Young Achiever Award to Tim Foster
Wednesday 12 March 2008
Tim Foster receives his awards from the Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser.
The international humanitarian work of former Senior Student (2005–06) Tim Foster (TC 2005) was today recognised with a 2008 Young Achiever Award from the Rotary Club of Melbourne. He was also the recipient of the prestigious Sir Albert Coates Award for 2008.
The Governor of Victoria, Professor David de Kretser, presented Tim with both awards during the Club's lunchtime meeting in the Grand Ballroom of the Windsor Hotel.
Addressing the Club following the presentation, Tim spoke of 'a very special place that has played a very big part in my life over the last three years'. That place is Darwhenya, in Ghana, a 'rickety, rusty town dominated by corrugated iron and disintegrating adobe shacks', and particularly within that town, a primary school called Calvary Academy.
Tim first went there as a volunteer teacher for two months in early 2005 and described that experience as 'extremely challenging'. He also found that 'the kids were amazing'. His biggest shock though was 'observing the apparent "normality" of life without adequate access to water and sanitation'. He came to the conclusion that ‘the students at Calvary Academy would never reach their potential whilst there was such inadequate access to water and sanitation. So I decided to do something about it.’
The Governor congratulates Tim Foster on his achievements.
On his return to Australia, Tim devoted his final year engineering project to solving the problem. He researched possible sanitation solutions, designed the building to house five pit latrines, raised the necessary funds, and with two other Trinity alumni, Brie Dance (TC 2003) and Victoria Guy (TC 2003), returned to Darwhenya in January 2007 to supervise the latrine construction, connect piped water to the school and conduct hygiene education classes for the students.
‘I very much hope that these additions to the school will in some small way have positive health, education and gender equality outcomes for the kids’, Tim told the Rotarians. ‘Having said this, it is of course a tiny drop in a depressingly large ocean – an ocean that includes 1 billion people who still lack access to clean water, and 2.6 billion who lack access to basic sanitation’.
In being honoured with these Rotary Club Awards, Tim becomes one of nine Trinity alumni who have been named Rotary Young Achievers in the last six years.
They include:
2003 - Ben Namdarian and John Dethridge
2004 - Cameron Rahles-Rahbula (also Young Victorian of the Year for 2004)
2005 - Chris Lewin (also Sir Albert Coates Award) and David Smerdon
2006 - Phyl Georgiou (also a 2005 Goldman Sachs Global Leader)
2007 - Ali Alamein (also Sir Albert Coates Award) and Joseph Clifford (and both were 2006 Goldman Sachs Global Leaders)
2008 – Tim Foster (also Sir Albert Coates Award)
Rosemary Sheludko
Director of Communications