Simon Cottrill – HWCI President
Our Board, many of whom were serving a second, or longer term, have met a total of ten times since the last AGM, held two major fundraisers and embarked on two Aid Trips - one research (November 2013) and one delivery (in August 2014). This year saw us further develop our strategies for improving our effectiveness in humanitarian aid delivery and transparency as an organisation. The adoption of more in-depth pre-project planning and analysis, led by Nick Roffey as the Aid Strategies Portfolio Manager, has changed the way we execute our program delivery and ensured stakeholder consultation remains central to our aid delivery strategy and design.
We have managed to both streamline and expand our delivery repertoire. An important new addition to our Aid Strategies Portfolio has been the creation of an Emergency Medical Fund, administered by our Indonesian partners Rumah Sehat Madani. HWCI were able to assist our first patient through this program was an impoverished seven year old brain tumour patient for whom we have been able to provide aftercare via this medical fund.
This year also saw the trial of our First Aid program, providing first aid training to remote communities. Our first session was held in August and was extremely well received by all participants: we have already received requests for further sessions.
Our partnership with Rumah Sehat Madani continues to prosper. They continue to provide monthly medical assistance for our Indonesian urban slum communities on our behalf (and have done since 2011) and are expanding our rural assistance from annual to quarterly medical clinics. We are investigating the possibility of further joint projects with the RSM team, and are considering forming similar partnerships with other organisations following this resounding success. Clarissa Leong remained the Fundraising Manager for this term and did a magnificent job, organising and running two trivia nights, one in Rosebud (on the Mornington Peninsula) and one in Windsor, Melbourne. HWCI is only able to be as ambitious as its fundraising is successful and Clarissaâs efforts have been singularly outstanding in this last term.
HWCI is a volunteer run organisation and it is no small thing to commit to being a member of our hardworking Board. It is a time consuming, often frustrating responsibility and this Board has done a very good job. As President of HWCI, I would like to personally thank all of our board members for the work they have put in since being in office: Dorothy Mortlock as Vice President, Peter Ryan as Treasurer, Sarah Cottrill as Secretary and Clarissa Leong, Nick Roffey, Maureen Ryan and Marian Sheppard.
