A Note from the Prez
Looking out the window at the bleak, rainy, day and wishing for sunshine to return, I reflected on the notion that what I want is not necessarily what others want or need. Victorian farmers desperately need this rain to grow their crops and feed their livestock.
So, it is with life-we sometimes have to make adjustments for the greater good.
At the City of Boroondara workshop on Indigenous Cultural Guidelines, which Jill Woinarski and I attended this week, we were asked to consider the difference between Equality and Equity. Thinking on this, I remembered times when our children were in primary school and trying to decide where to send them for secondary school. Should they all go to the same school or find the school, regardless of type, which best meets the needs of each individual child? I know that for our children we realized that providing what each individual needed to thrive, rather than to give everyone the same, while not always appearing ‘fair’ was the better and equitable way. This approach involved many conversations with them when one child had something different to their siblings, eg glasses, tutoring, gymnastics competitions, going on overseas exchange, staying out late.
In Rotary, we should also strive for equity in our dealings with people.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth with Jill Woinarksi and Balwyn RC's Julie Mulhouser at the Indigenous Culture Workshop
