Community Projects
School Kitchen Garden
The School Kitchen Garden is a hands-on learning program whereby students learn how to grow, harvest, prepare and serve fresh food. They become involved is planting seeds, watering, fertilising and caring for edible plants.
They harvest the crop and then learn how to store, prepare, cook and serve them as nutritious food. No doubt they enjoy eating the fruits of their labour and thereby develop an understanding of vegetable farming from paddock to plate.
The Rotary Club of St Peters in conjunction with the MGA Whittles Community Foundation supports the Trinity Gardens School Kitchen Garden.
Stephanie Alexander AO, one of Australia’s most recognised cooks, food educators and authors, established the Kitchen Garden Foundation in 2004, following the success of the first kitchen garden program piloted in 2001.
The motivation for this work came from Stephanie’s awareness of the growing childhood obesity problem in Australia.
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation supports early childhood services and primary and secondary schools across Australia.
Environmental Grants
In 2021, Rotary International recognised and adopted the protection of the Environment as its seventh Area of Focus.
The Rotary Club of St Peters, with support from the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters, offers grants of $50 to $1000 each year to individuals, schools, community groups or businesses to fund projects that will make a positive difference to the local environment.
Awardees are selected on the project’s likely impact for creating positive environmental change, simplicity and its applicability for other groups to adopt and learn from it. Applications are open between July 1st and 31st October each year.
Environmental Sustainability Grants 2024-25
The RCSP is offering grants to individuals, community groups, schools or businesses, preferably in the local area, to assist them undertake actions that will make a positive difference to the environment.
Grants are normally to a maximum of $1000, however projects with great merit may attract more.
Selection of awardees will be based on:
- the environmental impact the project will have
- the project’s simplicity and its applicability to other groups
- the ability of the project to be sustained without ongoing financial support from the RCSP
- evidence that any previously RCSP funded project has been maintained, where appropriate
Application to be made before October 31st with the grant period running until July 2025.
Information can be downloaded here -
An application form can be downloaded from here -
NOTE: PHOTO IS FOR PLACEHOLDER PURPOSES. SOURCED FROM PEXELS WEBSITE.
Youth Projects
Water Safety Skills
The Rotary Club of St Peters sponsored a $2300 grant to teach swimming skills and raise awareness of beach dangers for new Australians and refugees.
New arrivals in Australia, especially from certain countries, have a higher risk of drowning due to factors such as limited experience with swimming and water safety, and a lack of awareness about local hazards. In 2024, there were 323 drowning deaths in Australia -- which represents a 165% increase over a 10-year period. According to media coverage, 25% of these were people born overseas. This statistic has been picked up by the press which has noted an urgent need for immigrants to learn water safety skills.
Rotary St Peters would like to sponsor a class for up to 20 participants to help them develop water safety skills and increase their water safety awareness. These one-hour classes would be run over four weeks from Friday 30 May to Friday 20 June 2025. The Royal Life Saving Society would identify and select the participants.
The program, developed in concert with Royal Lifesaving Society SA, will sponsor a water skills class for up to 20 participants. The 1.5-hour classes will run over five weeks and commenced Monday 19 May. The courses include 45 minutes on theory, i.e. CPR, and 45 minutes practical in the pool. Sixteen participants from China and India took part.
NOTE: PHOTO IS FOR PLACEHOLDER PURPOSES. SOURCED FROM PEXELS WEBSITE.
Norwood International High School Pedal Prix
From the 20th to the 22nd of September, Norwood International High School took part in the 24-hour pedal prix race at Murray Bridge.
In 2024, the Rotary Club of St Peters' sponsorship of $4,000 was a key contributor to the team's success and realistically the turning point of getting the 2024 cohort of students across to the Energy Breakthrough in Victoria, according to Manager Ben Campbell. The team took it from there, Campbell said, rode brilliantly and survived a challenging (but a heck of fun) race.
In 2025, the sponsorship partnership continued with a further allocation of $4,000, the focus this period being on supporting the team in competitions, becoming energy efficient and the development of leadership, communication and team building.
Environmental Projects
Foundation for Australia's Most Endangered Species (FAME)
FAME has been actively involved in conservation efforts, particularly after the devastating bushfires of 2019/2020 that raised concerns about the Kangaroo Island Assassin Spider survival. FAME's focus is to prevent the extinction of the critically endangered Kangaroo Island assassin spider (Zephyrarchaea Austin) various initiatives, including habitat restoration and funding ecological surveys. The spider is no ordinary arachnid.
Weekend camp in the Flinders cataloguing endangered flora or fauna.
NOTE: PHOTO IS PLACEHOLDER ONLY
NOTE: PHOTO IS PLACEHOLDER ONLY
International Projects
Vision of Islands
Vision of Islands is a non-profit volunteer eye surgical and clinical team, providing free-of-charge cataract removal for South Pacific Islanders (of all ages) who would otherwise be blind. To date the team, led by ophthalmologist Dr John Willoughby OAM, has worked in Tonga and Tuvalu.
