This Weeks Meeting

Val grew up on a wheat and sheep property in Western Victoria. She came to Canberra to train as a Registered General Nurse, and followed soon after to train as a midwife.

Her husband was a technician, so she did an accounting course to attend to the bookkeeping. They have a son and a daughter, both of whom were overseas in 1993, Stuart working at a school for his 13^th year, and Sharyn in Japan. Stuart speaks Mandarin, and Sharyn speaks Japanese. Both been to university and both have good jobs in the workforce. She has five grandchildren, two in Melbourne and three in Canberra. Val chose to do a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting with a major in law, and transferred to the public service, as shift worker with no family support was too difficult. Prior to university, she was a Toastmaster, and reached the level of competency. Following university, joined Rotary instead, attending all the District Conferences but has only been to the Sydney and Melbourne International conferences. She has mainly been Youth and International Director over time, due to heavy work demands, and has a Rotary RAWCS project in Nepal.  She has been a Rotary volunteer twice to northern Thailand, once to School of St Jude’s in Arusha, Tanzania, once on two tours around Nepal with another member’s project delivering educational resources to remote areas. She has been to the united Mission Hospital twice, once for 12 days with Professor David Croaker, a surgical specialist in Canberra, who volunteers his services at the hospital, and because of him and an Indian restaurant proprietor tapping me on the shoulder, the RAWCS project was thought of and eventually created.