QCWA Annual Report 2018-2019

Annual Report 2018–2019 • The Queensland Country Women’s Association

“Thank you so much for your generosity with this blessing. It really is a blessing to me. You may never know just what an amazing gift this has been for me. I am a fundraiser for the local church I attend, and it was not long ago we were donating funds for you to distribute. Thank you for the service you offer to farmers like me. Bless you all as you continue this vital work. Thank you” Oh, my goodness, thank you so very much. I have goose bumps and tears in my eyes. This has taken a lot of stress away knowing that the lights will stay on. Thank you from the bottom of my heart”

PUBLIC RURAL CRISIS FUND REPORT Sinead Cooke

This financial year was by far our biggest year since the inception of the Public Rural Crisis Fund (PRCF). At the beginning of July 2018, just over 58% of South East Queensland was declared drought-affected; by June 2019, this had risen to 65%. The Queensland Government initiated a drought appeal in August 2018, and this gave significant media coverage to the drought-afflicted farmers, and the QCWA was chosen to distribute the funds raised throughout Queensland on its behalf. In addition, we had many major corporate donors and organisations come on board with QCWA. Red Cross was our major donor, allocating $4 million to the effort, and was extremely supportive of our efforts during this time. Other major sponsors providing more than $10,000 each are shown in the adjacent table; there have been thousands of other, smaller, donations to the PRCF which have been received from all levels of the community. Many community organisations across the state banded together with their members to raise funds and donate to the drought appeal. Schools, garden clubs, bowls clubs, hospital social clubs, retirement villages, sports clubs — to name only a few — held fundraisers and donated to the PRCF; not to mention the number of individuals around Queensland who contributed independently. On the other side of the coin we have our recipients of the funds and a glimpse of some of the hundreds of thank-you letters and emails such as these: “We would like to sincerely thank you for your assistance. Please know that this assistance went a great way to helping us deal with the circumstances that we are in and knowing that others care and feeling the compassion of other helped lift our spirits at that time.” “We cannot thank you enough. This is the first time we have asked for assistance and now I know how Gold Lotto winners feel. This is so generous, and we are so grateful. Sometimes you have to let your pride go and ask for help, and we are so pleased we have. Thank you.” “You have no idea how grateful we are. I have been grinding my teeth with stress wondering how I was going to pay these bills. We are so grateful and a huge thank you from the bottom of our hearts – Very Grateful Farmers”

DONOR

AMOUNT ($)

Red Cross

4,000,000 2,174,278

Coles Rotary

700,000 500,000 300,000 150,000 116,737 111,627 108,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 55,956 51,500 50,000 50,000 40,276 40,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 22,372 20,000 20,000 20,000 20,000 20,000 20,000 18,078 10,000

Golden Casket

Dick Smith

Tabcorp Santos

STATEWIDE

Adani Mining

Shell

Flannery Foundation

Queensland Government

Rio Tinto

Queensland Racing

Queensland Legacy Assembly

QH & M Birth

NAB

ABBA

Lifting the Outback

Toowoombavit

Telstra

QCWA South Coast Catering Queensland Bridge Association

South32

Harvey Norman Coolum Surf Club

Dowling Family Foundation

Windfury Pty Ltd

LGAQ

The Southport School Haymans Electrical

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