Shoeboxes for East Timor

Tewantin State School students are going to make life a lot easier for hundreds of youngsters in East Timor as they send off more than 1500 shoeboxes, this week.
The educational care parcels are sent to the children of Sao Miguel at Raikotu – a school about 30 minutes west of Dili.
With the help of Bendigo Bank and Rotary, Sao Miguel was identified as a community school with no help from the Ministry of Education in Timor.
On Monday, the students assembled hundreds of educational care parcels that included 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.
The 600 shoeboxes collected from Tewantin will join around 900 others from Cooroy and Pacific Paradise State Schools to create a shipment that will change the lives of 1500 kids.
Tewantin Share School deputy principal Kerrod Parsons said the school was delighted to continue to play a part in helping create education, thanks to Bendigo Bank and Rotary.
“It’s been great for all students to get involved and to give something back,” he said.
“They’ve all had a ball putting the care parcels together.”
Everyone involved in the project will then look forward to the video and photos of the boxes being opened in a few months, and thoughts are now turning to working through other coast schools to widen the support of the project.
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.