MORISSET Rotary Club has hosted a dinner that raised $4400 to assist a struggling hospital in Tanzania – a project championed by one of its youngest members.
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Eleni Comino was aged 16 when she completed a two-week visit to the city of Morogoro, in Tanzania, last year.
The visit was made possible by a program run by the organisation Gap Medics, which offers students from the UK, USA and Australia opportunities to experience medical environments prior to the students committing to a field of study.
Morisset Rotary Club president Mick Payze said Ms Comino’s experience in Morogoro confirmed her decision to train to become a doctor.
She graduated from the Hunter School of Performing Arts at the end of 2016. She has just completed a gap year prior to starting full-time bio-medical studies at the University of Newcastle.
She was one of two guest speakers to address the audience at the dinner at The Sset Restaurant, in Morisset, recently.
“Eleni commenced with a short presentation about the background to her visit to Morogoro, in Tanzania, in 2016,” Mr Payze said.
“There she found a small hospital in Morogoro, the second biggest city in Tanzania, struggling to cope. As a consequence, she was alerted to a number of programs that could assist the hospital improve its situation. It is these that Morisset Rotary Club is now addressing.”
The second speaker was an impressive young man from Tanzania.
“Later in the night we were all inspired by Tanzania speaker Linus Faustin, who recounted the story of his life from being orphaned at 3, to street kid at 7, and how he then pursued a better life and by age 10, after a stint on talk-back radio, had become Tanzania’s representative for 10 million orphaned children,” Mr Payze said.
“From then on it was multiple steps forward, from a national to international stage, and finally arriving in Australia to study and become in 2016 International Student of the Year and poster boy of the successful UTS [University of Technology, Sydney] campaign against racism.”
The night concluded with a raffle draw and auction conducted by local auctioneer, Ricky Briggs, of LJ Hooker, Morisset, who “extracted the last dollar for each and every donated item”.
Mr Payz thanked all who took part, and paid special tribute to the staff of The Sset whom he said had provided their time and expertise on the night for free.
“Congratulations to all concerned for a spectacular result. Eleni and her team can be rightly proud of their achievements,” he said.