Posted by Cherie Ramsay, Disaster Aid
After a three year break due to COVID restrictions DAA was finally able to hold their annual Conference on Saturday November 12thThe Conference started with a get together at the DAA offices in Eumemmerring on Friday night for the DAA team and special supporters.
This year we were lucky enough to have 9820’s District Governor Paul Mee and his wife Adele join us for a tour of the office where they got to see a working SkyHydrant and our Rotary International Conference display. It was a wonderful night of good food and fellowship.
Then on to the main event; Saturday’s conference.  This year’s theme was COVID and beyond and the day was broken into reviewing DAA activities during COVID and looking forward to new projects in the Philippines, Bhutan and Timor Leste. The attendees heard two inspiring presentations from organisations working in Timor Leste who will become DAA partners in delivering Safe Water for Every Child. Yooralla ministries has been working in Timor Leste for over 15 years in community development projects including building health centres and birthing clinics.  This potential partnership is very exciting and DAA Board agreed to provide 2 installations as part of a pilot program during this Rotary year with the aim of starting a project similar to Bhutan and the Philippines in 2023-2024.
Steve Hain from WH consulting, a not-for-profit WASH organisation, attended our last conference and they have assisted DAA with translations of our videos into Tetum, (Timor) and Tagalog (Philippines) languages.  The board agreed to support 1 installation this Rotary year with WH consulting, again as a pilot for a project to commence in 2023-2024. 
The feedback during the day from the attendees was very positive with everyone feeling inspired and two new partnerships for DAA it was extremely successful. The dinner was lots of fun with Brian giving an entertaining talk about his road to becoming the “accidental” CEO of DAA.  There was a lot of laughs, good food and fellowship with a raffle to end the night. Overall while attendee numbers were down for this conference compared to previous years it was certainly one of our most successful as DAA is now on the path to projects in Timor Leste with trusted partners who share our vision.
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