3 minute read
The local voice of South African orphans
Words Tricia Welsh
When South African-born Charmaine Wheatley moved with her Australian husband from Durban to live on the Sunshine Coast 11 years ago, after a short stint in Kiama, she quickly realised that she was the voice of the orphans in South Africa and had the ability to tell their story here in Australia.
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Iwas personally involved in the heart-wrenching rescue of some very snotty-nosed and starving children from the rubbish dumps in my home town,” recalls this energetic volunteer, who is now Mentor of the Sunshine Coast Rotary Community Corps.
An active event member of Rotary International for 16 years, Charmaine has held many different roles while fundraising for Rotary in various clubs in both South Africa and Australia. As an event organiser, she has been instrumental in organising the highly successful masquerade balls, and Rocky Horror, ABBA and Dancing with the Stars among other fun events. She estimates she spends at least 20 hours a week either selling raffle tickets or organising the prizes, volunteering in various roles around the Sunshine Coast, organising the next fundraiser and attending networking meetings.
“If you do something that you love – it most certainly is not time consuming,” she adds.
She believes she had the “spirit of volunteerism” from childhood, starting with Bob-a-Job as a little Brownie and learning about children less fortunate.
“In South Africa, I was very involved with a Lifeline project teaching young street children various skills to try and give them the opportunity to become employable or perhaps create a job opportunity through crafts,” she explains. “Once a month we would ‘magically receive’ $1000 from a Rotary Club somewhere in Australia which very generously supported our skills empowerment programme in Durban. We gratefully used this money to purchase craft materials and pay for a small lunch to feed the hungry children while we taught them and gave them very often their only hot meal for the week.”
Over the past 12 years, she has escorted 52 self-funded Australians on overseas humanitarian trips to Africa.
“One of the highlights of my Rotary career was delivering 25 water carriers called Hippo Rollers to a small village in Lesotho – the smallest country in Africa, on International Women’s Day in 2020 just before COVID,” she says. “It still gives me a tingle when I proudly reflect on the awesome Australians who accompanied me on that trip before we were very dramatically evacuated back to Australia.”
Charmaine has also worked closely with Riding for the Disabled, Lions International, Volunteering Australia and Beautiful You among other charities and has worked at two BlazeAid camps repairing fences after devastating floods and fires.
“The pure joy and satisfaction of helping someone else after the kindness of strangers made a HUGE impact in my own life when I had a personal struggle”, she acknowledges. “It’s the basic love of fellowmen and I would like to continue while I still have my good health and energy. “I have directly seen the impact of the charity dollar in the communities I have worked with overseas and locally. So even though it’s hard work, I always try and put the FUN in fundraising – so it’s really twofold.” In 2018, she was nominated for Volunteer of the Year and has received many charity awards through Rotary and the local community.
She extends an invitation to interested persons to the Alexandra Headland Rotary Club, for a Friday morning breakfast meeting at the Alex Surf Club, to learn more about Rotary and the exciting projects planned for next year.
“Come and share the next exciting Rotary year with us, under the leadership of President Skye Miller and her team, and you too can have as much fun as I am having here on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, by helping both the local and international community,” she adds.
