Serving the local community and addressing global concerns
Mosman is situated on a peninsula between Sydney Harbour and Middle Harbour and is known for its charming residential character, stunning harbour beaches, bushland, and proximity to attractions like Taronga Zoo and Sydney Harbour National Park.
Its affluent reputation may make it easy to overlook some of complex challenges such as homelessness, food insecurity, domestic violence, unemployment and disaffected youth that lie beneath the surface of many Australian cities. Rotary’s strength lies in its ability to bring together community minded individuals of diverse backgrounds to discuss and address such community challenges.
Throughout our storied history, we have changed with the times to keep on making an impact on our local community while at the same time contributing to Rotary’s global initiatives.
Timor Leste Preschool
Fifty-three children started kindergarten in the village of Hera a small town outside Timor Leste’s capital Dili, thanks to the work of Rotary club members from Mosman (NSW) and Coromandel (SA). The Hera Pre-School opened for classes in February 2025.
In October, prior to the opening, Past Rotary Presidents Barry Starr and Richard Vahtrick, accompanied by another 12 Rotary members, were welcomed by the local community which was very involved in creating the kindergarten. Mr Starr and Mr Vahtrick both spoke to the audience which included the Minister for Education, representatives from the Australian and USA embassies and other dignitaries.
They were in Timor Leste for the 10th anniversary of the running of the Rotary Youth Leadership Award, RYLA, in 2019 and visited Hera at the request of Domingos Pereira, a community leader and RYLA graduate.
They shared their vision to build a pre-school. Pre-school education is an important priority in Timor Leste.
Mr Vahtrick helped build a business case to fund the school. Their preparations were interrupted by Covid, stalling for three years, but budgets, building designs and how the project would be run and managed continued.
Mr Starr revisited Timor Leste in 2022 to finalise the project which is built on land donated by Mr Pereira’s father.
“A building doesn’t make a school, furniture and fittings don’t make a school,” Mr Vahtrick said.
“What makes a school is the ethos and how the school is run so that the children continue to love coming here”.
From the smiles on the children’s (and parents’) faces on day one there is little doubt that this Rotary-sponsored kindergarten will be a bright part of many children’s futures.
Vietnam Hand Surgeons
The Australian Hand Surgery Project allows teams of Australian hand surgeons to run clinics, train local surgeons, and provide surgical equipment to Vietnam.
This has been very successful project led by Dr Peter Scougall aided by his long running association with Mosman Rotary and some medical charities. These photos show the surgeons at work conducting training and some happy patients in the ward following surgery.
This report from Dr Scougall covers the November 2024 trip supported by Mosman Rotary
Thanks for sponsoring our trip last week, which went well. Particular thanks to Blair Leslie who was very helpful with travel / visas etc. (with Kate Vasiliou at Mosman travel).
A one week visit to Hue Central Hospital. It is the Hospital’s 130th birthday this year. I understand they are planning for expansions to become a 6,000 bed hospital (currently 4,000).
Our team:
Hand Surgeons: Damian Ryan, Richard Lawson, Xuan Ye, Matthew White and me (all Sydney based. Xuan also treats shoulders and helped with the shoulder program.
Prof. Jagdeep Nanchahal, University of Oxford, England.
Hand Therapists: Rosemary Prosser (Sydney), Cate Menzies (Wollongong and South Coast).
Shoulder surgeon: David Lieu (Western Sydeney).
Shoulder Therapist: Michael Pasqualin (Western Sydney).
The course was organised by Dr Phu, now the Director of Hands and Plastics at the Hospital.
This visit was more complicated than previous years, as we ran multiple teaching seminars, which often coincided with our clinical commitments. Difficult to organise, but we had a large enough team to allow for that.
Hand and wrist sessions: Trauma review course/ soft tissue cover for registrars.
Microsurgery workshops using konjac noodles (an excellent teaching model and new addition this year) and chicken legs.
Wrist arthroscopy (also a new addition)
Research and difficult case discussion
Shoulder registrar and surgeon courses.
Hand Therapy / Rehabilitation course.
We ran a teaching clinic on Monday morning, when we saw more than 30 patients. The focus this week was more on teaching, rather than clinical work.
The hand team operated for 2.5 days (x2 operating theatres). The shoulder team operated for 1.5 days.
Approximately 120 participants joined the course (approx. 70 from out of town and 50 local). They were keen, involved and asked very interesting, well informed questions. They had good technical skills, particularly in the microsurgery workshop, which they really enjoyed.
At the end of the course we were able to distribute 20 sets of microsurgery instruments to surgeons from different areas, thanks to the generosity of our donors (Mosman Rotary, Orthopaedic Outreach, Australian Hand Surgery Society and St Lukes Hospital, Kings Cross).
The sets were arranged via Richard Appleyard, Director of the Orthopaedic Lab at Macquarie Hospital.
Most of us travelled on Saturday 26/10, but 3 planned to travel on Sunday (Richard, David and Michael). Unfortunately, Hue airport was closed on Sunday due to a typhoon, so they needed to overnight in Ho Chi Minh City and arrived around midday on Monday.
A successful course. The program has evolved to accommodate their changing needs. We are now focussing on helping with teaching, introducing subspecialty skills (including arthroscopy) and helping with more research involvement (for presentations at international meetings and publications in international medical journals).
Thanks again for your ongoing support.