fiction books and so we send these in selected/limited numbers. Please make your own arrangements for disposing of the left-overs from your book sales... For your interest, however, some adult books have been placed here in Brisbane where we One of Ted’s Trollies. 400 SCHOOL DESKS IN TOOWOOMBA Looks like a 40 ft container will be sent to Toowoomba to be packed with 400 school desks for direct shipment, rather than double handling by bringing them into the DIK store for packing and shipping. BIRTHING KITS AND BABY BUNDLES As well as the kits assembled at the DIK store there are many coming in from all sides, Inner Wheel, QCWA, Interact - to name a few. We found some ‘suppliers’ were including Birthing Kits in with ‘Baby Bundles. These would be best separated as the Kits are intended for use in the villages and the baby bundles would be too much for the Village Birth Attendants to carry. PRESIDENTS ELECT FROM PNG/SI AT THE STORE No doubt the best way to show your client your business is to invite him into your ‘workshop’. That’s exactly what happened when Presidents Elect were brought down from PNG, SI and Nauru to attend the District 9600 Conference with a day at the DIK Store. (The highlight of the Conference?) John Paskin and I, along with the ‘Heavy Gang’ (the Thursday DIK regulars) were happy to show them around and for them to open up on areas of need and of concern. Baby bundles to Honiara FLOODS IN HONIARA To assist with the problems associated with the recent flood that swept through Honiara DIK sent a container full of goods and materials to assist in the recovery. Boxes of clothes (Not normally allowed), sleeping and kitchen items were received at the store from ‘friends of the Solomons’ and together with materials in stock 192 boxes of aid were included in the container. . All the way from PNG for a coffee with DIK! PALLET RACKING We were offered pallet racking for use in the store and at the time it seemed the way to go. In the middle of the store, guess who cracked his head on the cross members? So we moved it. We cut out the third level of racking, (Health and Safety spoke up here) and at the moment three bays are installed and we are too busy to get the most out of the racking and the store is absolutely packed. It will happen! MOZAMBIQUE As a rule we do not send containers to other than PNG, Solomon Islands and Fiji, but a friend of Rotary asked if we would hold some medical equipment while he ‘gathered enough for a container. It didn’t take too long and on the big day with the assistance of RCs Noosa. Jindalee and Beenleigh a 40 ft container was well and truly on its way to the Rotary Club of Beira in Mozambique That’s some of the Honiara boxes, lined up and waiting to go. MANY THANKS FOR SUPPLIES Where do we start? Over recent months we have received so many desks, books, hospital beds and medical supplies. Consequently the store is always well stocked with goods and has at times meant sending more than the two containers a month. However, so much depends on funding and as we are coming close to the end of another Rotary Year maybe your Club Treasurer can convince the President and his board to look towards financial support for DIK, a project serving needy people in our District. SPECIAL DELIVERIES In January RC Pine Rivers Daybreak (PRD?) sourced and packed into a container 168 desks and 200 chairs for a School in the Solomon Islands outside Honiara. All went well, goods were sent to the DIK store, RC PRD arrived to pack the container and in early February Rotarians from the Club went across to Honiara to unload and do a little tidying up while there, Sorry, no pictures, but I know the container arrived and that RC PRD came back. RC STANTHORPE GOES TO FIJI RC Stanthorpe packed a 40 ft container at the DIK store in February bound for Fiji. Mainly the school items for dispatch were delivered to DIK in advance with plenty make up delivered on the day of packing the container. WE SEND THE CONTAINER TO YOU! In April/May containers were packed ‘on site’, mainly hospital beds at Eventide and the Masonic Home by RC Sandgate and RC Kippa Ring The main advantage of packing on site is that it saves the double handling of goods if they have to be trucked to the DIK store HOSPITAL BEDS, BEDS AND MORE BEDS We can pack 30 plus beds in a 20ft container maybe up to 38, depending on the bed. They come as manual, hydraulic and electric. All are checked, the tilt, the wheels and the electric beds are plugged in before packing to confirm all are OK. before going into the container. We have been fortunate on occasions to attract funding assistance for a container of beds.. GOODBYE ? There is every possibility that this will be the last DIK newsletter I put together. It is the 95th such news contact over the years from when then DG Alan McCray invited me to be his DIK Chairman in 1991. John Paskin took the same position for District 9630 at around that time. Both John and I will be standing down at the end of this Rotary Year. For John and I it has been a ‘wonderful trip’, not only for the benefits we have been able to provide for our near-by neighbours but for the tremendous support we have received from the Rotarians in our Districts. I can’t say who will be taking over from us as there has not been a rush of volunteers, however, like the hand in the bucket of water someone will come forward. DIK STORE ROSTER TO DECEMBER 2014 Clubs from District 9600 on roster for duty to help pack containers are as follows: 7 June Bris High Rise Albany Creek 5 July Kenmore Sangdgate 2 August Bris Planetarium Karana Downs 6 September Ashgove/Gap Bribie island 4 October Brisbane Mid City Hamilton 1 November Redcliffe City Toowong 6 December Pine Rivers Daybreak Aspley RC Stanthope’s task! Looks a problem in the picture, but it is surprising how much you can pack in a 40ft container!. Clubs from District 9630 will be advised later. This DIK news sheet was put together by Bill Waterfield If your Club has something to say give me a call. [email protected] Tel: (61) 07 3201 0741 or call John Paskin on: [email protected] Tel: (61) 07 3355 4326
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