By JOLENE OGLE
LOCALS Matt and Tanya Grut need to raise $30,000 to help build a classroom in Vanuatu, and they’re calling on Noosa to help them reach their target.
As part of their fund-raising efforts, Matt and Tanya will host a fund-raising dinner at Sirocco Noosa in aid of charity organisation, Evidence Vanuatu, of which they are board memebrs.
Established in 2007, Evidence Vanuatu primarily focuses on building classrooms in a small Vanuatu village named Seaside, to help educate local children.
Matt says it’s easy for Australians to take for granted a functioning social system and education that is easily accessible, but after visiting the tiny village for the past five years, Matt says he’s more motivated than ever to help the people of the village.
“It’s important to give back to those less fortunate,” he said.
“Many people ask why we’re not helping in Australia. We are, in other ways, but we are the lucky country and we want to help.”
Matt said the classrooms were helping to deliver education to a community who would have otherwise not had access as education was too expensive and too far away for the children to travel.
“The vision for the charity is for someone who went to the school to one day be Prime Minister of Vanuatu. It may not be in my lifetime, but I hope it happens. That is a beautiful, worthwhile goal,” he said.
Matt has travelled to Vanuatu for the last five years and Tanya went last year, getting their hands dirty while helping build classrooms.
Each classroom is a single room building with a storeroom and a price tag of $30,000.
Each year, Evidence sends 20 volunteers to the village to spend a week helping with the construction and every year a new classroom is built to accommodate the growing children.
Through the work of the organisation and volunteers, the school now has a kindergarten classroom right through to a Year 8 classroom and manual arts building, but the charity has made a commitment to see the building through to Year 12.
“For us, this is something we can get involved in. You can physically get hands on with the building,” Matt said.
The fund-raising dinner will be held at Sirocco, Gympie Terrace, Noosaville, on 27 November.
Tickets are available now at $55 per person for a three-course meal and a glass of bubbly on arrival. Phone Tanya on 0412 988 212 or email tanya@grutgroup.com to book your table.
