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Living the dreams

President-elect Shekhar Mehta isn’t afraid to make big plans. And with a little teamwork, he has a way of making them reality. Photography by Sephi Bergerson Throughout an hour-long interview with Rotary magazine, Shekhar Mehta mentions dreaming no fewer than a dozen times. Dreams about repairing broken hearts. About eradicating...

Helping the hungry feed themselves

Tasmanian agricultural scientist and Officer of the Order of Australia recipient, Bruce French, has spent over 50 years on a voluntary mission to document information on all the food plants of the world. Bruce has established a database of more than 32,000 edible plants, which continues to grow. The database...

BeefBank: boosts food agencies during pandemic

When COVID-19 hit Australia, food agencies across the country were suddenly overwhelmed. But BeefBank, a charity set up and run by members of the Rotary Club of Brisbane Centenary, Qld, was well placed to help. BeefBank’s aim is to provide meat protein to food agencies, primarily in southeast Queensland. The...

School + A Cup of Porridge = Hope

Nancy and Jane (pictured) are pupils at Bujju Primary School, a rural school in Uganda. Like many other children, they both love going to school. The two bright students, both school prefects, were set to sit their primary leaving examinations (exams leading to their transition into secondary school). However, despite...

Fuelling Townsville’s students

In December 2020, the Rotary Club of Townsville, Qld, hosted Demelza Gardem and Paula Pool, founders of local charity Fuel for Schools Ltd (FFSL). Demelza, a local high school teacher, confronted club members with the staggering statistic that one in seven secondary school children in Townsville were coming to school...

Food hub for Murray Bridge

When you are a mother feeding a family of 11, a 5kg bag of potatoes doesn’t go very far. PDG Wendy Gaborit OAM recognised that Murray Bridge, SA, and its drought-stricken rural environs had a hunger problem in its community. Children were turning up for school without breakfast and there...