Following the Victorian bushfires, I met with Martyn Wild, Managing Director and one of the Founders of SuperClubsPLUS Australia, to understand what could be done to make a lasting and useful contribution for the children of the affected communities.

The idea generated was the ‘Book of Light’. ‘Book of Light’ is a cybersafe, interactive and engaging online environment where children can share their thoughts of life while their communities are rebuilding.

Working in collaboration with the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, approximately 5,000 children, from the bushfire affected areas, are now sponsored with special access to the “Book of Light” site within the cybersafe SuperClubsPLUS site. SuperClubsPLUS is jointly funded by the Telstra Foundation and the Victorian Department of Education and at the time of writing, has 90,000 Australian children registered, joining another 150,000 children globally. Read more on the work of SuperClubsPLUS.

Read all about the “Book of Light” in this flyer from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

Current status:

Participating schools have been enthusiastically working on their contribution to the “Book of Light” project over the past few months. For example;

• At Epping Views Primary School the children have nearly completed building a range of handmade large ‘eggs’. These eggs are filled with new soil and seedlings and will be shared with other primary schools affected by the bushfires. These eggs are a symbol of new growth and shared new beginnings.
• At Chum Creek and Healesville Primary the children are building a regenerative frog pond to symbolise new beginnings. Additionally they are helping the local hobby farm - Leslie’s Labyrinth - to remove dead bushes and to re-plant new bushes. It is all about creating new life and hope for a brighter future.

“The benefit of these projects to the children is enormous; they are really excited, happy and engaged when working on their Book of Light projects. SuperClubsPLUS has been a very positive addition to the schools curriculum and has been embraced by the children.” Project Manager of the Book of Light, Victorian Department of Education.

It is fantastic to hear about the passion and value this project is bringing to these Victorian schools and the communities. The children are in the process of finalising their projects and documenting their journey and experience - through drawings, poems, stories, video and photos. These will be included in the online ‘Book of Light’, with a hard copy version to be printed later in the year. The Printed version will be available for members of the community to enjoy.

I look forward to sharing more on the progress of this groundbreaking project over the coming months.

Australian Volunteers International (AVI) recently visited the Australia-Melbourne Hope School. AVI have provided some recommendations on how to best utilise the remaining Project Hope Funds. AVI have advised that rather than splitting the money (and looking at helping another school) that we do one school really well - and the school chosen certainly needs our help! I agree with AVI’s recommendation.

For example the remaining funds can be used to set up a modern playground with safe, attractive equipment suited to the needs of small children (6-9 years). This is one of the aspects that will help them attract and retain children in the area - a core principal of the Hope School Projects. We can also explore using the remaining funds to support short term teacher training programs through Project Hope’s training centres.

An official opening of the school will take place later this year, or early in the new year. Look forward to sharing the continued progress.

Last week, a representative from AVI met with the Director and Project Manager from Project Hope and the two headmasters from the Melbourne Hope School. The aim of the visit was to understand the current progress of the construction of the school as well as to gain insights into the ongoing development needs this school may require. AVI felt this school, located in Tianjin city, was very worthy of the support being given. As this school is quite close to Beijing the local families and farmers are finding it very difficult at the moment as a lot of the water supplies are being diverted to the main city, which is putting increasing pressure on their capabilities to earn money. The headmasters of the school are extremely excited and appreciative of the support from all of the donors, as the enhancements will help to continue to attract students and families to the region and reduce the number of people who move to find better educational facilities.

There is great progress being made on the construction of the new facilities. As there are quite a lot of works occurring, the students have had to be transferred to other surrounding schools. They are all extremely excited to return to their school as soon as possible!! The new facilities have been built to accommodate a growing population in the future and adhere to the strict new earthquake building guidelines.

AVI will provide a full report on their visit to the Melbourne Hope School and its progress shortly.

Building of the Melbourne Hope School commences this month and is due to finish in October. This is very exciting, as while there were some initial delays due to adverse weather conditions, the completion date has only been pushed out slightly. Australian Volunteers International (AVI) will also be visiting Melbourne Hope School in August to meet with representatives from the school and Project Hope to understand and assess the feasibility of a project volunteer to work in the community/school. After this visit, AVI will submit a report including photographs of the progress and recommendations for assisting to meet identified needs. I look forward to continuing to update you on the progress of Melbourne Hope School.
All the best
David

On Sunday 17 May, I had the opportunity to share my perspectives on ‘Inspiring Leadership’ at the 2009 Australian Leadership Awards. The Future Summit Australian Leadership Awards aim to recognise and support the new generation of Australia’s leaders. You can read an abbreviated version of my speech here, australian-leadership-awards-davidmoffattspeech-170509