Attendance: 29 Members: 22 (of 47) 47% Guests: 7
Speaker: Mel Key and Nikko Riazi Topic: Education CHANCES Foundation
At the club meeting on May 26th, our club was informed by Mel Key and Rikko Riazi of the function and necessity of the Education CHANCES Foundation (ECF). The Rotary Club of Glenferrie is a major sponsor in that 50% of the earnings from the Boroondara Farmers Market are donated (via the Boroondara Council) to Education CHANCES It was appropriate for the ECF Board to update and promote this worthy project. Education CHANCES funds more than 100 deserving students annually to pursue their secondar and tertiary education. the late Helen Worladge OAM, a founder of Education CHANCES, was a recipient of a Paul Harris Fellow Recognition through the Rotary Club of Glenferrie in 2023.
Mel Key is the General Manager of Programs and Operations at the Education CHANCES Foundation. She outlined the distribution of scholarships to under-resourced students to allow them to continue their studies and succeed with a helping hand from these scholarships. Since, there is a limit of funds to what can be provided, there is a strict criterion in that the family is referred by the schools, and they have to be a client ofCentrelink.
Nikko Riazi, who is the Board Chair of the ECF and a recipient of one of these scholarships, was able to give a firsthand impression of how the scholarships basically turned round her life. Coming from a single parent household , she was able to achieve various degrees and through sheer hard work achieve independence by finishing her studies.
It was pointed out that the Boroondara area has always been ranked number one for relative advantage in Victoria and as a result, there is an abnormal skew of well off people hiding the fact there is still poverty and social isolation prevalent in the Boroondara area.
Many of the Chances board were present to lend support and promote the work of this organisation.