e-Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Patong Beach Phuket Thailand
Children from the Ban Ya Learning Centre enjoy clean water & have a fun day out on Costa Victoria Meetings Tuesday 7.00pm for 7.30pm @ Days Inn (formerly Aloha Villa) 145/2 Rat–U–Thit Road PATONG BEACH except 1st Tuesday of each month. Visitors Welcome - Dress code smart casual
http//www.rotarypatong.org
Issue
No. 481
- Volume 10 – No. 41 – 3rd May 2016
Rotary Year 2015-2016
K.R. "Ravi" Ravindran President Rotary International
Theeranan Wonglaw District Governor 3330
Walter Wyler President Patong Beach
The International Rotary Club of Patong Beach – Phuket Thailand
Australia
Netherlands
Austria
New Zealand
Emphasis on Education PCs4kids
Belgium
Canada
Switzerland
Germany
Thailand
Health & well-being
Greece
Hong Kong
Italy
United Kingdom United States
Education – Scholarships
The Rotary Club of Patong Beach Phuket Thailand Chartered 5th September 2001
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Coming Events Weekly Meeting @ 19.00 hours Tuesday 3rd May Dinner Out @Action Point Rawai by Vasilis Stergiou
Friday 6th – Sunday 8th May District Training Assembly @ Nakom Pathom
Tuesday 10th May PP Sam Fauma End of life planning in Thailand
Tuesday 17th May
Tuesday 24th May Dr. Peter Tschudi & Dr. Sirichai Silparcha Director
Tuesday 31st May John Dalley Soi Dog Foundation
Tuesday 7th June Dinner Out @ Skye Beach Club by Johan Storke
Tuesday 14th June
Tuesday 21st June
Tuesday 28th June
CLUB ASSEMBLY
Dr. Sopida Rattanapruks Bangkok Hospital – cardiovascular health
Club Programme 2015-2016 May
Dinner out: Action Point - Rawai District Training Assembly - Nakon Pathom
Vasilis Walter
10 17 24 31
PP Sam Fauma - End of Life Planning in Thailand
Sam
Dr. Peter Tschudi and Dr. Sirichai Silparcha, Director of Patong Hospital John Dalley - Soi Dog Foundation
Alastair
7 14 21 28
Dinner out: Skye Beach Club
Johan
CLUB ASSEMBLY Dr Sopida Rattanapruks, Bangkok Hospital How to take care of cardiovascular health at a certain age
Alastair
Tue
3
FrSun
6-8
Tue Tue Tue Tue Tue Tue Tue Tue
June
All events can be checked at http://www.rotarypatong.org/events-calendar/
Birthdays
Andy Phillips 4th May The Rotary Club of Patong Beach Phuket Thailand Chartered 5th September 2001
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PRESIDENT’S CORNER Quote of the week The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi
Club & Board Update Joint Meeting with RC of Andaman Last Tuesday it was our turn being the host for the members of the RC of Andaman. We had a great fellowship night and exchanged ideas and other information. We learned RC of Andaman has an annual subscription of 18,000 Baht plus the RI and District dues, a total of almost 22,000 Baht per year. That price includes all the meals of their weekly meeting too.
We agreed to keep our friendship and have more joint meetings, maybe even joint projects together
THANK YOU We received a 1,000 USD donation from the Rotary Club of Newport Beach Sunrise and District 5320. A big thank you to Steve Bender, the leader of the dental project conducted here in Patong. They shall get back sometimes in January with a dental hygiene project on those locations/schools we install the water filtrations systems.
Next Board Meeting The next board meeting is scheduled for Friday May 6 or Saturday May 7 on the occasion of the District Assembly in Nakhom Pathom. The main topic shall be the preparation for next year by PE Richard like budget, subscriptions fees, membership issues, etc. We shall keep all members updated here in the bulletin. District Info District Training Assembly: 6-8 May 2016 Mida Dhavaravati Grande Hotel, Nakhon Pathom At least the entire board (incumbent and incoming) should attend) Attending: PP Sam, PP David, President Walter, PE Richard, VP Peter, Treasurer Alastair, PP Denis WALTER
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Next Meeting - Tuesday 3rd May Dinner Out Another great Dinner Out @ Action Point Rawai organized by Vasilis Stergiou stergiou.vasilis@gmail.com
Menu Starter Crab toast on a bed of salad Main Course Chicken fillet mignon with mushroom sauce / mash and vegetables or (for those who don't want meat) Red snapper with sweet potato salad and spinach Desert Dame blanche The set menu price is 500 baht per person and there will be discounts for beverages and drinks.
