| SAILing on through the holidays
SAIL will not be breaking for the holidays. We hope that you will keep
coming throughout the break, as the children are going to be fresher
and even more ready to learn. Also note that 40 of us will be heading
of for camp number 3 for 2002 at Phillip Island for four days next week!
Time for setting SAIL
We are increasingly concerned that a few tutors are arriving late and
starting even later each week. We request that everyone aim to be at
SAIL at 10:20am for a 10:30am start. If the late starts are not rectified
in the next fortnight, we will be moving the official ending time (and
lunch) back to 12:15pm.
Sudanese Community Elections
This Saturday the Sudanese Community are holding elections for new community
leaders. As such we can expect a few adults to be away. There are always
plenty of students to be tutored so SAIL Senior tutors will definitely
have something to do if their student is away.
School liaison
We are thrilled to welcome Heather Guilfoyle as our full-funded school
liaison contact. With the generosity of Anglicare, financial support
has been provided for Heather to act as a go-between for all of us and
the children’s schools. She will be seeking help and support from
every tutor as she does her thorough assessment of how SAIL can compliment
the school’s assistance. We are planning two Tutor Talk sessions
with her. We look forward to acting on Heather’s suggestions to
make SAIL even better and more effective!
The Sudanese Italians
While the Museum currently has their exhibition of fine art, we are
just preparing for ours! Lynn, Peter and Katie, art / craft organiser
/ tutors, are planning an art exhibition in the middle of October. They
are calling for all tutors to contribute their own art and / or art
that their students do in SAIL time. The exhibition will be in the Hall
and will be open to the public on Saturdays for viewing. We do not encourage
students to attempt any decorating of ceilings a la Michelangelo- the
insurance does not cover this activity.
Parking
With 35 cars and two buses, poor little May Street is becoming overrun.
We have made arrangements with the mechanic in Ballarat Rd. that we
use their space of a Saturday for SAIL cars. We ask that drivers park
at the mechanics and on the lawn in front of the church as a priority
before we direct cars into May St.
Photos and videos
Following the success of the Birthday celebrations we are calling, begging
and pleading with anyone who took photos, video or tape to record the
day to provide us with a copy. As mentioned in previous newsletters,
in most cases ours are the only records of the SAILors growing up.
Rob, Sophie R and Metani have kindly offered to collate and catalogue
all SAIL photos with a view to offering them to parents to order at
the end of the year. Therefore, if you have any records that we don’t
have already please pass them on to Anna Grace or Matthew who will immediately
reimburse you for the associated costs. Would all photographers who
have any negatives for photos taken at SAIL at any time please pass
them to Rob - he will label them and return them to you once copies
have been made.
SAILing while you surf
In response to a request from tutors, newsletters will now be available
via email directly to tutors email accounts. We hope that this will
reduce our paper consumption and give tutors more opportunity to read
the newsletters at their leisure. Paper versions will continue to be
handed out. For the record, we will soon be releasing a Constitution
that will outline SAILors rights and duties- it will be available online
too.
The SAILs stretching at the seams
The last three months have seen unprecedented growth for the SAIL Program.
We have about 20 new tutors and 40 new students (20 of which arrived
last week) which have meant that we now have over 200 SAILors! We sincerely
hope that everyone will be flexible and patient with us as we try to
accommodate these new SAILors into the Program and that everyone will
help make them feel very welcome!
SAIL in the media
For the first time, SAIL has developed a bit of a media presence. We
have had feature articles published about us in the local papers for
Williamstown, Footscray, Newport and Braybrook as well as a piece in
Imagine- the Anglicare newsletter. Ben Hopper, a SAIL tutor is currently
compiling a piece for SBS radio about SAIL and there will also be a
feature piece about us on 3RRR Radio. We have also been approached by
The Age and have an article in the editing stages for Eureka Street
(an human rights magazine). Both have been put on hold until the end
of the year.
Thank you
Where to begin? Firstly, endless thanks to everyone for helping us make
our first birthday such a success. We were so glad to be able to mark
the event with so much celebration and good will. Thanks to all those
who made cakes for the day- somehow we managed to muster up enough for
all of the hungry mouths after the performance. Thanks also to our wonderful
performers- Simon the Sleight of Hand Expert, Clown 9 and our very own
Akon, drummer extraordinaire. Their selfless giving of time and energy
provided us all with a varied and highly entertaining show.
Thanks also to all those who came to the drinks on the Friday night.
We were thrilled that so many people found the time to come and stay
on for so long. We hope to repeat this event for the end of the year.
Thanks again to David for organising the venue and the drinks for us.
Finally, thanks to all those who attended and spoke at the Tutor Talk.
The event was a unique opportunity for us to learn a bit about Sudan
from first hand accounts. We encourage everyone to continue to ask questions
of the adults of the community about their lives in Sudan- they are
always very obliging and eager to talk about their homeland.
Total Trivia
SAIL has five sets of twins- it is no coincidence that all the Nyibols
are the next oldest sisters in every case. Nyibol is the name given
to the first daughter after a set of twins and Kot is the name for the
next son.
We want to sincerely thank everyone for helping us celebrate the success
of SAIL and thank everyone again for ensuring its continued success.
Our only regret is that many SAIL students are unable to express for
themselves the gratitude they have for the generous donation of time,
energy and spirit offered to them every week.
Thank you and thank you again for your altruism and enthusiasm.
Matthew and Anna Grace
|