Category: Breakfast

Join the Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast for our annual Mother Daughter breakfast on Friday the 4th of May, at the Brisbane Club. Tickets available at ZontaTickets.

This year our featured speaker will be Louise Fitzgerald-Baker of ‘The Pink Hard Hat’ – coach, author, mother, and all around accomplished woman.

Here’s a bit about Louise from her website, thepinkhardhat.com.au :

I’m a busy wife and mother of 3 daughters and built a career in the construction industry, before turning my attention back to training and coaching.

Like you, I have learned to juggle.

And dance.

And mostly keep it together.

But it hasn’t always been that way.  

As an entrepreneur, I have been tested.  

There were days when I didn’t have the answers, direction or experience to know which step to take next.   

So I set about making a plan from which to construct my life. 

I wanted to build the life I had always imagined. 

And yes, I built my home in the process.

I lovingly decorated it and created a place for us to live. 

But beyond that, I set about putting the necessary measures in place to ensure this home was protected, and that my daughters had their own blueprint for life, love, health and business. I have written a book on it, and now coach and train women all over the world to apply the same principles so that they, too, can build and insulate their lives.

So come along, bring your mother or your daughter – or even some special friends. We’d love to see you there!

Any proceeds raised from this event will go towards our worthy service projects in support of the vital work they do to assist and empower women in Brisbane.

Secure your tickets here: https://zontatickets.com.au/event/zonta-mother-daughter-breakfast-6896

On Friday the 6th of April 2018, we will welcome our guest speaker Anastasia Magriplis, State Manager Volunteering, UnitingCare Queensland.

Anastasia has been working with volunteers throughout her career.  Firstly with Greenpeace Australia as the Queensland Community Activist Coordinator where she coordinated a team of thirty volunteers until today where she is responsible for over 6,000 volunteers in forty programs across the state at UnitingCare Queensland.

Anastasia has managed volunteer programs including telephone Crisis Supporters, events, business and operations volunteers as well as employment initiatives including Work for the Dole, Rehabilitation Employment Schemes and Federal and State Government Employment Programs. She has also managed volunteers for the Lifeline Brisbane Bookfest, an event that has been rated the largest second hand book sale in the world. The Bookfest, which in 1999 had a team of seventy volunteers and raised around $150,000 has been expanded to now having up to six hundred volunteers and raising around $1,000,000 per event.

Anastasia understands volunteers and their management from both an operational and strategic perspective.  Through her experience, passion for innovation has seen the expansion of volunteer involvement in all aspects of the UnitingCare Community’s operations across Queensland. She is passionate about the contributions volunteers make to the community and regard volunteers as the heart of the Not for Profit sector.

For more inspiration, have a look at this article on Volunteering Queensland’s website:

https://www.volunteeringqld.org.au/145-nvw/nvw-media-general-releases-2/1416-managing-1-5-million-hours-of-volunteering-anastasia-magriplis

As many of you know, the Zonta Brisbane Breakfast Club have been managing a Zonta birthing kit project since 2006.

A member of our club, Judi Hutchison, has recently returned from villages within the Western Province of Papua New Guinea where she and a nine member medical team supported by Talisman Niugini Ltd who has been a premium sponsor of the Zonta birthing kit project for the last 3 years, delivered health education and training, relationship building plus supplied Zonta birthing kits.

She shared her story about flying to the ‘wild west’ via Kiunga and then choppered over the dense jungles to two remote villages of Dahoma and Deberebip, without ready access to a hospital which was over a day away in a motorised canoe.

Most in the village had not seen a white person before. She was called a white meri (white woman) so there was a lot of staring and smiling as they became used to her presence.

She learned the Western Province handshake which was a great way to connect with the community. Dogs, cats, chickens and piglets wandered around the village.

Training, held under the house for coolness, involved both general and reproductive health.

She told the story of the Zonta birthing kit assembly days in Brisbane and with the medical team, an explanation of the use and disposal of the components (including trying on gloves) and presented kits to the village Community Health Worker plus to the women, a very special moment for Judi. Her language was translated to pidgin and then to their local language.

Reproductive health is normally a taboo subject! For birthing, the women normally walk into the jungle, which is very inhospitable ensuring not near hunting grounds or the village, as they believe it creates bad spirits. After the birth the women return to the village when all cleaned up i.e. the baby and her!

Talisman gave Judi the opportunity to meet the women who benefit from using birthing kits. It was clear there is a need for education and a hygienic approach to childbirth. There is even a baby in a Western Province village called Talisman, where a woman had used the Zonta birthing kit!

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.

At our most recent meeting, we were fortunate enough to have Jessie Westaway, Senior Industrial Officer with Queensland Working Women’s Service (QWWS) speak to us about the important work that is done to support women in the workplace in matters of discrimination, bullying, unfair dismissal and many other issues.

We were also thrilled to be able to present a cheque to both of our service projects – Queensland Working Women’s Service, and Women’s Legal Service. Zonta Club of Brisbane Breakfast is proud to support such wonderful organisations who make such a big impact in the lives of women who desperately need their services.

Pictured below are Jessie Westaway, representing QWWS, Ayesha Murray our Vice President, and Natalie Davidson, representing WLS.

Jessie Westaway of QWWS, Ayesha Murray, Vice President of ZBB, and Natalie Davidson of WLS.