If you are a Rotarian or Rotaractor from a Pacific Island or other country displaced from your normal home and in need of assistance as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown, please email 
with your details and outlining your situation.

RED - Rotarians Experiencing Distress

RED Fund Flyer for Download - please distribute to members
 
We are all increasingly aware of the impact of COVID-19 on our personal, family and community lives and activities. 
 
For a few members of our Rotary family in Oceania, this has now got very personal and very real. 
 
As a consequence of the travel restrictions and requirements introduced by the Governments in Oceania, some Rotarians are trapped away from home and unable to travel, some for up to 14 days.
 
These Rotarians were engaged in important Rotary activities supporting their clubs and districts. They are RED - Rotarians Experiencing Distress as a consequence of COVID-19 lockdowns.
 
This is an opportunity for our Rotary family to support our own community. We have established a Compassionate Grants Fund seeking $5,000 from Rotarians over the next week. Please contribute to this fund to aid our own community.
 
The grants will be made by a sub-committee of the ROZOPS board who are all Past District Governors and report to the current DG's.
 
If anybody is aware of a compassionate grant need, they should email  redfund@rotaryoceania.zone.
 
Thank you for your support.
 
 
Jennie Herring
Chair, ROZOPS ltd.
 
Stories
INTERVIEW WITH CARINA MUCKEL, STRANDED IN AUCKLAND DUE TO COVID-19 (ROTARY DISTRICT 9920)
2020 Covid-19
 April 2, 2020

Interview with Carina Muckel (CM), 28, Medical Intern (last year of Medical School) from orth Rhine Westphalia in Germany who is stranded in Auckland with 12,000 other Germans during the shelter-in-place put forth by the NZ Government. Her situation was brought to the attention of Rotary District 9920 through Rotaract in Germany and this is her story.

Interviewer: Monika B. Levinson (MBL), former member of the Rotary Club of Auckland, District 9920, and now member of the Rotary Club of Schongau (Bavaria, Germany), District 1841.
Read more...
Stranded 2200kms from home with a baby
2020 Covid-19
 
"I was flying high on the inspiring buzz of 2020 SPPETS long after leaving New Zealand." - Ruth Cross, President Elect RC Tawaera, Kiribati.  Then the world changed and Ruth is now stranded 2200kms from home with her baby.
 
This is her story so far.
 
I was flying high on the inspiring buzz of 2020 SPPETS long after leaving New Zealand. Four days of Rotary leadership bootcamp with hundreds of undercover superheroes was so much fun! Rotarians should become club presidents at least once so they can experience the magic of SPPETS. I felt like I had been able to fully appreciate how being a part of Rotary had woven me into a special tapestry made from the kindest humans of humankind. The wave of satisfaction I was riding after nailing my presentation on Kiribati was still rolling its way to the shores and I felt so much excitement about the opportunities that had been discussed. But as Isaac Newton said, “What goes up, must come down” and that big upswing obeyed the tacit laws of physics and came backwards hard.
Read more...