Rotary Keilor East members are dedicated to projects that enhance lives and communities locally and in developing countries. You cacn see the range of our work on this page. We are keen to build up these projects and create new ones, but for that we need more volunteers willing to give some of their time, skills and energy. So we're appealing to community members in Keilor and Moonee Valley -- not just to our own members - to lend us a hand. If you'd like to help, and enjoy making new friends - use our blue Contact button at top right-hand of the page. Thanks, David Dippie, President.
Data shows a steep rise in homelessness in Melbourne, particularly involving older women. Our Rotary Keilor East members are helping the Western Emergency Relief Network (WERN) at Ravenhall by donating un-needed household supplies and equipment. If we move house, spring clean or trade-up, there are often useful goods that are welcomed by people less fortunate – and it’s much better than goods going to landfill. WERN finds distressed people a roof over their heads and we at Rotary help get a place furnished. Pick-ups or drop-offs of bulky items like washing machines and fridges are easy to arrange.
When women are trying to re-build their lives after violence and poverty, it’s great when our members can contribute to the house-warming or find ways to volunteer at WERN. Keep in mind that the median rent across Melbourne is just under $600 a week and vacancy rates are very low. It’s no wonder many distressed people are in housing crisis.
Meanwhile, we ask all members of Rotary Keilor East to get busy organizing this recycling of household items to those who really need them.
Some detail:
Pick Ups:
Pick ups can be arranged by phoning our WERN Warehouse manager on 0476 104 736 or emailing donations@wern.org. Photos of proposed donations provide us an opportunity to advise the suitability of goods and also an indication to us of the size of the load being offered for transportation purposes.
Pick ups can be arranged by phoning our WERN Warehouse manager on 0476 104 736 or emailing donations@wern.org. Photos of proposed donations provide us an opportunity to advise the suitability of goods and also an indication to us of the size of the load being offered for transportation purposes.
Improving girls education in our neighboring developing countries is a focus of our club and Rotary overall. This is a proven way to help the disadvantaged and lift women out of poverty. To get an education girls need to attend school.
Lack of adequate toilets is a major barrier, and providing quality toilets is a practical way to solve this problem. Often girls stop attending school when they begin to menstruate, and the provision of toilets is essential. We also work with Days for Girls to provide female hygiene products.
Many young women are now able to attend school every day and have a much brighter future as a result of our past projects.
Rotary Keilor East is proud to sponsor and support the Interact team at St Albans Secondary College. Interact is Rotary’s service club for students aged 12-18. Interact clubs are self-governing and self-supporting. Pic: St Albans Interact held a dessert stall fundraiser on Valentine's Day. President-elect Steph is on left.The St Albans team do local and international projects. The 2025 President Stephanie with her team attended the Assembly late last year to get together and work with Interacts from many districts. She highlighted St Albans’ raising of $400 cash and school and dental supplies for students in Timor-Leste. It also contributed $600 worth of in-kind donations to the Western Emergency Relief Network (WERN), in the form of new household goods bought from Kmart.
The team was inspired by similar projects at other clubs. Members joined role-specific groups at breakfast, involving leadership and responsibility coaching, plus SWOT analysis and SMART goal-setting.
Steph says, “This structured approach to critical thinking and communication aligned our vision as a team, ensuring our club’s growth and success this year.”
Interact is hosting nearly half a million students, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Their format can be single-sex or mixed, single-school or across schools. Interact now has 20,000 clubs in 139 countries. Our District 9800 has sponsored a dozen around Melbourne schools.
The junior body is Earlyact encouraging care and civic mindedness among primary students, sponsored by their local Rotary Club.
Our February club meeting hosting three students from Rotaract Siem Reap, Cambodia involving inspiring talks from each of them about overcoming difficulties to push towards their goals. Their determination amid a setting of less-developed infrastructure was an object lessons to us all.
The students were President-elect Veasna, Sreynuth and Saveat. They updated us on sustainable projects, especially clean water for their school through Project W, "WASH for Education", and thanked us for our contribution.
Pic: From left, Veasna, Saveat, our President Deb and Sreynuth.
We are very proud that our fundraising efforts, Bunnings BBQs, Moonee Valley Art Show etc. have helped achieve these results!
Project W - WASH for Education
Congratulation 
We are pleased to announce that the installation of the new biosand water filtration system and incinerator at Varin high school, Snual, Tek Chum and Prasathnar secondary School have been completed and are a huge success!!
