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Events
Date for your diaries are as follows:
Thursday 19, December 7pm- THE end-of-year Tutor Bash- PAs, Grattan
St Carlton- partners welcome
Saturday 21, December 12 - 1pm Santa's visit and presents. The final
SAIL for 2002.
Saturday 22, February 2003 10:30am The first SAIL for 2003
Saturday 15, March 2003 12 – 1pm Tutor Talk with Dr John Munro
about children's literacy
Saturday 3 April 2003 12 – 1pm Follow-up Tutor Talk with John
Munro – assessing literacy assessment
Please let us know if you will be away in February so we can arrange
a change for the first SAIL of 2003.
Christmas party
We are thrilled to announce that Little Ruyton will, once more, be providing
our students with Christmas presents to be delivered by our very own
Santa. EXPLAIN GENERAL FORMAT FROM LAST YEAR
Christmas presents from tutors
IS THIS OK? I NEED TO KNOW YOUR CONCERNS (WITH SUGGESTIONS TO REMEDY
THEM)
We have decided that we will put a $5 cap on presents from tutors to
students. We would like every tutor to buy one present for one of their
students. For those who do not have their own students or tutor adults
we ask that they donate $5 to cover costs for the remaining students.
There is no obligation to purchase a present for your student and we
expressly ask that you don't if it will cause even minor financial hardship.
It is absolutely vital that every single student receive a present from
their tutor. As a result, we ask all those who cannot afford to buy
a present to please contact us before the 15th of December and we will
buy one on your behalf for you to give on the 21st. If last year is
a guide, the last SAIL should be and event to remember.
Matthew and Anna Grace join the Public Speakers Circuit
We have been invited to speak at two upcoming events. In return we have
negotiated free entry to both for all SAIL volunteers.
We have been invited to run a workshop at the National Conference of
the Mercy Refugee Service. Our session is called 'Who is my neighbour?'
it will take place on Saturday 23rd November at 1:15pm. The offer of
free attendance is open to any SAILor for any part of the conference.
Those interested should contact us via email or phone to find out more
information and register their desire to attend. The conference begins
on Friday and will take place at 'The Academy' 88 Nicholson St, Fitzroy.
Matthew will be a key note speaker at World Human Rights Day celebrations
at Banyule Theatre, Heidelberg at 7:45pm on Saturday 7th of December.
The topic for the evening is 'A new healing process for a planet in
turmoil' – SAIL is considered part of the healing not the turmoil!
Following these events, we will make ourselves available for any other
engagements to which we are invited; you may know of a children's party
looking for some light entertainment? A family function? We'll talk
about just about anything from SAIL to Sudanese refugees to Sudanese
refugees who come to SAIL. Alternatively, you can just call us and we'll
do a private ad lib speech right there and then- no charge!
SAILing on music
We are thrilled to announce that we have organised for 13 SAILors between
the ages of 8 and 12 to attend the Summer Music School at the Victoria
College of the Arts in January. Thanks to the generosity of the organisers,
Melbourne Youth Music, these SAILors will be attending a five day camp
and joining a beginners band on any instrument they choose with free
instrument hire. Who knows we may yet have SAIL Unplugged?!
Sunday venture
ADD A COUPLE OF LINES ABOUT THE SUNDAY EXCURSION
Requests
Publicising SAIL
We love it that people are continuously approaching us to write about
SAIL for various publications. We are however, not as enthusiastic when
people write about SAIL without informing us first. Following the unfortunate
publication of an article written by a tutor about which we were utterly
unaware, we feel the need to clarify the importance of letting us know.
We have two relevant self-imposed policies for decision making in this
regard. Firstly, all SAIL related decisions we make we do so in the
best interests of the most vulnerable SAILors, the children. We are
acutely aware of their right to represent themselves and where they
cannot, their right to authorise other people's representations of them
with their and / or their parent's informed consent. There are many
political and cultural issues pertinent to publicity which must also
be considered as paramount. Secondly, we only support printed publicity
under two preconditions. Primarily, we ensure that the piece is an accurate
representation of SAIL and more importantly, the Sudanese community.
Even where this is the case we do not, as a policy, engage in promotion
for promotions sake for fear of being over or unnecessarily exposed.
We will only authorise publication when there is a material gain possible
for the SAIL Program from such a publication. For example, the recent
run of articles have all had requests for food donations from the readership.
We therefore ask that people who do write pieces about SAIL for publication
please seek clearance from us before publication. For obvious reasons,
the same applies for our personal contact details.
We assure all potential authors that we will not edit their pieces
nor judge them any more than is necessary to protect the interests of
the Sudanese children. We are thrilled that people feel involved enough
that they want to write about their experiences- just let us know prior
to publication.
News
Sudanese Fashion Queen
Probably the most famous Southern Sudanese person in the world at present
was in Melbourne this week. Alek Wek, a Dinka woman who fled to England
as a refugee, is currently one of the world's hottest super models.
She is also a vocal campaigner for awareness of the atrocities occurring
in Southern Sudan. We made contact with her during her 60 hours in Melbourne
(as part of Mercedes Fashion Week) and extended an invitation to SAIL
for her next visit. Our only hesitation was that she may not feel so
good looking when she took a look at us. We hope to receive her support
in the future.
SAILing and Roving
Last week, thanks to our PR team, ten SAILors went and watched Rove
Live being filmed. We rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sir Richard
Branson, Heather Graham, Olivia Newton- John, Craig David, Danii Minogue,
Mick Malloy and the band, Machine Gun Fellatio (and yes, it was a little
awkward trying to explain the meaning to an ESL student). The SAILors
were amazed by all the activity of the lights, camera and action.
Heather, Danii and Mick mentioned wanting to be come tutors- unfortunately
we had to knock them back because we have enough at the moment. Olivia
also said that we were 'the one that I want oh oh oh'. Craig David told
us he was busy from Thursday to Saturday. Sir Richard offered his loose
change and we said, instead he should treat himself with an icecream
company or two. We thought you'd like to know that we do have standards!
Thank yous
Heather Talk
Art exhibition
Speigeltent
People telling us about outside contact
The case of the wandering baby a.k.a Nomad Watch
Our nomadic population has taken a sudden dip after the introduction
of Nomad Watch. But be vigilant, nomads has a tendancy to sneek out
when you least expect them. If you see nomadism being practiced by any
child between the ages of 0 and 5 years- except where they are with
their parents. please return them to the SAIL Baby room (the Chapel)
or alert Matthew or Anna Grace immediately. This should continue to
reduce the distractions for all other tutors and their students.
Car drivers
SAIL now has an active fleet of almost 40 vehicles! We want to sincerely
thank each and every driver for filling their cars with tutors and students
on their journey's to SAIL. The attendance of a vast majority of students
would not be possible without your help.
Total Trivia
In the past week, SAIL has reached two meaningless milestones. Firstly,
we have taken on our 100th volunteer as we scramble endlessly to keep
pace with the growth of the Sudanese community. Secondly, we have just
had our 1,000th visitor to the SAIL website.
Thanks for your continued attendance, energy and commitment to SAIL
and the Sudanese Community.
Smooth SAILing,
Matthew and Anna Grace
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