The organisation that I am involved with is Rotaract. Rotaract is a voluntary service organization for guys and girls aged between 18 and 30 years old who believe they can make a difference. Rotaract is a program of Rotary International, and stands for "Rotary in Action". Rotaract Clubs work under the guidance of their local Rotary Club(s), and like Rotary, Rotaract is non-political and non-denominational.Currently there are some 6812 Rotaract clubs in 146 countries, with over 150,000 members.

The purpose of a Rotaract Club is to provide young men and women with an opportunity to enhance knowledge and skills that will assist them in personal development, to address the physical and social needs of their communities, and to promote better relations between all people worldwide through a framework of friendship and service.

I am the President of the Rotaract Club of South Perth, which is located in Western Australia. We try to help out our local community in many ways – we donate blood every 3 months, run a "Cash for Cans' depot weekly to recycle aluminium cans, we help plant trees, we hold fundraisers to provide assistance both locally and overseas, and we provide a network of friendship worldwide, corresponding with Rotaractors worldwide, and welcoming all visitors to our club. We try to work with other Rotaract both locally and overseas on projects, to enhance friendship and to better pool our resources.



As an example of some of the things we have coming up, the next major Rotaract event is the Santa Project. Every Christmas Rotaractors throughout Australia dress up as Santa (or Santa's helper) and visit families on Christmas Eve. The parents donate some money to Santa, which is put towards a children's charity or medical research for childhood diseases, or SIDS. Typically we raise A$5,000 in Western Australia alone. My club is also organising a Quiz Night in January, from which the proceeds will be used to train Guide Dogs for the blind, and a "Death By Chocolate Night" in February, which will raise money to provide clean water in India. Each club organises a variety of events like this, with the emphasis being on having fun while raising money.

We like to exchange ideas with other people with similar goals – helping people in need, and working towards peace worldwide - and for this I think the Youth for Peace program is an excellent idea. Your web site looks very nice.

My Rotaract club has a web page at http://www.rotaract.org/southperth/ and can be contacted via email on southperth@rotaract.org . I have attached a photo of our current members.

Please let me know if you would like any more information. Good luck with the program, and please keep in touch.

Best wishes,
Simone

Simone Collins
Rotaract Club of South Perth
Simone.Collins@rotaract.org
District 9470
http://www.rotaract.org/southperth/