This is an important step towards improving the health and well-being of students, teachers and the communities around the school. It's a great achievement to support the education. Sincere gratitude to our sponsors Keilor East Rotary Club Inc. and Melbone Rotary.
Our club, working with Essendon Rotary, achieved another successful Moonee Valley Art Show on the October 12 weekend. The gala opening to show off the 300 artworks even included bagpiper Imogen Akers piping in the guests, who bought seven works on the night with 24 more sold at the weekend.It was our tenth such show - see www.mooneevalleyartshow.com.au . Located at the Ukrainian Community Centre, the event involved sterling work by members and volunteers, and help from sponsors and friends. The judge Rob Candy selected the category winners. Profits from tickets and sales commissions will go to local and overseas Rotary charity projects. Local causes include Holloway Aged Care Services, Caroline Chisholm Society, Essendon, and The Living Room – Youth Projects. Offshore projects included Myanmar, Kenya, Timor Leste and Cambodia.
Our club’s Timor Leste effort includes the Balibo 5 Community Learning Centre in Dili, with finance towards shipping containers of education and health materials from Donations in Kind, Footscray. We got in return a hearty “Obrigada barak”, meaning big thanks.
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We have enjoyed visitors from the newly-chartered Rotaract Melbourne University and from ROMAC (Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children). The young ROMAC patient Elina, from Vanuatu, has had correctional surgery on her club foot at St Vincents Hospital. She attended our meeting with her mother, aunt and host, Linda. Our Rotaract Melbourne University visitors were President Viraj Patel, Secretary Elizabeth, Treasurer Alvin, Sree and Richie. We promised the transfer of $500 to help fund one of their upcoming projects.
The latest newspaper from Inner Northwest Press features our club's Cambodian work with an article and pic of our sponsored student Sokhey, plus a mention in their editorial, namely "Keilor East Rotary Club shared stories of the inspiring work they've done in Cambodia."
The story, as sent, and the published version in pic, reads
Rotary help for deserving student
In rural Cambodia, desperately poor families will even cut back on their meals to afford high school for their teenagers.
The Rotary Club of Keilor East, based at Windy Hill, is helping out. It's using fund-raising from Bunnings sausage sizzles and annual art shows to pay for university and living costs for 19-year-old Sokhey.
Her father is ill. Her six-member family borrows rice from neighbours to live on and her mother pays it back by labouring at the harvest.
Sokhey had to repeat years at Future Bright International School because her jobs with caretakers, guards and cafes chewed up her study time. But she graduated last year and is studying catch-up English to prepare for Pannasastra University, where all course-work is in English. "My mother believes education can change my life," Sokhey's written to the club. " I want to learn, I want to change my life, and I love to help other people around me."
Contact: rotarykeiloreast.org
Imagine a primary school with 122 kids trying to study in open shacks, tumbledown buildings, no toilets and not even a tap for washing hands. The desks and seats are in poor shape and there's not nearly enough for the kids. That's the situation at Sulilaren Primary two hours drive west of Dili in Timor Leste.
And Rotary Keilor East is doing something about it, combining with other Rotary and aid groups. The $90,000 project in Bobonaro District involves getting a replacement school built, with four classrooms, a teachers' room, five toilets, tap-water and new desks, chairs, exercise books and pens. Half the funding has been raised already, mainly by the Build It Well charity.
Timor Leste is the poorest country in our region. It knows that better education - especially for girls - is the key to development. It wants more kids to get schooling and stay at school longer, but the budget for education isn't big enough to make that a reality.
The Australian-based groups lending a hand with Sulilaren Primary includes volunteers from Spend It Well, which gets schools built efficiently and cheaply; Donations in Kind (West Footscray) which recycles donated furniture and equipment; Rotary Foundation which helps fund the container shipments; and Keilor East and other Rotary clubs.
"When we work together great things happen," says Keilor East Rotary's president David Dippie.
Pictures: Top - the original school shack. Middle: First renovations
Bottom: Renovations well under way
To Everyone in the Keilor -Moonee Valley Districts...
From Keilor East Rotary.
You might not be a member of our Keilor East Rotary Club but why not join us for a morning or day helping on a community or environme
ntal project?
ntal project?We're friendly volunteers committed to making the world a better place. We're achieving a lot but could do much more with your help. If you've got some spare time, please lend us a hand! If you'd like to apply to join our club, that would be great but it's your call.
