Voy joined the club on the 1st of May, and he had already introduced himself earlier in the year with a great talk to us about his homeland, Poland - “Europe's underrated treasure”. This week Voy spoke to us about his life growing up in former village located close to the city of Gdansk, studying at the University, his early career work life, his move to Dunedin in 2019 and his hobbies and interests. 

Voy told us that the area he came from is known as the Trójmiasto -  the three cities of Gdansk, Sopot and Gydynia. Gdansk is a very old city and port, dating back 1020 years, and still has many famous old buildings, bridges and port structures. Voy showed us photos of a very interesting housing block where he grew up in the seventies. His apartment was one of many in a 1km long ‘wavy’ apartment complex housing 6000 people. The kids had access to large playground areas where Voy as a child spent 90% of his spare time playing outdoors, even during winter, sometimes cold enough to create spectacular frozen coastline skating areas! In the summer Voy loved holidays visiting woodland areas, in particular a region called ‘Cross Lake’ where you can still find old wooden homes dating back to the 15th Century. Interestingly, this region is where many of the Polish community who migrated to New Zealand were from. 

At university in Gdansk, Voy studied logistics, and went on to work in Gydynia pointing out that his new spacious flat was in a far less ‘crowded’ space' than where he grew up! After 10 years working in logistics for warehouse equipment and supplies, he moved on to work for a software company that was later acquired by Amazon. He and his wife Magda led a very busy life working and commuting long distances that the work life balance meant spending time with their young daughter was compromised. The couple moved to Dunedin in 2019 where Magda found work at the University and Voy at Silver Fern Farms. While they miss their home town and family back in Poland, they enjoy the easier work life balance and access to the outdoors that living in Dunedin brings. 

Voy told us that in his spare time in Poland he loved being a DJ at popular nightclubs and being part of huge musical events such as Gydnia's “Open'er” a four day open air music event. Voy also loves playing Board Games- watch this space Dunedin Rotarians! 

Thanks, Voy for your very interesting and revealing ‘Who am I’!  

President Lynne introduced Sally Angelson to us as a ‘neighbour’, while she works in an office at Community House just outside our meeting room, Sally was able to share even more links to us through Rotary International's Peace initiatives.  After a 25 year career working in conflict zones around the world, Sally now lives in Dunedin and has recently graduated with a PhD from the Peace and Conflict Study Centre at Otago University.  In recent years, Sally attended a Rotary International ‘Positive Peace Activators’  meeting in Indonesia. Sally explained that ‘negative peace’ refers to the absence of violence, while ‘postive peace’ involves organisations that drive initiatives and actions based on community needs and services. Sally told us that living in peace and in a peaceful world is both global and local. She has learnt that some of the ‘answers’ lie in our everyday local actions such as listening, communication, connection and care for each other valuing inclusion, relationships and a sense of belonging. Sally wove Rotary's values of service, fellowship, diversity, integrity, networking and action into her talk. 

Sally now works in Dunedin for English Language Partners. She helps our former refugee and asylum seekers to feel supported and provided with access to opportunities for work in our community.  She is sensitive to the tough situations and years of living in refugee camps endured by these people and is passionate to apply positive peace principles to encourage people to people connection and unlock barriers. 

Please say hi to Sally if you see her at her office when you come to Dunedin Community House for our Rotary meetings, and we hope to have more discussions with Sally again soon! 

For your information, Rotary South Pacific's recent email newsletter to members featured links to Rotary's Peacebuilding inititatives such as Peace Fellowships | Rotary International.