Australian High Commission
Bangladesh
Bangladesh

Speech to the 45th Installation, Rotary Club of Dhaka North, Australian High Commisioner to Bangladesh

Speech by Greg Wilcock, High Commissioner of Australia:
45th Installation, Rotary Club of Dhaka North

Lake Shore Hotel, Dhaka

10 September 2012

Honourable President of Rotary Club North, Mr Mahabub Khazi;

Honourable Office Holders;

Distinguished Guests;

Thank you for your generous invitation to me to attend as chief guest, and for the opportunity to speak to you this evening.

Since the establishment of the first Rotary Club over 100 years ago, the Rotary movement has strengthened and spread the simple, resilient ideas of service, volunteerism, understanding, and an ethical life.

Pragmatically, without fanfare, and for many years, Rotary Clubs around the world have been getting on with the business of putting these ideas into effect.

Rotary’s generous and outward character is obvious from a glance at, for example, some of Rotary Australia’s contributions in Bangladesh during recent years:

 the purchase and installation of a generator, new windows and doors for a school in Dhaka;
 providing equipment and training for English language teachers in northern Bangladesh;
 building and houses and dormitories for a rural orphanage;
 supporting the development of a 500-bed cancer and general hospital in Dhaka;
 sending surgical teams to repair cleft palates and train local doctors to perform this procedure.

This work shows the generosity of communities to be at least as powerful as governments with dedicated aid budgets – maybe more so, as their initiatives and contributions are voluntary.

Volunteers play a vital role in the fight against poverty. Governments like mine do well to recognise their efforts and stand aside.

Equally, sometimes governments do well to provide channels for volunteerism, to work with people who have the energy, the ability and the time to give.

This is something that Australian Governments have done since the 1965, when we first funded the group that became Australian Volunteers International – similar to the US Peace Corps.

Today, under two schemes – Australian Volunteers for International Development and Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development – around 40 Australian volunteers are in Bangladesh at any one time.

These volunteers share their skills and experience in a range of areas: health, education, agriculture, rural development, water and sanitation, community development, governance and climate change.

Allow me to provide a concrete example – and I do mean concrete.

In February last year more than 30 young Australians donned gloves to help families in rural Bangladesh build their homes. They did so in partnership with the NGO Habitat for Humanity Bangladesh.

The volunteers and their friends worked alongside the families, lifting, laying, mixing and building. As well, the volunteers raised over $5,000 for Habitat for Humanity to build more houses for more families.

New homeowner Bellal Hussein, an auto-rickshaw driver who had saved for three years, saw his new brick house go up at lightning speed working with the volunteers. He said he would always remember this.

In this way and many more, the volunteers among us – from Australia, from Bangladesh, from anywhere – prove the resilience of service, volunteerism, understanding, and an ethical life.

I know that these values and the hard, unheralded and important work that arises from them, sustains this organisation and its members. I am fortunate to be among you.

Thank you.