OVER 1300 educational care parcels have arrived safe and sound in East Timor, just in time for Christmas.
Packaged in shoe boxes, students from Tewantin, Cooroy and Pacific Paradise schools sent the care packages to Sao Miguel (St Michael), a school 30 minutes west of Dili, in June.
Despite delays in the transfer of the precious cargo, the school has now received the donations.
The school has about 150 kindergarten students, 250 of primary age and some 200 junior high school kids. With the help of the Community Bank branch of Bendigo Bank in Tewantin, Cooroy and Marcoola the Rotary clubs of Noosa, Cooroy and Mooloolaba, the school was identified as a community school with no help from the ministry of education in Timor.
Each parcel took the form of a decorated shoe box with items including exercise books, rulers, erasers, pens and pencils, all topped off with a personal item from each student from Cooroy and Tewantin state schools to the child opening it at the other end.
The Community Bank branches of Bendigo Bank in Tewantin, Cooroy and Marcoola and the Rotary clubs of Noosa and Cooroy shared the shipment costs as both organisations saw an opportunity to support a cause that would instil a sense of responsibility into each student who compiled these special gifts.
Tewantin State School principal Neil Jenkins said learning of the arrival of the shoe boxes has brought an emotional reaction from his students and will really bring home the spirit of the project to the hundreds of students who got involved at the school.
“The kids had a ball putting the care parcels together and it’s great to see their hard work and the fabulous support of their families, the Community Bank branch of Bendigo Bank and Rotary Clubs of Noosa and Cooroy have finally made their way into the hands of the kids who need them most,’’ Mr Jenkins said.
Sunshine Coast Community Financial Services Limited chairman Rick Cooper said he felt the project had continued to build on something special.
“Our Community Banks are all about giving back and in this case the community recipients have been international ones,” he said.
“This project started in 2008 and has now grown to include three state schools. This is about community partnership. We’re delighted to collaborate with the Rotary clubs of Cooroy and Noosa who also wanted to help. We all helped collect and pack the shoe boxes in June, and it’s great to now recognise so many of them now the video and photos of their arrival has made it back to us. We all love it and will do it all again in 2015.”
