Funding to improve the economic, health, educational, professional, legal or political status of women is an important part of the service that a Zonta club can provide. While the Zonta Breast Care Cushion is perhaps our best known project, there are many many other things that the Club has done for the community, and this section highlights just some of them.
Over more than a decade, our Club has made funding available to assist many projects & activities:
Some projects are for a singular outcome whilst other are ongoing. For example, in 2004 & 2005, the Club raised $10,000 to fund a project at the Calvary Healthcare Sydney - Hurstville Community Hospita to improve the health status of women. This project provided 10 maternity chairs which were specially designed to assist new mothers in their recovery as well as establishing the baby in feeding. One chair was designed to accommodate twins.
On the other hand, a new ongoing project to improve the health status of women in our community is done in cooperation with the breast care nurses at St George Hospital. In this case we have funded a periodic seminar day "Young Women with Breast Cancer". First run in 2005 and again in May 2007, the seminar is aimed at women still in their childbearing years and covers many topics not dealt with in more generic material about breast cancer.
 In other ongoing commitments to improving the educational and professional status of women, the Zonta International award in which our Club has taken the most active interest is the Young Women in Public Affairs Award, which is designed to encourage young women to participate visibly in the life of their community by taking on leadership roles. This is always a highlight of our year for the members to see the great potential of the young women in our community, and share the Award dinner occasion with their families. The winner of the Zonta Club of Botany Bay Award in 2002, Elisa Fisher (pictured above), went on to be one of the five international winners in 2003. For more information, email the Club at secretary@zontabotanybay.org.
Our Club has also funded two awards at TAFE level for over 10 years. These Zonta Achievement Awards are made to deserving women who have overcome professional or social obstacles (eg. entering a non-traditional area of work for women, or being a refugee or from a very underprivileged background) to pursue their goals in working life. An award is made each calendar year at St George TAFE and at Gymea TAFE, to the most deserving student as judged by a panel of TAFE staff. Elizabeth Grant, the 2007 winner at St George is shown here receiving her certificate from Bronlyn Schoer (President of the Club, 2006 - 2008).
Sponsorship of a girl to attend school in Tanzania - St Jude's School in Tanzania is the creation of Australian woman Gemma Sisia, and it operates almost entirely on sponsorship of students. Gemma's work was brought to prominence in Australia when she appeared on the ABC's Australian Story in August 2005. For more information about Gemma, please see www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1435647.htm
Despite the name, St Jude’s is non-denominational and open to both girls and boys. (Gemma chose the name as St Jude is known to some as the patron saint of the impossible, or lost causes!) A sponsorship program allows children to receive an education that they would otherwise be denied. The “means test” for students to be eligible for sponsorship is whether the family home has a mud or a concrete floor - a concrete floor is for the “rich people” of this community! For more information about St Jude's, see www.schoolofstjude.co.tz
 Rukia Shabani is our student at St Jude’s School - she is shown here with an award that she received recently and below in late 2005 with stickers and a card that the Club sent to her.
At age 8, she began attending school for the first time in 2005 with the help of our sponsorship, and continues to do very well with her studies. 
The Club now funds her sponsorship in partnership with the Zonta Club of the Central Coast.
Support of womens' refuges in our community has been an ogoing commitment since the earliest days of the Club. These refuges shelter women and children fleeing circumstances of domestic violence and connect them to other services that will assist them to establish a new life. In addition to funding improvements to residences from time to time, the Club provides a steady stream of toiletries and other items that women need when they have left their home often with only the clothes they are wearing. More recently, we have begun providing "welcome baskets" for women who are ready to leave the refuge, which include many practical items needed when setting up a new home.
Assembly of birthing kits is a major service project - the project is the brain child of members of the Zonta Club of Adelaide Hills who designed the kit and have now been awarded Federal Government funding on a dollar-for-dollar basis to take the project to many more countries.
In the past, kits made by the Club have gone to Papua New Guinea, Nepal and Vietnam. In July 2006, 1000 were put together and destined for Madagascar.
 Use of the kit has proven significant in ameliorating common maternity & infant health issues arising from child birth in developing countries. The kits contain items to improve hygiene at the birth (eg. plastic sheeting, soap & disposable gloves), for the baby (ties & a blade to attend to the cord) and to prevent common post-natal infections (eg. gauze to clean the baby’s eyes).
Through the Australian Film and TV School we sponsorsed the beautiful and moving film “The Letter”, the true story of a woman author, Fanny Burney, who endured a mastectomy without anesthetic nearly two centuries ago. The film is based on a letter she wrote to her sister in 1812 about her experiences, and our funding greatly assisted a young woman film maker to complete this important project.
 2004 to 2006 - Mothers’ Day presents were provided to children of women resident in the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre or those supported by the St George Women’s Support Network, so they have something to give mum on this special day.
Post Natal Depression - funding for publication of the newsletter for the Dona Maria Project.
Royal Blind Society – for a computer program for a vision impaired woman that may assist her in re-entering the workforce.
Georges River Community Service - funding for self-development courses for women wanting to re-enter the workforce.
Lucas Heights Community School – sponsorship of 2 girls to attend a self-development course.
Oatley Caring Centre - partial funding for a Diversional Therapist for elders in need.
World Youth International – donation towards building a school for girls in Nepal.
Burnside Family Centre – sponsorship of 8 young girls to attend a self-development course for girls at risk.
Cancer patients – “Look Good Feel Better” funding for printing of pamphlets and provision of hats for demonstration purposes.
Drought relief for women in the Gunnedah area and bush fire relief for children’s needs in Canberra; also Red Cross support - New Guinea Flood Relief program contributions.
Retts Syndrome Research – contribution to research into this syndrome that affects only girls. UN Youth Conference – support of two YWPA winners to attend the conference.
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