On 16 - 17 August 2025, passionate debate once again filled the Chamber at Canberra's Old Parliament House, as almost 60 students from 19 schools around Australia debated United Nations Resolutions with fervour, conviction and passion. 

 

This is MUNA, the Model United Nations Assembly, which is facilitated by Rotary Clubs in Canberra and around Australia. This year the Rotary Club of Bega supported two students, Grace and Andre from Lumen Christie College in Pambula, to travel to Canberra to represent Singapore in a very realistic simulated UN Assembly.

 

Teams are made up of two or three Year 11 or 12 students, with each team representing a nation at a simulated UN Assembly. Teams debate topics of international concern such as world peace, environmental issues and human rights over two days. Before attending, students are expected to familiarise themselves with the nation they represent by studying its history, politics, economics, people, geography, international alignment and real-life stance on world affairs. 

 

All of the participating students took the process very seriously and took on the persona of the states they were representing in both argument and presentation. When the Russian delegate stood, looked directly at the delegate from the US and basically said get your own house in order before you try to tell us how to run our own elections and democracy, most of the room had to hold back their laughter. Some of the teams were dressed in forms of national dress with the Saudi Arabian delegates dressed in robes and appropriate head wear.  

 

There were six resolutions being argued, with two states arguing for and two states arguing against. There were notes going every which way including requests to the Secretary General to express their own arguments or request time for a rebuttal. Notes were also going to other delegates in the same bloc to encourage them to vote together as this would add weight to the arguments presented. Out team was not shy about being involved. During one break, a delegate from Egypt came over to our team to lobby Singapore to vote their way. This delegate later admitted he was an aspiring politician. 

The top three teams received awards and a Peace award was also given to the team that the adjudicators felt made the best arguments for world peace over the entire event. 

The Australian Human Rights Commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, was guest speaker at the formal dinner on the Saturday night – yet another very special experience for the students.

Our team enjoyed themselves immensely and were very impressive both in behaviour and presentation. In fact, all the students were very impressive and it’s clear that Rotary is indeed encouraging and developing our youth for the future.

We had a good rollup on both days of the Book Fair and, together with the donations of books that continued throughout the Fair, it was a good result overall.
The weather was cool but it didn’t seem to deter people and the heaters helped a lot. ANU Medical students, Anishka and Victoria, came down to help and it was great to have them.
A big thank-you goes out to Bega Public School for making their hall available to us and for allowing our shipping container to remain on site. And of course a big thank you goes out to all our members, friends and family who assisted with the set-up, running and pack-up. Who knows,  maybe we’ll be back in the showground for the next one!

  

Victoria, Colleen, Anishka and Charlie with our         Book Fair in full swing.

storage container at the school.

 

  

Children's books set up and ready for a new.              Hall set up and ready to go.

home.

“Take your partner by the hand…” A very lively and enjoyable evening was had by Australian National University first year medical and psychology students at an old-fashioned bush dance at Kameruka Hall on 18^th March. The Rotary Club of Bega has had a long and productive association with the ANU Rural Clinical School, as part of an annual program of student experience in Bega. This year 23 students spent four days in the Bega Valley to give the students firsthand experience of a rural lifestyle and encouraging them to consider employment in the area once they are qualified.

This event was also for GPs who are new to the area, local medical staff, fourth year medical students and students on longer placements in our area. Bega Rotary supported the event by providing the BBQ for a total of 100 people and were ably assisted by hospitality students from the Sapphire Coast Anglican College. The next day Bega Rotary also supported the medical students who were offering free blood pressure tests in Bega.Deborah Ferguson, Administration Officer at the Rural Clinical School Bega said “we had glowing feedback from the visiting students for both events, which was a lovely reflection of the ties between the medical, volunteer and broader community. We started with a cohort, many of whom were a bit ambivalent about rural medicine and were able to send almost all of them back to Canberra with some myths busted, wanting to apply for a rural year in Bega!