Rotary Australia offers relief to farmers Members of Rotary Clubs of Nowra and Gerringong have take up a number of fundraising efforts to deliver relief packages to farmers affected by drought.

Communities all over Australia, including Nowra and Gerringong Rotarians (D 9710), have rallied together to help  farmers who have been severely affected by the long-lasting drought.

A Rotarian from out west told the story of a farmer who asked for help with feeding the cows and upon securing some bales of hay, the Rotarian delivered it to the farm.

Shortly before arriving he called the farmer’s wife, asking her to put the kettle on.

She replied with “I can put the kettle on but all you get is hot water, we haven’t had any coffee for the last three weeks.”

Stories like these are rife and really show how tough farmers are doing it in Australia.

Although Rotary Australia has partnered with Channel 9 for some major fundraising, the local Rotary Clubs of Gerringong and Nowra wanted to do something that directly supports those farmers who were facing severe hardships.

Mick Ludlow from Rotary Nowra extended a big thank you to the local communities, who were very generous with individual donations.

Thanks also goes to IGA Gerringong who supported fundraising in the store over two weekends, the Gerringong Men’s Shed, the Gerringong Senior Citizens Club and the Rotary District Board who donated from their Disaster Relief Fund towards our efforts.

In total, the Gerringong Club raised more than $15,000 with another $6,000 raised by the Nowra club.

Purchasing Load&Go Cards, each to the value of $500, the funds were distributed via the NSW Rural Financial Counselling Service, whose counsellors know which farmers are most in need of immediate support.

Another smaller project initiated by Rotary Nowra and the Jervis Bay Baptist Church “Knitters and Natters” from Jonathon Rogers GC House Nowra was to support drought affected families with Christmas boxes

This group of generous people provided 50 gift boxes to ‘Forbes Mega Farm Rescue’ for distribution in the area around Forbes and Condobolin.

Through the valuable efforts of Rotarian Mark Bennie and his wife Jane, the boxes were delivered to ‘Forbes Mega Farm Rescue’ the day after they were collected at Rotary Nowra. Thanks to the Bennies a great result was achieved.

The Farm Rescue people were delighted to receive this contribution and have assured the donors that the boxes will be distributed to those families most affected by the drought situation.

The boxes were packed for differing age groups for girls and boys up to the age of 14-years-old.

There is still more help needed. The two Rotary clubs are determined to provide more support by to ease the burden of Christmas for farmers and their families.

Source: South Coast Register