Year: 2014

Did you know that Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast is holding another Estee Lauder shopping event on Saturday the 13th of December? Just in time to get some gorgeous presents for your loved ones, or for yourself!

Please also spread the word amongst your friends – not only will you be helping your friends out with Christmas ideas, but also helping support our amazing service projects.

We were fortunate to have our annual dose of the inspirational May Lamont presenting at our monthly meeting on Friday 5^th September.

May was on the founding Committee and subsequently National President for UNIFEM. May has also been a Soroptimist since 1989 and is the Project Manager of the Soroptimist Birthing in the Pacific Project (which is one of the recipients of our birthing kits in PNG) and is now Vice President of the United Nations Association Queensland, where her focus is another issue for women, being peace building.

May explained the recent projects of the Soroptimist International project being the provision of education and training to 16 midwives, 70 community health workers and the 137 traditional birthing attendants.

She shared the stories of Arthur who was an obstetrician who did the midwifery course to learn how to teach others or Paula who wanted to leaned the correct techniques as to date her 17 year experience was based on imitation of best examples from others. Following her course Paula presented successfully in New Zealand.

May also expressed the frustrations experienced in PNG with a wonderful new community health facility built but there was no electricity to operate the equipment and no reliable water for sanitation. Most of these facilities are generally with a dirt floor.

This project is an evolving which will take time and is full of surprises. The need is great and there are too few facilities and staff within the health system. Juliet’s story clearly reflected this overwhelming need.

Have a look at the Weekend Notes for this coming weekend: the Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast’s annual Birthing Kit day is there!

(Have you signed up yet? Hurry – closes today!)

Our annual Birthing Kits day will be held on the 16th of August this year!

Would you like to know more? Volunteer? Donate to the cause? Please have a look at the 2014 Birthing Kits page, and spread the word with your friends.

Look forward to seeing you there again this year!

The Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast is pleased to offer a bursary for an Indigenous or Rural/Remote woman who wishes to obtain a diploma in community services, childcare, disability care, youth work youth justice or similar field.

The bursary will be offered annually and is valued at $1,500.  Nominees must be female and either Indigenous or from a Rural/Remote location.

Selection will primarily be based on a written nomination. The selection panel will also conduct interviews with short-listed nominees in person or by phone. The selection panel will include representatives from Charlton Brown and the Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast.

All information and documentation supplied by the nominee will be treated confidentially and in accordance with the Charlton Brown Privacy Policy.

To apply please visit http://zontabrisbanebreakfast.org/2014zontabbbursary/

Our May guest speakers were Jenny Richardson and Madina Zulpukharova from the not-for-profit organisation, Dress for Success Brisbane which is managed by Suited to Success.

The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

Dress for Success Brisbane serves clients by referral only who come from a continually expanding and diverse group of non-profit and government agencies including homeless shelters, immigration services, job training programs, educational institutions and domestic violence shelters, among many other organisations. On her initial visit a woman receives a suit appropriate for the industry in which she is interviewing and, if available, accessories. After a woman finds a job she returns to Dress for Success for additional clothing that can be mixed and matched to make several outfits, providing her with the foundation for a professional wardrobe.

To meet the need for services that would help women both find and keep jobs, they established the Professional Women’s Group (PWG) program, which offers women ongoing support as they successfully transition into the workforce, build thriving careers and prosper in the mainstream workplace. Once a woman joins the PWG she is a member for life, able to attend meetings at any affiliate throughout the world, and can benefit from additional employment retention and mentoring programs. Dress for Success also runs a Career Centre, fully equipped with a computer lab and trained volunteers with extensive HR, recruitment, and business experience, to assist clients in establishing and achieving self-determined career goals.

Dress for Success relies on the financial contributions, in-kind donations, the volunteer efforts of individuals and forming working partnerships with companies who are committed to helping women take charge of their lives. For fund raising functions or events, or to become a volunteer, visit www.dressforsuccess.org/brisbane or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/dressforsuccessbrisbane.

Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast Member, Megan Milne, was privileged to attend the recent State Reception with Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the 19th April 2014 at the Sky Room, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre which was part of the Royal Tour.

