An Amazing Experience!

Submitted by Brenda Spurrell

This experience has been very rewarding and exciting in many ways. From having to learn another language (acronyms, short forms & colloquialisms), going on a 42 ft boat, eating great food and that is not even talking about the real reasons for the trip. We visited schools, hospitals and community agencies and once we were able to translate we discovered how much we have in common. We have the same struggles and are working on the same goals. They are doing some great work in working with youth 16 to 24 and the transition to adult programs is much more thorough than that of ours in Canada. We work well with all ages (0-18) in Canada and have a variety of programs including Day Treatment, Individual and Family counselling while Australia is continuing to struggle to provide the appropriate programs for this age group. Our government seems to be beginning to come up up with the money that is necessary to provide the more programming that is needed while Australia's seem to be doing that well ( of course we always want more).
We have learned about polio and how Rotary along with Penny Legate's help has almost eradicated it in most of the world. It truly has been amazing to see how much Rotary has been and continue to be involved within their local communities and as well as the world. The team has been great, we have gotten to know each and have had alot of fun together. We are all excited about some ideas we have to work, learn and share with each other back home.