Contact using the blue "Contact" button at top right of our webpage, or just email solatube@bigpond.com.
Rotary Keilor East members have put their shoulders to the wheel to help Western Emergency Relief Network (WERN) this month. Pics show members in the warehouse. WERN comprises of Rotary Clubs helping to supply good quality second hand furniture, electronics and whitegoods, to people in need without charge. 
Rotary Keilor East’s tour of the RAAF Museum at Point Cook on November 16 had an unexpected bonus -- Wing Commander Jason Easthope gave us an 800kph flying display of an RAAF Mustang fighter. He was leaving Pt Cook to fly via Temora to take part in the Williamtown Newcastle air display next day. He told us the Temora stop after two hours flying was because the WW11 Mustang lacks a working toilet. Jason, a kiwi, is an RAF veteran of the Falklands war and then an F18 pilot, with 4500 hours flying all-up.
Mechanics wheeled out a battery starter to his beautiful Mustang with its shark-tooth nose. The 12-cylinder Packard Merlin engine burst into life with its 1200HP roaring and a puff of blue smoke. Jason sat for a while with canopy open, ensuring engine pressures and temperature were OK. Then he swung the iconic fighter around onto the strip – blowing away a few hats from the prop-wash. The engine blared and the prop howled as the tips neared the sound barrier, then his Mustang was into the air and climbing for its first pass across our small party’s sightline.
He followed with a loop putting 4G stress on his body – as if it weighed more than 300kg. Several more passes and rolls, then a waggle of wings as he waved us ‘goodbye’.
Mechanics wheeled out a battery starter to his beautiful Mustang with its shark-tooth nose. The 12-cylinder Packard Merlin engine burst into life with its 1200HP roaring and a puff of blue smoke. Jason sat for a while with canopy open, ensuring engine pressures and temperature were OK. Then he swung the iconic fighter around onto the strip – blowing away a few hats from the prop-wash. The engine blared and the prop howled as the tips neared the sound barrier, then his Mustang was into the air and climbing for its first pass across our small party’s sightline.
He followed with a loop putting 4G stress on his body – as if it weighed more than 300kg. Several more passes and rolls, then a waggle of wings as he waved us ‘goodbye’.
That was the highlight but our tour of the museum itself was also terrific. Behind every plane and exhibit there was a story and our guide Norm was keen to tell it. For example, the roundel in planes used in the Pacific have no red dot in the middle –because four planes including a Catalina were shot up by friendly fire from US gunners mistaking the red dot for Japan’s emblem.
The oldest plane there was a replica 1913 Bristol Boxkite aircraft that was actually flown 100 years later at Point Cook with former Air Force Test Pilot Air Vice Marshal Mark Skidmore (retired) at the controls. “Considering it’s mainly wood wire and cloth, Mark was a brave airman,” said Norm. We attach a video of the flight below, in case you don’t believe Norm.
The oldest plane there was a replica 1913 Bristol Boxkite aircraft that was actually flown 100 years later at Point Cook with former Air Force Test Pilot Air Vice Marshal Mark Skidmore (retired) at the controls. “Considering it’s mainly wood wire and cloth, Mark was a brave airman,” said Norm. We attach a video of the flight below, in case you don’t believe Norm.
Our tour numbers were increased with a group of guests from Tony's Melbourne Bearbrass Probus.
Keilor East Community Bank continues to be an outstanding sponsor of our Club Projects. We are very appreciative of their generosity and support and urge Members, family and friends to use the bank which supports its local community. 
We are also very grateful to have the sponsorship of Smart Storage World in Keilor East for the storage of our Club trailer. We appreciate their support for us and urge Club Members and friends to make use of their new local business.
For all your Home or Business Storage, including Boats, Caravans and Cars, call 0408 KEILOR 0408 534 567. http://smartstorageworld.com.au/
We are also very grateful to have the sponsorship of Smart Storage World in Keilor East for the storage of our Club trailer. We appreciate their support for us and urge Club Members and friends to make use of their new local business.For all your Home or Business Storage, including Boats, Caravans and Cars, call 0408 KEILOR 0408 534 567. http://smartstorageworld.com.au/
any reasons...
Service Above Self
Essendon, VIC 3040
Australia