PAGE 6 - THE ADVERTISER, WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2018

#phillipisland150

Do you have historical photos of

Phillip Island identities, buildings,

landmarks & special occasions?

We would love to share them with our

readers in our 150th special features, which

will be published weekly throughout 2018.

Drop in, email or tag us on social media to

submit anything of historical interest.

(Photos will be scanned and immediately returned)

Ph: 5952 3201 e: advertiser@pisra.com.au

60 Chapel Street, Cowes

LK19

60

LK24

74

PHILLIP ISLAND & SAN REMO

ADVERTISER

Publication No. VBF 9005897Registered by Australia Post.

Editorial: advertiser@pisra.com.au Advertising: ads@pisra.com.au

Sport: sport@pisra.com.au

Suite 2, 60 Chapel Street, Cowes, 3922. Phone (03) 5952 3201

Fax (03) 5952 3024

CONTACT US:

NOW ONLINE: Subscribe at

www.pisra.com.au

Taking nursing care to NepalTHEIR bags are packed and

they’re about to fly out to another country, a different culture and an entirely new medical experience.

Local nurses Liz May and Kim Fairthorne are about to head to Ne-pal for a three-week hospital place-ment.

The pair will be part of the medical team at a small volunteer run hospital called Sheer Memo-rial Hospital, about half an hour’s drive out of the capital city of Kath-mandu.

They will be taking with them an air of expectation and excitement as well as a bag full of necessities and assorted gifts.

These extras include toothbrush-es, toothpaste, soaps, beanies and care teddies; as well as $456 each in cash that has been collected through various fundraisers.

This amount is the figure that both women have set as their target as it represents the amount needed to feed a family in Nepal for twelve

months. Liz and Kim have calcu-lated that it costs $38 a month for a family to buy a bag of rice.

For those living in this third world country, it is often a hefty price to pay.

The support the ladies have re-ceived from the local community has been spontaneous and gener-ous.

As soon as the residents and staff of Banfields Aged Care heard of Liz’s placement they decided to get behind her and do what they could to help.

“It’s been amazing and very heartening for me to know that we have this support. The residents here have been very generous and are as excited about what we are doing as we are,” said Liz May.

Kim has also been busy with her own fundraising, including a din-ner last Friday night at Fig and Ol-ive restaurant in Cowes; and has added a supply of donated spec-tacles to take over in her luggage.

Such is the support, that on last count, Kim and Liz have raised over $2000 collectively.

This overseas opportunity comes at the end of Liz and Kim’s three years of study for a Registered Nursing (RN) degree.

It has been a demanding and re-warding time for them as they have juggled their regular workloads at Banfields and Grossard Court (for Kim) as well as the extra study and placements they have needed to undertake off island.

Placement in Nepal appealed to both ladies.

Just 20 students were selected for work placement from appli-cants across the east coast of Aus-tralia.

Both Kim and Liz are thrilled and proud to have been chosen.

Neither has been to Nepal before.“I think it’s being able to experi-

ence a different culture and medi-cal approach as well as being part of a local community that attracted

us to apply,” said Kim. Accommodation will be basic

and local as they will be spending much of their time working along-side the local medical team where they will be based.

Six to seven hour shift rosters will see them in hospital wards, as well as out and about with a doc-tor tending to the needs of the local villagers.

They will confront first hand a range of illnesses and diseases not common in Australia.

As well as the invaluable nursing experience the placement will offer, personal qualities of mindfulness, resilience and leadership will be developed – which will hold them in good stead in their nursing ca-reers.

On days off, they plan to explore as much of the villages and coun-tryside they are in as possible.

“We look forward to sharing our experience when we get back home at the end of July,” they said.

Local nurses Liz May (centre) and Kim Fairthorne (second right) will soon head to Nepal for a three-week hospital placement. The women have been fundraising for the trip to be able to take basic necessities with them, for distribution over there. The ladies are pictured last week with the support crew at Liz’s workplace, Banfields Aged Care in Cowes, with Candice Leitch - clinical care manager, Margie Bowers, catering staff, and Lara Basso (far right) - director of care. Margie has added to the funds raised through the sale of jars of her homemade jam.

By Cr Pamela Rothfield

Last week was my birthday, and to celebrate I took myself to the Classic Cream Beautiful Black fashion exhibition currently on in the Wonthaggi Town Hall.

I was delighted and inspired by the amazing collection of fashion pieces from across the ages, starting with tiny waisted gowns from the Edwardian era all the way up to modern day pieces by local designers Karin Murphy-Ellis, who makes incredible pieces using found and recycled fabrics, and Chris Denzel-Williams who’s modern and contemporary style deserves a runway.

The exhibition has been brilliantly curated by Ann Dixon.

It was just marvelous to be able to step out-side my office and be embraced by the cultural and artistic experience of Classic Cream Beau-tiful Black.

We are so lucky in Bass Coast to have such creative and talented souls amongst us, who bring their passion for art and creativity to our community.

Another great example of this is the Textile Artist group of Phillip Island who have spent thousands of hours over the past year sewing, cutting and weaving together a patchwork tap-estry to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Eu-ropean settlement on Phillip Island.

The magnificent artwork is a mammoth and elaborate 5m x 2.5m. I simply struggle to imag-ine the amount of stitching involved. I am sure that many great stories and much laughter was shared across the patchwork as the artists worked away.

After the unveiling of the artwork on Sunday, I am of course imagining where we can hang the beautiful piece so that it can be appreciated by all.

I think a prominent position in the future Cowes Cultural Centre will be the perfect fit.

On Thursday, June 28 Bass Coast hosted the Gippsland Regional Assembly. It was a busy day with nine state government Min-isters making the trip to Wonthaggi to hear and discuss the concerns and priorities for Gippsland.

The agenda began with participants viewing seven Priority Theme Booths, and then vot-ing on their top three priorities. For example, I chose Education and Industry as a priority from the ‘Skills and Education’ booth, Phillip Island Transport Strategy from the ‘Connectiv-ity’ booth, and Health Outcomes and Innova-tion from the ‘Family and Community Wellbe-ing’ booth.

These areas align with three of our top advo-cacy priorities.

The assembly was organised by the State Government initiative, Gippsland Regional Partnership.

It provided a fantastic opportunity for people in the community to get involved in shaping our future, and I was delighted to see representa-tion from many community groups.

With an election on the horizon, it will be in-teresting to see how the priorities identified on Thursday night are incorporated into future policy and programs and projects.

Mayor’s Message

Free whooping cough vaccine

THE Federal Government will provide the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine to every pregnant woman in Australia from.

Member for Flinders, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, said the $39.5 million investment will mean the vaccine is added to the National Immunisation Program, guaranteeing its access, safety and availability for the first time.

“Whooping cough is a terrible disease that can cause life-threatening complications, in-cluding pneumonia or brain damage.

“Babies in their first six months of life are most at risk,” Minister Hunt said.

“Newborns cannot be vaccinated until six weeks of age and the most effective way to pro-tect a baby against the disease is vaccination of the mother during pregnancy.

“Whooping cough is a vaccine preventable disease and I urge all mums-to-be in Flinders to get vaccinated.”

Minister Hunt said the government will also undertake a national public education and promotion of the vaccine, targeting pregnant women with evidence based information on the benefits of this vaccine for mother and baby.

“According to the experts, getting vaccinated during the third trimester of pregnancy allows the mother to pass whooping cough antibodies to her baby, protecting them until they are old enough to receive the vaccine themselves.”

Before listing this vaccine, medical experts from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and the Australian Technical Advi-sory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) under-took an extensive investigation of this vaccine and determined it to be safe and effective.