Helping beyond our borders
28 May 2009
As Chief Executive Officer of one of the State’s leading disability service providers, I have reason to be proud.
I am, rightfully, proud of the role Karingal plays in improving the life quality of thousands of people with disability and mental illness every day.
I am proud of the way Karingal has grown and adapted to meet changing needs, through changing times.
I am proud of our innovative and responsive services, great facilities and rapid expansion.
What I am, however, most proud of, is the commitment and compassion of Karingal’s 1200-plus employees.
Remarkably, many Karingal staff members spend not only their working hours making a difference to people’s lives but also their spare time.
They are, variously, volunteers, members of committees, councils, clubs and other community organisations.
In this voluntary capacity – both within Karingal’s walls and outside them - they raise funds for a plethora of causes and provide their skill and labour with no other aim than to help others.
Most recently, Karingal employees, through a number of fundraising efforts, have made a very real difference to the lives of people on the other side of the world, through money raised for the purchase of something as fundamental as septic tanks.
Forty septic tanks have been constructed and installed in the Sri Lankan village of Vilankulam. The small, Tamil village has become the new home of many families whose houses and lives were devastated in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
With staff efforts raising about $7000, and Head Office matching this amount dollar-for-dollar, more than $14,400 was contributed by Karingal to this life-changing project.
The Rotary Club of Geelong, of which I have been a member since 1993, and Geelong InterAct, have managed and funded the ambitious aid project.
Female English novelist George Eliot famously said: “Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds."
The deeds of Karingal staff determine a dynamic organisation of which we should all feel proud.