As of June 30, 2008 the Stamp project will have been in existence for 28 years. During that time it is estimated that stamps with the aggregate value of approximately $400,000 will have been sent overseas. From small beginnings in 1960, the project now handles more than 10 tonnes of envelopes per year. Approximately 1 tonne of ‘trimmed’ stamps per year are sent overseas. The bulk of these go to Oxfam in England, with the balance being sent to Rotary clubs in Madras and Calcutta in India.

The recipients sell the stamps into the retail stamp collector’s trade and use the proceeds to assist various projects they are involved in. Trimming of the stamps provides valuable occupational therapy for many people in nursing homes etc, and we are fortunate to have a large band of voluntary people who support our project.

Waste paper (mainly envelopes) is re-cycled and the proceeds used to cover our small running costs with the balance being donated to worthwhile Rotary projects.

Districts 9450, 9470, 9750, 9640.

Contact Keith Reinke for more information (07) 5541 0580
Email: randmore@hotkey.net.au

Don’t throw your stamps away throw them our way!
Bring them with you to Ecoexpo

Save Water Save Lives (SWSL) originated in District 981. John Van Der Haar of the Rotary Club of Ringwood, returning from a trip in the island of Flores, was concerned by the plight of the local people who spent six months of the year faced with desperate water shortages. For the other half of the year there was abundant rainfall.John was able to make use of his knowledge of swimming pool constructions to design a transportable and reusable framework which, with a little training, allowed villages to construct a concrete water tank in one day. Construction used mainly material available locally. These water tanks transformed the social and economic fabric of the island of Flores.

This type of framework has been used in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Thailand and India, and is possibly still in use. As one half of the people of the world do not have ready access to safe drinking water and water-related diseases may claim as many as 25 million lives a year, there is a huge need to be met.

SWSL as an activity of RAWCS (in full) has expanded its approach to the provision of water. It now encompasses the provision of water catchments, reticulation and the construction of a variety to tanks.

Clubs are encouraged to provide members for SWSL training teams and financial support for the water projects.
Rotary district 9640 chair preserve planet earth

Contact Keith Reinke for more information: (07) 5541 0580
Email: randmore@hotkey.net.au

The Temple Solar Project finances, purchases, delivers and sets in operation large baking and cooking sun ovens in world-wide locations where natural fuels are depleted and populations are undernourished. The large Villager Sun Ovens are the basis for self-supporting community bakeries to replace outdated and environmentally harmful methods of cooking and to provide new, healthy means for feeding the citizens in deprived areas of underdeveloped nations.

The Temple Solar Project, a humanitarian service of Rotary District 6450, has brought the means for cooking and baking without fossil fuels to numerous communities in foreign lands where natural resources have been depleted or are at great risk.

Beaudesert Rotary working with the Rotary Temple solar oven association is placing thier first solar oven in to the USA River children centre in Arusha, Tanzania. The oven will provide food for the orphanage and school located in the children centre and also pasturise water and sterialise medical equipment for the rest of the village.

For more information on the Temple Solar Oven Project visit their website or contact Keith Reinke.

See solar cooking in action!