57th Charter Anniversary Rotary Club of Pasay RC Pasay Manila Philippines The sister club of RC Patong Beach
President Rafael N. Hernandez, invites all members &partners to the Induction of officers on 21st May 2016 Do join Dr.Peter Harris & PP Denis Carpenter as we celebrate & welcome the officers for the 2016-2017 Rotary Year. Congratulations to all
Marc Martin, will be inducted as President A great time was had in 2015 when PP Larry, PP Brad, & PP Denis were made most welcome for a fun time at the 56th Charter Anniversary
The RC of Pasay are a super active club - do join us The Rotary Club of Patong Beach Phuket Thailand Chartered 5th September 2001
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Last Meeting – Tuesday 12th April It was an honour welcoming 9 members of the Rotary Club of Andaman led by President Thames Kraitat at the Days Inn
Steve Bender, President of Newport Sunrise Rotary Club /California and International Director for District 5320 was attending our meeting again this week. Steve was the organizer of the dental mission conducted last week. We have awarded him a certificate of appreciation for the tremendous work and the wonderful project. Steve, who serves a second term as President next year, will come back in January to conduct another great project in dental hygiene.
Audrey Wang visited us from the RC of Shanghai. She is an honorary member of that club, as Chinese citizens are not allowed to join Rotary Club in China as an ordinary member. She spoke about her club and the great projects they have
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We also awarded Khun Jimmie a certificate of appreciation for his support and service rendered to our club, not only for the dental project but also for the Ban Ya project
Steve Bender handed over USD 1,000 in cash 500 for the water projects we have in the future and the other for our other charity projects
We had great fellowship and basically agreed we should keep our friendship with RC of Andaman and RCoPB in the future and have more joint meetings, maybe even considering having joint projects.
Attendance: 26-4- 2016 Total Members: 34
Night reporter: Walter Wyler Photographers: PP Sam Fauma & Stewart Petersen Thank you ed
Attended Make-Ups: Attendance this week Month Visiting Rotarians: Visitors:
The Rotary Club of Patong Beach Phuket Thailand Chartered 5th September 2001
11 3 41.18% 38.24% 11 2
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THE BOYS' LUNCH CLUB A group of guys, all age 40, discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Hooters, because the waitresses had big breasts and wore short skirts. Ten years later, at age 50, the friends once again discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Hooters, because the waitresses were attractive. The food and service were good and the beer selection was excellent. Ten years later, at age 60, the friends again discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Hooters, because there was plenty of parking, they could dine in peace and quiet with no loud music, and it was good value for the money. Ten years later, at age 70, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Hooters, because the restaurant was wheelchair accessible and had a toilet for the disabled. Ten years later, at age 80, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch. Finally it was agreed that they would meet at Hooters, because they had never been there before.
Life as we now know it now……………………………Oh No ……………
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Rotary International News
CRISIS AT THE DOORSTEP Muhammad Mallah Hamza (left) with Rotarian Andreas von Bardeau outside Bardeau's castle, Schloss Kornberg. Photo Credit: Mark Baker
of the Balkan countries toward Germany.