The 230 attendees were selected from a group of nominees mostly between 25 and 35 years old, put forward based upon their involvement in their local communities throughout Queensland spanning across the social service, arts, science, and sporting fields.

Megan was invited through the paid and voluntary positions she holds with Suited to Success, which manages the Dress for Success Brisbane program, as well as her involvement in Zonta. Megan was honoured to be included amongst these young Queensland achievers and  to be part of such a special and rare event.

Recently, Zonta Brisbane Breakfast Club had the pleasure of meeting Ms Dulcinea Hernandez. Dulcinea is the Director of Community Participation at Volunteering Queensland. Dulcinea discussed with the Zonta Brisbane Breakfast Club a project called ‘Bright Futures’.

This project involves the mentoring of women to enhance their opportunities to return to the workforce. To successfully operate such a program there is a three step process. This involves women dedicating their time to being a mentor, sharing their skills in the area of marketing/fundraising/networking and sponsorship.

Dulcinea gave the Zonta Brisbane Breakfast Club ladies the opportunity to brainstorm ideas for partnering with Volunteering Queensland in order to provide mentoring services.

Many wonderful ideas were considered, and going forward Zonta Brisbane Breakfast Club hopes to offer such services to assist in the progression of women back into the workforce.

For a long time our club has supported the Birthing Kit Foundation and our Birthing Kit Day is one of the biggest events in our Zontian yearly calendar. Last Wednesday the 19th of February we had the privilege of hearing Dr Luc Mulimbalimba Masururu, Medical Director of Mission in Health Care and Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and an agent for the Birthing Kit Foundation in the DRC as well. PwC kindly provided us with their premises and we were joined by club members, representatives from our Birthing Kit sponsors, Talisman Energy and The Birthing Kit Foundation, and members of the public.

Dr Luc Mulimbalimba Masururu gave an excellent insight into the maternal and infant health challenges throughout the East African region where he works and how his work with the Birthing Kit Foundation not only provides birthing kits but trains traditional midwives as well as educating communities about healthy eating, providing education, and providing channels for traditional midwives to refer women to hospitals when complications arise.

We also heard about how the Birthing Kit Foundation was providing employment opportunities for women by employing them to make the birthing kits and enabling them to invest their incomes in small grassroots agricultural of animal husbandry projects that focus on the particular strengths and skills of communities and give them the materials to earn a living from this. Considering that the DRC lost roughly 5 million people in its civil war with rape and sexual violence rife throughout this time, the work that Dr Luc and the Birthing Kit Foundation are doing in helping to address social, economic and health issues, in particular maternal and infant health and wellbeing in East Africa, is astounding.

We have seen pictures and heard reports about how the Birthing Kits that we assemble every year change the lives of mothers and their babies is countries around the world, but to know that this project also works with communities to establish strong foundations to address the causes of maternal and infant health risks, is fantastic.

If you would like to know more about the Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) and the work they do, please go to www.birthingkitfoundation.org.au. If you would like to also become involved in the Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast Birthing Kit Day, please check our club website regularly to receive updates on how to register for this year’s Birthing Kit Day (www.zontabrisbanebreakfast.org).

This month we had the pleasure of hearing from Amanda Dearden of Isis:

Amanda Dearden – Mental Health Accredited Social Worker and Co-ordinator at Isis – the eating issue centre talked to the club members about the free services provided to the community which are unique to the centre and tailored to meet the needs of their clients. The one on one counselling and group work doesn’t end when a person is in recovery, clients are encouraged to remain engaged with Isis which provides them with life-long support.

Amanda also talked out the Isis I love Me project which celebrates the diversity of humanity among school children and shared the positive results of this early intervention campaign.

Amanda has studied psychology and social work. She has been working in the fields of eating issues and sexual assault support and prevention since 2001 – providing counselling, group work and education. Her interests are in feminism and empowerment principles and the need to educate and raise the awareness of eating issues among the community; working towards prevention.

The Zonta Brisbane Breakfast Club supported Isis in late 2013 with funds to assist them with the relocation of their office to the existing site at Highgate Hill.