David Moffatt » Melbourne Hope School

Melbourne Hope School Update – AVI visit the school

David Moffatt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:08:47 +0000

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.

Update on the Melbourne Hope School

David Moffatt — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:10:10 +0000

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.

Update on the Melbourne Hope School

David Moffatt — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:11:22 +0000

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.

Registration Day

David Moffatt — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:37:00 +0000

An update from Mark Comer …

We arrived this morning and have registered. It is beautiful today but the weather is expected to get nasty later in the week.

We fitted out our bikes, checked all our new gear (clothes, shoes, bags, etc) and had a quick kayak. I am in a boat with Keith, and Phil and Richard are in the other. We’ve checked the rudder this year having had a crooked one last time.

Most competitors have arrived and we are slowly meeting everyone. I sat next to Leigh Colbert (Nth Melbourne exAFL) he is looking forward to the event but also nervous about racing 6 to 8 plus hours for 5 days.

The course looks good. Days 1, 2 and 4 will be hard. Day 2 will be particularly hard as it involves running Mt Rolland like last year (3 mountain peaks) with a mountain bike before and after, followed by a 7km kayak.