Can you help us bring Elizabet from Ukraine to Australia on Rotary Youth Exchange?

In December we will be welcoming Elizabet to Australia from Kyiv, Ukraine, as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student, hosted by the Rotary Club of Coomera River.

This is a one-way exchange that we have arranged that will be fully funded for Elizabet through donations to our youth exchange program – this will cover her flights, insurance, visa, and all of her living expenses during her year here in Australia.

To date we have had six extremely generous clubs in our district each make a $500 donation towards Elizabet’s exchange – a huge thank you to Yamba, Ballina-on-Richmond, Maclean, Iluka Woombah, Warwick and Tenterfield. If you would like to help us make this exchange possible please get in touch with David Kenny on yep@rotary9640.org

Unfortunately there will be no outbound youth exchanges from District 9640 in 2023. We hope to resume the youth exchange program in 2024.

If you are interested in registering your interest to be an outbound student in 2024, please complete the expression of interest form here: https://9640.ryea.org.au/exchange-student-expression-of-interest/

Our Southern Star Rotex team are looking to run a virtual exchange program in the coming months. Follow their Facebook page for more information: https://www.facebook.com/Southern.Star.ROTEX

From the 2021/22 D9640 Youth Exchange Committee we want to thank all of the clubs and Rotarians who have supported us, and we look forward to seeing the return of this very special, life-changing program in 2024.

David Kenny (Chair), Kathryn Koch (Co-Deputy Chair), John Campbell (Co-Deputy Chair), Denise Payne (Compliance), Pat Fleming (Treasurer) and Mindi Devine (ROTEX Liason)

Rotary Youth Exchange is run entirely by volunteers. This means that the program is run by people who are truly passionate about the life-changing experience of youth exchange, and it also helps us to keep our costs down, making Rotary Youth Exchange one of the most affordable youth exchange programs available.

It takes a lot of people to make youth exchange happen – from the youth exchange committee, to club counsellors, club youth exchange officers, host families and various other volunteers. Many of these volunteer roles require a serious time commitment, which is often ‘invisible’ within Rotary. But without these people, Rotary Youth Exchange simply wouldn’t happen. That’s why we introduced the Service to Youth Exchange pin to present to members who have demonstrated a significant commitment to youth exchange in District 9640.

In late 2021/early 2022 our YEP committee have visited several clubs in our district to present Service to Youth Exchange Pins to members who have:

  • Hosted 5 or more exchange students as a host parent, and/or
  • Volunteered for 3 or more years on the D9640 YEP committee, and/or
  • Is otherwise regarded as a champion of YEP at a club or district level.

Please click here to see the full list of members who have been recognised.

If you know of a member whose service to YEP should be recognised, please contact the YEP Committee to let us know.

Here are some photos taken at some of our recent presentations.

It’s with a very heavy heart that we confirm that the Rotary Youth Exchange Program is on hold globally until at least July 2022.

At this stage we are hoping to start receiving inbound students into Australia in July 2022, and send our outbound students back out into the world in January 2023. For our outbound students, this means we’ll start the application process for student selection in early 2022. This is of course all subject to change based on what’s happening globally at that time with Covid-19.

Rotary Youth Exchange is a program very close to our hearts. As a committee made up of many former exchange students, host parents, and parents of exchange students, we know better than anyone the impact that the Rotary YEP has on the young people, Rotary clubs and communities that participate. We’ll do everything in our power to keep the YEP spirit alive in the interim, and to get it up and running again as soon as we can.

If you have any questions about this, please email us at RotaryYEP9640@gmail.com

Introducing the world’s newest Rotex Club!

Southern Star Rotex Australia is officially chartered as a Rotary Alumni Association! 👏

Thanks to 9640 District Governor Ana Andy Rajapakse for making this happen. We are now officially one of only three chartered Rotex clubs in Australia.

Congratulations to Charter President Ruby Vaars (Japan 2019), Rotex Liaison from the YEP Committee Mindi Devine, and other members of the committee on this achievement.

Thanks to all the members who joined us on the Gold Coast over the weekend to celebrate.

If you’d like to join Southern Star Rotex, complete an application form today!

This is just one of the fun facts about Rotary Youth Exchange that you can find in the September 2020 issue of Rotary Magazine.