The local government areas in south west Queensland have been drought declared since April 2013. The District 9620 drought relief effort started in early 2014, with none of us expecting at the time that we would still be active more than seven years later. Our District was one of the pioneers of drought assistance in Australia and our distribution methodology derived from RC Mitchell has since been copied by other entities and other Rotary Districts across the country. We don’t do “stuff”. We do not donate items which could be purchased locally by fund recipients (e.g. groceries, pharmaceuticals and the like). We distribute funds predominantly through an independent third party (almost solely the Rural Financial Counselling Service) in the form of debit cards only able to be redeemed at businesses local to the recipient. This not only assists the farmers and graziers, but also helps the rest of their local community as those funds are circulated in turn throughout that community.
We have also previously pioneered events we call “Family Days” (sometimes under the title “Big Day Outback”). These have the aim of not only lightening the physical and financial load on the affected landholders, but also the mental load – providing some low key mental health relief. Children are a major focus at these events as well as adults.
