FRIENDS OF SRDF
Roeland Martin: Profile
Roeland was born in 1941 in Magelang, Indonesia. His family was Dutch, but had lived in Indonesia for 5 generations. In 1942, the Japanese Army overran the Country and Roeland together with his brother and mother were interred in a concentration camp for the duration of the war. After the war, Roeland went to Primary school in Indonesia until the country became independent in 1948.
Shortly after that the family moved to the Netherlands where Roeland completed primary school and then went to the High school. He did not like the classrooms and the learning process and he was constantly playing football instead of attending classes and doing homework. Football was his passion and he became a very good football player.
At the age of 18, Roeland migrated to Australia, where he worked as a storeman for 8 months and then joined the Australian Army. In the Army he became a radio operator and as such he was most of his time traveling around Australia and New Guinea, wherever communications were required. Six years later he left the Army, he was a sergeant now, but he wanted to try his luck as a civilian. He had become interested in positive thinking, goal setting, public speaking, etc and he firmly believes that everything is possible, if you dream about it and if you want it strong enough.
This was his next passion and Roeland was determined to become a motivator and a teacher in this field. He spent all his free time learning the subjects and he spoke at as many functions where he could. He now travels to India every year where he speaks at both primary and secondary schools. In the mean time, he worked as a salesman with a large business equipment company in Australia and within 5 years he became the national sales manager and subsequently the general manager of that company.
He resigned in 1976 and started his own business as a retailer of health foods, a business he still runs today. He is also a successful share investor and he has been invited to speak on share trading many times for different organisations. He is heavily involved with the Queensland Investors’ club in Australia.
Roeland loves to go to India each year where he assists Dr Shankar Chamala in the good work being done by the SRDF. He speaks to every one who is interested in being motivated and he plays football with the children so that they get the maximum enjoyment whilst learning how to be successful.
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