Can you help restore sight to people in our neighbouring Pacific nations? The Rotary Club of Mobilong seeks financial support from clubs in District 9510 to allow Dr John Willoughby and his team to continue and extend this work.
Vision of Islands operates under the direction of the Ministry of Health of each participating country. Their medical outreach team trains the local medical staff in patient care. They provide medical and teaching equipment and train local staff in their use, as well as extend specialist eye services to remote areas where people lack specialist services because of remoteness.
The team provides all equipment, expendables and teaching materials (with backup). They remove all their refuse, leaving the island as clean or cleaner than on arrival.
Their goal is to include Registrar trainees from Australasia in the program to expose them to aspects of humanitarian care where they will also see extreme need and advanced pathology. They also aim to take other professionals who may wish to serve or study topics covering several island nations.
Their first volunteer trip back to the Pacific Islands since the Covid-19 Pandemic was made in August 2023 when Dr Willoughby performed 32 surgeries in the island nation of Tuvalu.
Dr Willoughby provides his surgical skills free of charge. But there are other huge ongoing overheads like travel costs, medical equipment, transport and mobile facilities to reach remote clinics.
CAN YOU HELP?
Your club will be acknowledged by Vision of Islands as a Supporting Donor. Funding support should be transferred to the following account:
Rotary Club of Mobilong Inc
BSB: 015 665
Account number: 2037-39024
For personal or corporate tax deductions click on this link: https://donations.rawcs.com.au/58 -2023-24
Please include the name of your club and Vision of Islands in the reference.
We ask clubs to please consider a donation of $500.00 but any amount will be received gratefully. The Rotary Club of Mobilong will also be applying for a Global Grant to assist Dr Willoughby in his on-going work restoring sight.
Books for Lesotho (B4L)
Books for Lesotho (B4L) collects, sorts, packs and transports books that are suitable for placing in libraries in schools in Lesotho, Africa. All books must be in good condition and either in English or Sesotho. The Rotary Club of St Peters Inc supports B4L through donations of books carefully selected and screened for suitability by the “Books” team at the Rotary Shed on Linde, Stepney.
The Rotary Shed operates on the premise of a circular economy, donated books are sorted by condition, with soiled unsaleable books taken by a group for recycling into pet litter. Saleable books are then categorised into genre. Those in demand by B4L are packaged and forwarded on for distribution to schools in Lesotho. The Rotary Club St Peters understands that distribution comes at a cost and an annual donation of $1.000 is made to B4L to assist cover the costs.
Fiction and non-fiction books are donated by schools which no longer require them, libraries cleaning out their shelves and private donors. These are then packed by volunteers according to their suitability for different age groups, ensuring each school receives a range of books for different reading proficiencies.
Shipments of books are sent to Rotary Club of Maloti (RCoMA). These books have been used in Rotary Projects that have included the establishment of several “community libraries”. These libraries are also used by nearby schools. Books have also been delivered to a pre-school.
Lesotho is home to some 2500 primary schools and 250 high schools, and it is Books for Lesotho's dream to see a library in every one of these schools.
NOTE: PHOTO IS PLACEHOLDER ONLY. SOURCED FROM B4L WEBSITE.
AllKids - Cambodia
AllKids is a not-for-profit organisation providing education to disadvantaged children. The AllKids program is focused on the coastal commune of Ream in Sihanouk Province, Cambodia.
Many of the local of children were not attending school or only attending infrequently. The AllKids Learning Centres offer tuition in programs not available in the public schools such as English and IT.
Paul Otto has been working in Cambodia with Allkids for over ten years. The first project was the dental scheme supported by the Rotary Club of St Peters and MGA Insurance. Oral hygiene is critical to cognitive development. Allkids works closely with the Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC) in Phnom Penh which provides pediatric care and carries out operations and procedures that AllKids families would otherwise not be able to afford.
AllKids commenced in 2012, with the primary objective being to ensure that all children in the Ream Commune of Cambodia, have access to education. Since 2012 AllKids have provided educational services to over 1500 children. The AllKids Learning Centres offer tuition in programs not available in the public schools such as English and IT.
Through the Kids to School project, AllKids provide students with all the materials which they need and the team work closely with local public schools to financially assist vulnerable families, allowing even the most underprivileged children access to education.
Poor health is often a major factor in children not attending school and dropping out prematurely. AllKids operate a dental health program servicing and working closely with the Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC) in Phnom Penh which provides pediatric care and carries out operations and procedures that AllKids families would otherwise not be able to afford.
Recently another centre was opened at Prek Trabaek which is located in the south-eastern corner of Ream. Just over 90 school aged children live in the area and the closest public school is 17.5 kilometres away. Providing these kids with access to a variety of educational programs will complete AllKids mission to give all children in the Ream Commune access to education.
This new school was partly funded as a RAWCs (Rotary Australia World Community Service) Project through Jenny Neale, partner of PDG Jeff Neale and championed throughout the District 9510 by Wendy Gaborit, Secretary of the RC of St Peters.
The Rotary Club of St Peters has donated significant sums of money to support the Allkids project