Packed with love

LIFE at school will soon be a lot easier for a lot of children in East Timor and it’s because some of our local students started thinking inside the box.
Last Monday, Tewantin State School students assembled hundreds of educational care parcels to go to the children of Sao Miguel (St Michael) at Raikotu – a school about 30 minutes west of Dili.
The school has about 150 kindergarten students and some 250 of primary school age but the area also caters for other schools that are in need of basic educational supplies.
With the help of Bendigo Bank and Rotary Club, Sao Miguel was identified eight years ago as a community school with no help from the Ministry of Education in Timor.
Each parcel donated by the kids from Tewantin State School will be a decorated shoe box with enclosed items including exercise books, rulers, erasers, pens and pencils, all topped off with a personal item from each student to the child opening it at the other end.
What’s more impressive is that the 500 shoe boxes collected from Tewantin will join 1000 others from Cooroy and Pacific Paradise State Schools to create a shipment that will change the lives of 1500 kids.
“This is the eighth year we have chosen to support this project with our local Tewantin Community Bank branch of Bendigo Bank and Rotary. We’re delighted to continue and annual program that started in 2008,” Tewantin State School acting principal Corrie Connors said.
“Back then, a total of 500 shoe boxes made their way to Timor in time for Christmas, and now we’re looking at sending 1500 shoe boxes over to an area that wants for an education we often take for granted here. It’s a great team effort across three coast schools and Bendigo Bank and Rotary have been amazing to work with.
Ms Connors said it was great for the students to get involved and to give something back.
“Our student leaders have been actively involved with the project this year and all our students have had a ball putting the care parcels together,” she said.
“It’s going to be great to see their hard work and the fabulous support of their families too. Bendigo Bank and Rotary will then assist in getting these parcels into the hands of the kids who need them most.
“Every shoe box is personally decorated and had items to further the education of a child less fortunate than themselves. Each student also enclosed something small of theirs such as a soft toy or a tennis ball.
“It added something simple but personal to each box. It was quite the moment when the kids held up their boxes at our assembly.”
Tewantin Community Bank manager Wayne Hoens says the project continued to build on something special.
“Our Bendigo Bank branches are all about giving back to communities, and in this case the recipients will be international ones,” he said.
“Last year when the shoe boxes arrived, more than 3000 kids turned up to receive one, so the need is there. We’re proud to share in a project that gets educational material to where it’s needed most.
“This project is about community partnership. We’re delighted to collaborate with the Rotary clubs of Noosa and Cooroy on this project.
“Noosa Van Lines get the boxes to Melbourne and then Rotary get the shoe boxes to the school once they land in Timor Leste. Without each of us doing our part it wouldn’t work.”
Everyone involved in the project will then look forward to the video and photos of the boxes being opened in a few months. Interest continues to be expressed in bringing some of the Sao Miguel students to state schools on the coast in coming years to advance their learning even further.