More than a million refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan streamed into the European Union last year. Most entered via Greece after a harrowing raft trip across the Aegean Sea from Turkey. Once there, they made their way north, often on foot, traveling more than 1,000 miles through the rugged mountains
That was the uncertain odyssey facing Muhammad Mallah Hamza, a 26-year-old ethnic Kurd, in late 2014 when he decided to leave his native Syria. The trip would lead the recent college graduate to a picturesque Austrian village – and into the arms of a local Rotary club that would allow him to begin a new life while helping others in his situation. I meet with Mallah Hamza in a cafe in his new hometown of Feldbach in the southeastern Austrian state of Styria. The town of 5,000 people, best-known for producing white wine and pumpkinseed oil, is far removed from the chaos of the Middle East. It’s the kind of place where schools and churches are well-scrubbed and bank branches and drugstores are shiny, and where the loudest sounds on the streets are bicycle bells. It’s now home to around 150 refugees. Mallah Hamza is, as they say in Austria, sympathisch – that is, immediately likable, with a calm demeanor and an easy smile that disappears only when he speaks about the situation he left in Syria. As a recent graduate of Damascus University with a degree in English literature, he explains, he was about to lose his exemption from serving in the army of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and being forced to fight the array of rebel groups, including Islamic State (ISIS), that are opposed to Assad’s rule. “I did not want to die fighting ISIS,” he says. Mallah Hamza’s perilous two-month journey from Syria to Styria was routine for refugees making their way from the Middle East to the relative safety of Europe. He first crossed the Syrian border into Turkey, where human traffickers arranged passage on a 9-foot-long rubber raft bound for Greece. The tiny vessel held seven others and was barely fit for the crossing. “It rained so hard that night,” Mallah Hamza says, describing the passage. “It was horrible.” Once in Greece, Mallah Hamza surrendered to police and was placed in temporary detention to begin the process of requesting asylum. Here, he says, he learned that many – perhaps even most – people in Europe do not want the refugees. “The police treated us like animals,” he says. “For three days, they did not give us food or water. They wore masks and touched us with gloves as if we carried disease.” From Greece, Mallah Hamza set out on a tortuous, nerve-wracking journey north. It began with a two-week trek through the woods to the Albanian frontier, where he and a fellow refugee befriended a border guard who hid them in an apartment in the capital, Tirana. From Albania, more furtive border crossings by night and plenty of bribes paid to police and hotel receptionists took them through Montenegro, Serbia, Hungary, and finally Austria, where they wound up at the Traiskirchen refugee camp, 20 miles south of Vienna. In Traiskirchen, Mallah Hamza lodged a formal application for Austrian asylum and was reassigned to a shelter in the village of Edelsbach, not far from Feldbach. The final stop of Mallah Hamza’s journey proved particularly fateful, both for him and for the Rotary Club of Feldbach. On his first morning at the shelter, he wandered into Edelsbach to get some bread and found himself face to face with 69-year-old baker Fritz Hummel. The rapport between the two men was immediate, and they struck up a close friendship. “Fritz Hummel treated me like a son,” Mallah Hamza says. Hummel is just as affectionate: “He’s a great kid,” he says. Hummel describes himself as “not your typical Rotary guy.” Most of the 48 members of the Feldbach club are doctors or other professionals. Hummel, a Rotarian for more than 20 years, works in a bakery that was founded by his father in 1953 and is now run by his son. He’s a big man with an obvious appetite for bread and pastry, but The Rotary Club of Patong Beach Phuket Thailand Chartered 5th September 2001
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with perhaps an even bigger heart. “I traveled to Syria 40 years ago and I was treated very well there,” Hummel says. “Rotary means helping people, and that’s what I wanted to do.” Before the refugee crisis, Feldbach Rotarians were best-known for sponsoring the town’s annual Christmas concert and raising scholarship money for local students, but the connection between Mallah Hamza and Hummel led the club to become more deeply involved in solving Austria’s most pressing problem in years. The centerpiece of that effort is a program to collect donations of money and household items to help the refugees adjust. “We give them clothes, food, computers, and televisions, as well as used bicycles,” Hummel says. “We also help them to meet with doctors and lawyers from the club.” The sheer number of refugees – as many as 6,000 a day entering the European Union late last year – has spurred a powerful backlash in Austria against the EU’s largely open-door refugee policy. Opinion polls show that Austrians are deeply divided on the issue of accepting the refugees. A survey by researcher GfK-Austria in October revealed that 49 percent of Austrians want the inflow slowed or halted through tougher border controls. Given the amount of apprehension and fear, the Feldbach club’s role extends beyond providing material goods and services to trying to inform the general population, according to Rotarian Manfred Krasnitzer. “Rotary members are the town’s opinion-makers,” he says. “When people here have a more realistic idea of what is happening, they can correct their impressions.” In sketching out a role for the Feldbach club, Krasnitzer