Australian Families Offering Hospitality to Indian Students

The Australian government has announced a national initiative – Home for Dinner: Australian families offering hospitality to Indian students – that will provide a positive experience for Indian students studying and living in Australia and strengthen community engagement with international students. Rotary, through its districts and clubs in Australia have agreed to implement the initiative through an Australia-India Rotary Club Friendship Program. The program will see Indian students and community members offered the opportunity to establish positive links through shared informal dinners and barbeques hosted by Rotary members in their local area.

Rotary will have their club members invite an international student living in their area around for dinner. The program will be facilitated by partnerships with Indian student groups and Rotary.  John Lawrence, Rotary International Director from Brisbane said this was a positive initiative and it had the full endorsement of Rotary, which has a proud history of welcoming and hosting young people from all over the world.

Globally every year 12,000 young people travel on Rotary student exchanges to experience another culture. This move is in line with one of Rotary’s objectives of building goodwill and promoting world peace. Australia welcomed over 400,000 international students last year from more than 190 countries last year. These students make a real contribution to Australia’s multicultural diversity, the academic life of our institutions and people-to-people linkages across the world.

Students have made it clear – through the International Students Roundtable hosted by the Deputy Prime Minister in September, as well as through other forums – their sense of belonging within the community is vital to their social and educational experiences in Australia. The Home for Dinner initiative is a simple idea which will put students in touch with their neighbours and local community, and will help build a shared sense of understanding and appreciation between international students and the Australian community.

Jessica Watson sets sail

Solo sailor Jessica Watson has sailed out of Sydney Harbour to begin her round-the-world attempt. The 16-year-old is trying to break Jesse Martin’s record as the youngest person to sail solo and non-stop around the world without help. New South Wales Maritime enforced a strict exclusion zone around her yacht as she sailed out of Sydney Harbour. Media spokesman Andrew Fraser says the maritime escort is for safety purposes. "We’re expecting a lot of of vessels to be out there this morning in the Heads and it’s just a precautionary measure really to keep people at a safe distance, we don’t [want] a whole bunch of boats coming right up alongside her," he said. He says it has been an emotional farewell for the family. "It’s just naturally a pretty emotional time for the family. As a parent of three, you’re facing the reality that you won’t see your daughter for eight months," he said. Ms Watson has faced several disruptions.Last month her yacht collided with a cargo ship off southern Queensland and last weekend one of her mentors, Andrew Short, was killed in a yacht accident. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told Channel Nine a lot of Australians are nervous for Jessica Watson. "If there is one message it would be keep safe, do everything she needs to do to keep safe," Ms Gillard said.

"If that means that at some point she has got to abandon the journey, then the most important thing here is a young person’s life."

 

Source: ABC NEWS

Tourism Australia find ‘Best Job’ helper Barbie Defeo

TOURISM Queensland has finally tracked down the winner of a global competition to find a helper for Best Job in the World island caretaker Ben Southall.

The tourism body has avoided an embarrassing redraw after Californian Barbie Defeo stepped forward to claim her prize – a seven-week, all expenses-paid holiday in the state for her and three friends. The online competition closed on October 9 but Tourism Queensland could not find the winner, drawn from more than 23,000 entries from about 150 countries. Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor revealed on Saturday that Ms Defeo worked as a compliance manager in Huntington Beach, southern California. "She discovered she had won after reading that an American women was yet to claim the prize," Mr Lawlor said in a statement. "She then checked her emails which confirmed she was the lucky winner of the Best Experience in the World (competition). "I’m told she was ecstatic and in complete shock. "She will bring her husband and two teenage daughters and it will be her family’s first trip to Australia and the southern hemisphere." Ms Defeo’s only responsibility is to help Mr Southall write about Queensland in guest blogs. Tourism Queensland said this week it would re-draw the competition if the American winner failed to claim the prize before October 23. Ms Defeo said she had been following Mr Southall’s blog since he took up the dream job of island caretaker on July 1. "This will be our first visit to Queensland so there is just so much we want to see and do,” she said in the statement released by Mr Lawlor.

"My family and I love the outdoors and can’t wait to go bike riding, swimming and snorkelling.

"Most of all we’re really looking forward to meeting Ben and exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef." Mr Southall, a 34-year-old charity fundraiser from Hampshire in England, will receive a salary package of $150,000 for a six-month contract to promote tourism in Queensland. He’s living in a three-bedroom beach home overlooking the islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

In China, U.S. Adopted Teen Finds His Roots

His father and uncle fall to the ground, crying uncontrollably. After 11 years of not knowing, relief of finding a child they thought had been lost forever pours out of them.

Read the full story on CNN: www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/

Everything changed in April this year when his adopted mother, Julia Norris, contacted lawyer Zhang Zhiwei, who works with volunteers in China, reuniting lost children with the parents.

"Based on Jiacheng’s memories we did some analysis, like his eating habits," Zhang said. "He likes vinegar, which should be in northern China and close to Shanxi. He also likes garlic … and from his memory his family grew potato and corn, which gave us a hint of the region he used to live."

« Previous Page — Next Page »