D9570 Rotary Youth Exchange Students packed 85 kits tonight. A fantastic effort for the refugee project thank you Marguerita Dobrinin for the extra 100 liners. They came in handy😊

D9570 Youth Exchange Inbound Camp

Tanyella, Tannum Sands

On Friday August 16th, 10 enthusiastic international students ascended on Tanyella, for their Inbound Camp; their introduction to what it means to be a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Australia. And we mustn’t forget our five as equally enthusiastic Outbound students who got a glimpse of what excitement lays ahead for them next year.

Our students this year are Maju- Brazil, Vali-Czech Republic, Louise -Denmark, Finland,  Sidonie - France, Jasper- Germany, Lucas - Italy, Jippe-Netherlands, Zofia-Poland and Mona-Switzerland. For those they don’t know how we choose which countries, they are in fact from the districts where we currently have our Outbounds students.

The Inbound Camp is primarily to help prepare our Inbounds for what may lay ahead and condense what they have hopefully learnt at their Outbound camps, before leaving their homes. We find that some students are better prepared than others, so this weekend hopefully brings it all together for them and answers questions they may have and an opportunity to sort out any issues that have arisen since arriving in Australia.

It is also the time when the students begin new friendship that will last a lifetime. Yes, they will meet local students, but nothing comes close to the friendship, they form with one another.

As well as going through the not so fun topics as The Rules and how to identify Sexual Harassment and Abuse and what to do, Social Media, moving out of your comfort zone, the importance and role their counsellor plays, role playing were just some of the other topics covered over the weekend,

It is the first time our camps have been held at Tanyella. It proved to be a great venue with our smaller numbers, the beach close by and beautiful weather. And I could still do the coffee run to Maccas!

I had an amazing team helping me on the weekend. They included DG Michael & Karen, DGE Adele & Wade, some of my committee, John Ludewig, Bevan Rose, Heath Henwood and Andrew Bull. We also had Norm and Sue (YEP Chair) from D9550 who came to see how we do things down south. We are aiming to be one Exchange Program in January 2020. This has challenges which we are working through together.

Everyone pitched in to either prepare meals, give presentations, assist with group activities; Andrew’s games proved to be a challenge to some but also a lot of fun. A game of cricket on the beach was a must. A few of us older cricketers needed pain relief after our running and diving for catches! Thank you to everyone who assisted on the weekend. The old adage: “What happens on camp, stays on the camp” applies here 😊 Couldn’t have done it without you!

Heather Sugget

D9570 YEP 1920 Chair