WIZO Victoria 76th AGM

4 April 2024

WIZO Victoria held a hugely successful 76th AGM on 4 April 2024. It was heartwarming once again to see so many faces filling the room as we celebrated our milestones and reflected on the year that was.  

MC, Hadassah Jordan opened the evening and after a prayer for the soldiers and a prayer for the hostages. President, Ronit Chrapot addressed the room, highlighting WIZO Victoria’s key achievements in 2023 as well as the strong advocacy and fundraising role WIZO has had to address since the horrific events of 7 October.

Jemima Montag, an Australian race walker, an Olympian and two-time Commonwealth gold medallist was our keynote speaker and a breath of fresh air. Jemima is also a medical student and passionate public speaker. She wowed the audience as she spoke about how to overcome challenges by developing resilience, willingness, openness to feedback and values- based motivation. She shared personal stories about her own experience to illustrate how she herself had to apply these principles and life lessons. She presented with ease of delivery and there were lots of great questions and many take aways to apply to our own lives. 

Ramona Chrapot shared her personal experience of her time in Israel, volunteering and meeting the communities who were directly affected by October 7. She spoke of a girl who had lost family members and was still smiling. When Ramona asked how she could smile after all that had happened, she responded by saying, “I won’t let them take that away from me”. 

We would like to wish Mazal Tov to all the recipients who received awards. Tania Kaye merited the prestigious Rebecca Sieff award. Other award recipients were Joshua Feldman,  Talya Rotman, Beryl Blode, Karen Zafir, Hila Kwiat and Sharon Spilkin. We would also like to acknowledge and thank our past Presidents, Paulette Cherny OAM, Sylvia Green and Anita Bejerano for presenting all the special awards and, Ruth Scheuer OAM for presenting on behalf of Helen Granek OAM. David Southwick MP made a special appearance to present the Caulfield Volunteers Award to Sylvia Green. 

Talya Rotman introduced her Loom for Life Initiative, a movement that emerged to enrich the lives of Israeli children after October 7 where 11,000 blue and white loom bands were curated as a mural. The aim of the mural is to raise funds to renovate and purchase equipment for a new sensory –motor room in a WIZO child- care centre in Israel. We thanked Zac Chester for collaborating with Talya and donating a painting “Blue Dove” to the project. 

The evening concluded with a representative from Bendigo Bank generously presenting a cheque to Talya Rotman for WIZO Kids and with our members standing proud and united singing the Hatikvah

WIZO Australia congratulates WIZO Victoria on an extremely successful AGM - Kol Hakavod!