The Rotary Clubs of Osborne Park and Karrinyup once again held a Christmas party for the displaced Ukrainian community in Perth at the Colin Moore Community Centre on Sunday 4th January 2025. The party was a great success and much appreciated by the Ukrainian community.
For the last 13 months our Rotarians have been volunteering at the monthly Community Hubs run by No Limits Perth and the Hepburn Centre. These hubs bring together a wide range of services to help families who are doing it tough at present.
No Limits Perth is a local charity doing amazing work in supporting less fortunate members of our community. The organisation is run entirely by volunteers out of a small warehouse in Wangara where they:
- provide recycled furniture to people in need;
- run a school breakfast program;
- provide nutritious lunches and dinners to 3 schools;
- provide a laundry van to wash clothes for school children and provide new underwear where the existing items are damaged or too dirty;
- provide back to school backpacks and stationary packs for school children; and
- provide emergency packs, kitchen starter packs and cleaning packs to those in need.

Osborne Park Rotary, together with Karrinyup and Scarborough Rotary Clubs have arranged with Black Swan Health to provide a Street Doctor service in Mirrabooka every week for the next three years. The service will be funded jointly by the Rotary Clubs.


The Black Swan Health Street Doctor currently operates 14 clinics per week south of the river, each running for 3 hours. They maintain a regular schedule so that attendees know when and where to find them. Word of mouth is used as the main marketing medium, many repeat clients use this as their regular medical service.
Eighteen homes built by “My Home” in North Fremantle were completed in June 2023 and a delighted group of homeless older women moved in over the next few months. Rotary gave every new resident a welcome pack which included food and toiletries.

“My Home” is a local not-for-profit organisation which is building small affordable homes for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. They are using a new housing development model in WA using a public private partnership system.
State government, Local governments and Church bodies make land available for free; corporate Australia funds construction of the houses; Rotary furnishes and equips the houses; and a community housing provider (CHP) manages the property and the tenants.
The first “My Home” housing development was completed in North Fremantle in June 2023. The homes are for women over 55, who are the fastest growing group of people who are homeless in Australia. These women have found themselves in this situation for a number of reasons. Often, they cannot find work because of their age, they have lost confidence in re-entering the workforce after being a stay-at-home mum or feel they are too old to retrain. They have negligible superannuation, no assets and without a partner.
Our Club, in conjunction with the Karrinyup Rotary, hosted another Christmas Party for the Ukraine Refugees living in Perth. The event was opened with a prayer from Vasyl Olevych, the Father from the Ukrainian Orthodox church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. The party, held on 14 January, was a great success, with 150 people attending.
The entertainment commenced with a modern play referencing the current situation, which was performed by the group known as "Vertep By Grown-ups". This recently formed group consists mostly of displaced Ukrainians, with members ranging in age from 10 to 50, despite the group's name suggesting it is for adults.
Vertep holds significant importance in Ukrainian culture as a Christmas celebration, and in Perth, they presented a modernized rendition of it. The play's script, written by Yuriy Safronov from St. Louis, USA, was crafted specifically for the Perth Ukrainian Community and is now also performed in the USA. The story revolves around the conflict of Evil vs Good, with characters representing contemporary issues in Ukraine's war. King Herod's alliance with Moscow is mentioned, and Mother Ukraine emphasizes the protection of the people and children of Ukraine.
