This scholarship will help educate and inspire the business and community leaders of the future. Further information on the Su Mon Wong Scholarship Program can be found here.

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.

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.