RIBI 88th Annual Conference – House of Friendship

A feature of every Rotary Conference, be it national or district is the House of Friendship.  The House of Friendship is an area set aside for the showcasing of charitable projects both rotary and non-rotary.  There were 81 different exhibits at Harrogate, all worthy causes and all promoting ‘service above service’ in some way.  It would be virtually impossible for me to review every organisation so I will just mention two

The first one was Theodora Children’s Trust  http://www.theodora.org.uk/ which brings music, magic, and laughter to children in hospitals through specially trained ‘Giggle Doctors.’  The Giggle Doctors are specialist entertainers, highly trained to work both in the hospital environment and with children with disabilities. They come from a wide range of backgrounds and bring with them a variety of skills (among our team are actors, entertainers, teachers, magicians, musicians and singers).

The training consists of a rigorous schedule of artistic and medical workshops which cover topics such as child development, infection control, child bereavement and the impact of illness and bereavement on families.  Dr Bananas, Dr Wonderpants and their funny friends are also trained to communicate in a variety of ways with children with special needs.  They learn the fundamentals of communication, exploring the elements that come into play: position, movement, mirroring, touching in response, repetition, eye-contact, smiling, trying different things, responding to responses, and most of all having fun and providing opportunities for play.

It was good to come across this charity and I was encouraged to learn of their work which certainly appeals to my inner child.  I even donned one of their clown red noses for the rest of the day.

The second exhibit that made a real impression on me was a Male Cancer Awareness Project initiated by three nurse Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Mawddach.  Known as the Prostate Girls, these three Rotarians have already travelled over 2,500 miles delivering their male cancer awareness presentation.  It was a pleasure to talk to them at their stand and listen as they later spoke in one of the plenary sessions early Saturday morning.  I, myself, have been running some awareness campaigns and as a club, we recently had a speaker highlight the importance of raising awareness to the state of men’s health.

www.facebook.com/pages/Rotary-Club-of-Mawddach/

These were 2 that impacted me as they probably spoke to my own character and personality.  Certainly, there were some great projects there and no doubt Rotarians would have come away from the house of friendship equipped with great ideas to take back to their communities.