Our October dinner meeting was a relaxed, friendly evening at the home of Virginia and Gordon, the Old Baptist Church in Millthorpe.
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Our wonderful chef, Kathryn followed us to Millthorpe and once again provided a beautiful dinner. At this stage the VIEW Club is still exploring options for a permanent dinner venue.
In order to see us through this year, the November dinner will once again be at the Old Baptist Church in Millthorpe and our Christmas dinner in December will be at the Mandurama Hotel. Kathryn will cater for both these events.
It was an absolute delight to have Tania and Jackie Fearnley as guests at our last dinner. Tania gave a lovely introduction, telling us what a huge commitment Kurt's mother Jackie has had to Kurt's life, right from day one. She has never doubted that he could lead a full life in whatever way he wanted to.
Tania also drew our attention to some of Kurt's achievements apart from his sporting achievements.
He was nominated for NSW Australian of the year in 2018, he has crawled the Kokoda Track and he continues to change the paradigm of the concept of 'disability'.
Jackie then spoke about her trip to Nairobi where the amazing Ruben Centre is located. The centre is run by the Christian Brothers and its mission is to offer quality education, health, financial and socio economic services to children and families in the Mukuru community.
This community is a slum of over one million people. The Ruben Centre has many facilities including an AIDS centre, and the only birthing centre available within the slum. There had been over 500 births to date when Jackie visited.
There is also an inoculation centre and children who come in are checked for any signs of malnutrition, abuse or female genital mutilation.
Also within the Ruben Centre is the Kurt Fearnley Unit, which offers services to 60 children with disabilities. These children used to be ostracised and the mothers blamed for the disability.
The mothers can now come together and offer support to each other in a caring environment. These children receive physiotherapy, occupational therapy, education and lunch five days each week. This is all provided by volunteers from Australia.
Jackie's talk was so very interesting and informative and made many of us realise that there are a lot of people out there doing really wonderful things, things that many of us will never know about.
Our next dinner will be on Tuesday, November 19 at 6.30pm for a 7pm start at the Old Baptist Church, 7 Pearce Street, Millthorpe. Members must let Ros know (0412 291 054) by Friday, November 15 if they will not be attending.