Bellingen Rotary’s participation is enabled through local member, Stuart Allardice, who has been doing volunteer work in the Inle Lake area of Northern Myanmar with a Norwegian non governmental organisation called Partnership for Change.

To date two projects are a tangible example of a small regional club working and contributing on an international stage.

The first project involved assisting with teaching aids for the teaching staff at the local School in the town of Nyaung Shwe. The school hosts around 150 students and teaches classes from Kindergarten to Year 6, supporting a disadvantaged sector of the community.

After a meeting with the Headmistress and staff it was decided to concentrate on the Kindy class. which had grown from 15 to 30 children over the previous 12 months and had a need for special equipment. Bellingen Rotary donated to the school a new television and video recorder as well as various teachers aids for the development of hand – eye coordination.

The second project involved a small agricultural village at the southern end of Inle Lake called Sankar, with an estimated population of around 4000 which is not serviced by electricity.

In consultation with the village monk and the head man a number of projects where identified. Bellingen Rotary is now working in partnership with Partnership for Change to supplying the funding to purchase 20 sewing machines, foot pedal type, to assist the ladies of the village to develop a handicrafts industry to sell to the tourist trade.

Importantly this project is designed to be self sustaining in that the cost the machines will be paid back by the individual ladies over time with funds then reinvested into other projects within the region.

You don't need to be investing millions to bring about positive change in developing communities. Bellingen Rotary's contribution to the Myanmar economy is about investing in education and the economy by empowerment of the individual to increase their wellbeing through cooperation and partnership.