says members need to start thinking further ahead. “This means, first of all, helping the refugees to learn German,” he says. “Then we need to identify skills within the refugee population and to help them to make contacts so that they can find meaningful work.” The desire to demonstrate ways to help the new arrivals sparked an ambitious plan to provide temporary housing in a former hunting lodge on the grounds of a Renaissance chateau near Feldbach. Schloss Kornberg is the family estate of Andreas von Bardeau, a count and a member of the Feldbach Rotary Club. (His wife, Anna, is a great-granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Habsburg throne whose assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 set off World War I.) Bardeau is an affable man in his 50s with a no-nonsense business attitude softened by a dose of aristocratic charm. “I was brought up in a house where we were taught to think ‘European’ and ‘international,’” he says. “I wanted to show people here that the situation is calm.” The Kornberg hunting lodge has a long history of welcoming refugees: The building housed displaced persons for several years after both world wars. Through his connection to the Feldbach club and his friendship with Hummel, Bardeau got to know Mallah Hamza and eventually hired him to live in and manage the shelter, which opened in November. Mallah Hamza’s ties to Rotary have also helped him obtain a long-term residence permit and a driver’s license, both of which are crucial documents as he starts a new life. The Rotary club’s actions may have inspired other local groups to do more to reach out to refugees. Back in Feldbach proper, a local high school has started classes for school-age refugees who would not otherwise have access to Austrian schools. While the Feldbach club is not directly involved in the venture, everyone knows and influences one another in a small town like this. Edith Kohlmeier, the school’s cheerful, busy director, provided an hour of her morning to talk about the difficulties facing schools around the country as they cope with an influx of refugee children. Under Austrian law, pupils must have some type of legal standing to attend classes. With thousands of refugees – including many children without parents – in legal limbo, the law has created an enormous gap in the support network. Kohlmeier’s school had recently undergone an extensive renovation that left a free classroom to teach school-age refugees. Some 20 high school students who came to Europe without their parents attend classes taught by volunteers from Caritas Austria, a Roman Catholic charity that has been assisting refugees since World War I. “We give the children some structure in their day,” Kohlmeier says. Most of the kids are picking up German pretty quickly, she says, but the bigger problems are the differences among the refugee populations, including the pupils’ varying levels of education. “Many of the Syrian students have had years of secondary education, while refugees from Afghanistan may have never set foot in a school before in their lives,” she says. On the last day of my visit, I meet the first refugee families arriving at Schloss Kornberg, one from Syria and the other from Afghanistan. The lodge has been meticulously fitted out with the latest in kitchen appliances, washing machines, beds, and other furnishings and can house up to eight families. Bardeau paid the initial costs out of pocket, but he will eventually be reimbursed by the state, depending on the number of refugees and length of their stay. The newcomers beam as they glimpse their new home and its grand setting. Mallah Hamza beams back at them as he shows them where to leave their things and leads them to the kitchen where they will prepare their first meal. Rotarian 1-May-2016 The Rotary Club of Patong Beach Phuket Thailand Chartered 5th September 2001
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Photos of the week by PP Denis A few more from Hanoi Vietnam
The outdoor cut
the magnificent post office
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Rotary District 3330 District Governor – Theeranan Wonglow Rotary Club of Patong Beach Current Board and office holders 2015- 2016 President
Walter Wyler
Immediate Past President
Bradley Kenny
Vice President
Dr. Peter Harris
President Elect
Richard Jones
President Nominee 2017- 2018
Andy Becker
Secretary
David Arell
Treasurer
Alastair Carthew COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS & OFFICERS
Membership
Best Wanamakok
Service’s Projects
Dr. Peter Harris
Rotary Foundation
Friedrich “Sam” Fauma
Public Relations
Vasilis Stergiou
Club Administration
Alastair Carthew
Scholarships
Dr. Peter Harris
Fundraising
Martin Quirke
Sergeant at Arms
Stewart Petersen Jack Christensen
Webmaster
Andrea Buosi
Bulletin Editor
Denis Carpenter
Rotary Club of Patong Beach Paul Harris Fellows Andreas “Andy” Becker
Jirawat “Beer” Kuramakanok
Donald McCulloch
Hau Yin “Able” Wanamakok
Heidi Jaunch
PP Mark H Pendlebury
Patricia (Pat) Michel
Dr. Peter Harris
Multiple Paul Harris Fellow Rotarians PP Arnaud C.M.C. Verstraete
(8)
Boon Pongchiboon
(2)
PP Bradley Kenny
(4)
PP David W Arell
(2)
PP Denis Carpenter
(3)
PP Friedrich “Sam’ Fauma
(3)
PP Larry Amsden
(3)
PP Martin Quirke
(3)
PP Otho Beale “O.B.”Wetzell
(2)
Wolfgang Meusberger
(2)
PP Phuwanai ”Best” Wanamakok (2)
Past Presidents 2001-2002
C.P Paiboon Upatising
2008-2009
Michael Massey
2002-2003
Jeroen Deknatel
2009-2010
Gregory WOODY Leonhard
2003-2004
Neil Cumming
2010-2011
Mark Pendlebury
2004-2005
Friedrich “Sam” Fauma
2011-2012
Best Wanamakok
2005-2006
Arnaud CMC Verstraete
2012-2013
Larry Amsden
2006-2007
David Arell
2013-2014
Denis Carpenter
2007-2008
Otho Beale “O.B” Wetzell
2014-2015
Bradley E Kenny
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