DELORAINE ROTARY mainly raises funds to spend in the community or Tasmania generally but the club also seeks to help people overseas.

South Pacific Island states Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Fiji have always been poor, but with COVID-19 destroying the tourist industry, they are in even worse shape.

To assist them, the Rotary Pavilion hosted a Rotary social night with a purpose. In a room beautifully set up with national flags, the attendees enjoyed a wide range of foods from Brazil to Korea and many countries in between, with volunteers as chefs and servers.

More than $1,600 was raised to provide funding for micro-businesses.

The money raised will be sent to Kiva, a US nonprofit based in San Francisco. KIVA uses South Pacific Business Development as a field partner. SPBD works in the communities to vet borrowers, provide services and administer loans and has been involved with over 40,000 loans in the South Pacific. Kiva loans have a historical repayment rate of about 97 per cent.

Importantly, when the loan has been repaid to Kiva, there is a choice to withdraw the funds, donate it to Kiva, or relend it to another borrower. The Rotary Club intends to relend its funds to help other islanders start new businesses.

Information on the Rotary Club of Deloraine is available at www.rotaryclubofdeloraine. org.au/. For bookings at the Rotary Function Centre call 03 6362 2325 or go to www.rotaryfunctioncentre.com.au/.