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Upcoming Events
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Mar 05, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Mar 12, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
Sandstone Pt Dinner with Ian Risely
Sandstone Point Hotel
Mar 18, 2018
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
 
Districts 9600, 9630, 9640, Dinner with Ian Risely
Fitzy's Hotel
Mar 19, 2018
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
 
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Mar 26, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Apr 02, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
District 9600 District Conference
Maroochy RSL Events Centre
Apr 20, 2018 6:00 PM –
Apr 22, 2018 12:00 PM
 
Testimonial Luncheon for James Delahunty
Victoria Park Golf Course
Apr 29, 2018
12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
 

Meeting Roster

5 March 2018
President                D Vankov
Chair                      G Bishop
Minutes                  C Shepherd
Front Desk            D Schellbach/                              L Marshall
 

12 March 2018

President              D Vankov
Chair                    C Gibson
Minutes                M Williams
Front Desk            J Smerdon/
                           L Marshall

19 March 2018

Meeting Cancelled

26 March 2018

President           D Vankov
Chair                 J Frew
Minutes             C Shepherd
Front Desk        D Schellbach/                        J Smerdon
 

2 April 2018

President              D Vankov
Chair                    P Gresham
Minutes                M Williams
Front Desk           D Schellbach/
                        L Marshall
 
Speakers
May 14, 2018 12:45 PM
View entire list
ClubRunner
Stories
Quick Editorial
There was no meeting this week, and hence no President's message and no minutes, but nevertheless there is a short bulletin.
 
On Thursday 1st March, RCoB held the first in what we intend to be an annual series of Rotary International Women's Day Breakfasts. From the point of view it was a qualified success, with a total turnout of 41, including about 20 drawn from RCoB members, future members, past members, families and one Rotary Peace Fellow. The other half consisted of visitors from other Rotary clubs, the speakers and non-Rotary guests. We have a good platform from which to build future events. From the point of view of content, it was a roaring success. Both DGE Wendy Protheroe and Julie McDonald OAM gave highly entertaining speeches liberally laced with thought-provoking anecdotes and reflections. If we can keep up this quality of speaker, the IRWD breakfast seminar can become a solid event on the Brisbane social calendar. I will give a preliminary shout-out to PP Keith Watts for his indefatigable and tenacious championing and promotion of this event, but there were several people who contributed to this project and there will be a full write-up next Bulletin when we will have some of the photographs taken by Lauren Panrucker for the Village News.
 
President Daniel has asked me to remind members that at the next meeting on Monday 5th March, Luke Marshall will be our member in the spotlight.
 
--ed
Rediscovering traditional justice in Africa
By George Chacha, 2013 Rotary Peace Fellow at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Before Europeans colonized much of Africa, local villagers had their own way of resolving conflicts through traditional justice systems. The community would select a certain number of elders, who they felt most suitable for deciding cases, to handle disputes. A distinctive characteristic of these traditional justice systems is that they primarily sought to heal relations between victims and offenders, in contrast to English Common Law, which by and large seeks to punish offenders as a deterrent to further offenses.
 

As English Common Law became the predominant justice system in Africa, many tribes gradually abandoned their own means of settling grievances altogether. Unfortunately, an end result was that justice became more and more elusive, especially to those who live on less than a dollar a day.

As a Rotary Peace Fellow sponsored by the Rotary Club of Ashland, Oregon, USA, I was privileged to study peace and conflict resolution for a professional development certificate at the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. My time there in 2013 energized me to return to my native Kenya, and dedicate myself to dusting off the old justice systems that existed before English Common Law. I became dedicated to sounding the trumpet to the outside world that there were other systems that could serve as a fountain of justice and provide greater access to the disenfranchised.

After much work, local organizations began to take interest in a system used by the Kuria tribe called Justice Under Tree (as the hearings are conducted under a tree). In December, the Kenyan government sent a task force from the judiciary to study this system. Courts in Kenya will now recognize rulings/judgments rendered by these long forgotten traditional methods as long as they do not contravene the country’s constitution.

There are several gains in the recognition of the Kuria justice system:

  1. Justice will be accessible at very low cost and affordable to everyone.
  2. Justice will take less than three weeks (three sittings) to conclude (as compared to 14 years that cases can take in conventional courts).
  3. The proceedings will be conducted in the language that local folks understand, with no legal jargon and in a friendly atmosphere.
  4. There will be no legal technicalities which often give an upper hand to violators over their victims.
  5. Sittings are conducted in the conflict area, where neighbors can be sought to verify the claims of the conflicting parties.
  6. Tycoons who have been grabbing land from the poor will now have a harder time doing so.
  7. There is more chance the end results restore relationships and strengthen the fabric of the community

I am grateful for my time at Chulalongkorn, and my Rotary scholarship that allowed me to play a part in making justice more accessible in my native country.

Learn more about Rotary Peace Fellowships

About the author: George Chacha received a Rotary Peace Fellowship to study at Chulalongkorn University in 2013. He is the founder and director of People for Rural Change Trust, a community organization which works on peace and cohesion, among others issues, in the western part of Kenya.

Two brothers take aim at eliminating hepatitis
By Fred Mesquita, Rotary Club of São Paulo-Jardim das Bandeiras, São Paulo, Brazil
In front of the hydroelectric power plant in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. About 11,000 cubic meters of water pass over the dam a second.

 

Two brothers, a car, one important social cause, a lot of courage, and many adventures along the way. That’s how our Expedition “Me Leva Junto” (Take me with you) began in October 2015, now more commonly known as the “Hepatitis Zero Expedition.”

My brother José Eduardo and I completed the first stage of our expedition, the Americas, in December, traveling through 20 countries and visiting 274 cities on the American continent. All our efforts are volunteer; there is no sponsorship from any company or organization.

AT RIGHT: Fred Mesquita and his brother, José Eduardo, in Nicaragua preparing for a newspaper interview.

 
When we started our journey, we set a goal of carrying out hundreds of thousands of Hepatitis C exams and visiting all the world’s continents. Besides having a direct impact on more than 50,000 people, we never dreamed that we would lunch with a country’s president, swim with a whale shark, or be the guests of honor at a banquet with a homeless person who only had a mud hut to live in. Our experiences have also included difficulties like almost being kidnapped in Mexico and having our tent freeze and car break down due to extreme cold in Patagonia.
 

There are so many adventures and challenges that we have recorded in our virtual book; which narrates the twists and turns of our expedition. In Brazil, we performed approximately 10,000 rapid tests and diagnosed more than 100 hepatitis sufferers who had their lives saved when they were diagnosed and directed for treatment. Our aim is to bring knowledge and guidance to thousands of people worldwide who have hepatitis and have not been diagnosed. We have visited Rotary clubs throughout the Americas as well as meeting with health authorities and experts at universities and other locations.

Countries visited include Brazil, Paraguai, Uruguai, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, United States, Cuba, Canada, Iceland.

You can support our effort by visiting our crowdfunding campaign. All of the proceeds of our virtual book go to supporting our expedition.

Club Officers

President                   Daniel Vankov
Secretary                   Michael Stephens
Treasurer                   Warren Walker
President Elect          Chris Muir
Imm. Past President  Graeme Whitmore
Sergeant-at-arms       Luke Marshall
The Rotary Club of Brisbane Inc.
ABN 75 152 438 499
GPO BOX 2909 Brisbane Qld 4001
District               9600
Club Number   17787

District Governor

John Lane

Rotary International President

Ian Riseley