Page 9 - Rotary Matters - March 2021

Mobile Billboard fosters road safety in Sunraysia

The RC Robinvale/Euston has had a mutual relationship with the TAC and Victoria Police, in addressing
Road Trauma. In 2015, funds and approval were sourced for the construction of a Mobile Billboard, with a
road safety message displayed, for placement on the side of the road.

This billboard was different in that the message was multi lingual. This was done to address the numerous
ethnic cultures that visit the Sunrasia/Riverland areas for Harvest.

Road trauma touches the lives of everyone within our community. Whether you be the loved one, relative,
Emergency Service Worker or the unfortunate person who comes across an initial accident scene - your life
is “touched” and changed forever.

Our community is no different. In order to raise awareness of this scourge, and address one of the many
drivers of road trauma, the Club, in conjunction with TAC, set about to address this issue.

With the current harvest on our doorstep, it is the responsibility of all of us within our community to act and
behave responsibly when out on the road.

The “grass roots message” may be as simple as
a contractor or farmer saying “drive safely “.

We hope that this harvest rewards all who have
toiled throughout the year, and most of all, we
remain safe.

This project was made possible with the
assistance and co-operation of Kelly Saunders,
Senior Traffic Officer, Department of Transport,
Loddon Mallee, and Nardia Brancatisano,
Media Cordinator,
Public Education Transport Accident Commission.

Polio update

Our campaign to end polio has faced many challenges in the last two years, not least the
impact of the Covid pandemic. Cases of wild polio jumped in Pakistan and cases of ‘circulating vaccine
derived’ polio became a serious problem in equatorial Africa.

These setbacks were related to issues such as political distractions, Taliban resistance and virus
mutations following the use of the ‘mOPV2’ vaccine. Great progress has been made with these issues:

• governments have refocussed and there were zero cases in Pakistan in December
• discussions have commenced with the Taliban
• a new vaccine, ‘Novel OPV2’ was introduced in October, and it is dramatically less likely to mutate.
Eradicating a disease is no easy task but we are now back on track. Download presentation on this link:
Download POLIO Update PowerPoint presentation

M-L Lees Chair The Rotary Foundation

Page 9