SAIL Program Newsletter

The 'let us know' list
1. If any of your contact details have changed, please let us know.
2. If you have a spare seat in your car, please let us know.
3. If you are planning to have contact with your student outside of SAIL hours you must let us know first and complete the contact request form.
4. If you intend to bring a friend to SAIL please direct them to the website first and direct them to apply online or just let us know beforehand.
5. Let us know if you are going to miss a Saturday by email, phone or the "Can't Come Sheet"- now also online!
6. Please check and read your emails each week- if possible, Friday is best!
7. Please let us know before you speak publicly or publish an article about SAIL.

Important Diary Dates
(Please note that SAIL does not take school holidays or long weekends off!)
1. Tutor Talk (in service) sessions for the next few months are at 12:30pm on on Saturdays 24th July, 28th August, 2nd October, 6th November, 11th December.
2. Please bring any second hand clothes for recent arrivals in the Sudanese community on the Saturday before Tutor Talk weeks. Second hand toys are always very welcome in SAIL Junior.
3. There is no SAIL Xtend on the listed dates ie no Arabic or short courses.

Cars and lifts
1. Flinders Street- there are three cars that collect tutors from Flinders Street station every week. Cars leave at 10:05am from (and return to) the post box on Flinders Street. Feel free to catch the lift!
2. Clifton Hill, Brunswick, Collingwood, St Kilda, Richmond and Ringwood also have tutor collection points. Contact the co-ordinators for more information on 9819 5223.
3. Car drivers please note that, unless you are bringing non-human cargo to SAIL, we ask that you park your car in the Mephan Street car park located on the far side of the school (at the top of May Street) or, if you are early, at the front of the church on Ballarat Road.

Ongoing offers
1. Arabic classes- free to all SAIL volunteers from 12:30 – 1:15pm.
2. Photocopying- for any SAIL related photocopying, simply mark the pages from the books you want copied and give the book to Matthew or Anna Grace on Saturday- it will be ready for you the following week!
3. If you would like to post an ad or some other information relating to SAIL or another not-for-profit venture in which you are involved, please email it to SAIL@Melbourneemail.com to be included in the next newsletter.
4. The Tutor Resources section of the website is available at all times to provide tutors with ideas, games, work-sheets and support. We strongly suggest that if you are experiencing difficulties of any kind when working with your student, you post a request for advice on the SAIL Panel of Experts Bulletin Board (accessible from the Tutor Resources section). Tutor Resources can be accessed from the main page of the website www.SAILProgram.cjb.net or directly at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sail/tutor.htm.


Please read this newsletter in the following week, it gives updates on SAIL past, present and future!


The front page of the newsletter!
While you are merrily reading through this newsletter full of interesting stories please don’t forget to read the front page!! It has a lot of important information on it including things we need you to let us know about and important dates.
gossip.

Photo board
Thank you to those of you who have brought in photos! They are fantastic. We are still in need of lots more to make a proper photo board for 2003. Please bring any photos you have of SAILors enjoying themselves. We hope to have everyone represented!!

SAIL Social
On Thursday July 1st a whole bunch of SAILors gathered for a great night of revelry. There was eating, drinking and much merriment at Gertrude’s. The night was such a huge success that it will be the first of many. Keep a look out for the next SAIL social, hopefully within a month or so. It is a great way to get to know other SAILors away from the Saturday morning mayhem. All are welcome!

CAMP
Facing the possibility of the July elements undermining our SAIL camping, 25 SAILors and several helpers enjoyed a fabulous camp full of dancing, drama and gourmet delicacies prepared by our surprise chef, SAILor Dee. Other highlights included an impromptu fully clothed mid winter’s dip (!), finger puppet and jewellery making master classes and a SAIL Idol competition.

Much fun was had and the SAILors were very helpful in everything from cleaning up after dinner to selecting the final night video. Special mention needs to go to Dee, the vegetarian in the kitchen who cooked up a storm and was last seen under a pile of 3 kilos of diced beef!

Thanks to SAILors: Dee, Caitlin, Marg, Catherine, Anna Grace. Our helpers: Laura, David, Lorraine and Kristy and all the SAIL Campers.

Week fives
On 19 June, we again enjoyed several talks. The Free Kindergartens Association gave an excellent presentation on use of games for under fives. Will has been experimenting with this and has so far constructed four toilet paper giraffes, 3 pipe cleaner elephants and a wine-cork tiger. Sarah Apende Fadul-El-Karim was also kind enough to present to the Primary and Secondary tutors on the refugee experience and gave a very open and touching account of her experiences. SAIL Senior had a meeting on the administration of the CELL program and training from Carmel from AMES about lesson plans.

Our next week five talks take place on July our speakers are as follows:

For the Community Talk we have Monica Haverkamp from the Deafness Foundation who will be giving a presentation on Rubella, Immunisation and Health.

For SAIL Junior and Senior, Poly is kindly going to give a presentation on the Sudanese Refugee Experience focusing on the experiences of the community settling into Australian society.

Assembly Experiment
A few weeks ago we trialled a pre-SAIL ‘assembly’. Thanks to everyone for making it run so smoothly! The feedback has been really positive with a lot of tutors finding this to be a very useful way of sharing information and to just generally get together as a group. Keep your eyes peeled for the next one. (Hopefully with the assembly and the group e. mails during June the absence of a June newsletter was not noticed by too many of you!!)

Police checks
Police checks have been coming in slowly! Can all tutors, new and old, please remember to get your forms in. It is really easy. All you need to do is collect a form on a Saturday from one of us, fill it out and attach a photocopy of your licence, passport or birth certificate, and return it to one of us the next Saturday with $12.50. We will organise the rest. Sorry for the 50cent price increase…out of our hands!

New Announcements Blackboard
We are going to start an announcements blackboard. Keep an eye out for it in the foyer, and let us know of any announcements you want us to write up.

Stranger Danger
In response to concerns over a lack of stranger danger awareness among our younger students we have had two very successful sessions. The first was stranger danger for teenage girls, run by a behavioural expert Tim Burch. The session was very well received and enjoyed by all! We then had the Footscray police run a stranger danger session for the 6 to 12 year olds, which was fantastic.

SAIL SENIOR

Beginners and computer room.
The SAIL senior beginners room is going extremely well! This is the room where SAIL senior students with absolutely minimal English work in a group run by Jen and Fiona. For all of you who don’t know where it is, it is in a little room off the side of the hall which is also the computer room! Both of these resources are only for SAIL senior at the moment. The computer room can be used during SAIL time but needs to be accessed via the kitchen.

CELL
Jack is currently working on attendances for students doing CELL. If your student is enrolled in CELL could you please e.mail us, or Jack Foks directly, with any days you know that your student has missed in the last two months. If you are interested in CELL or have any questions about it Jack is available between 12 and 12.30 on a Saturday to help.

Thanks to Carmel
For the last few months Carmel from AMES has been a fantastic support for our SAIL senior tutors. Carmel has finished up at SAIL so we would like to thank her for all her great work organising senior resources, helping set up the SAIL senior beginners room, and helping tutors with lesson plan ideas.


George Negus
As many of you would have noticed, there was a camera crew from the George Negus program, ‘George Negus Tonight’ which was roaming on 19 June. This was for a program to be done on volunteers and featuring our very own Anna-Grace Hopkins and the SAIL Program. George Negus’s producers have indicated that the show will be aired on 28 July 2004. Stay tuned! If anyone could record this for us, just in case our machine fails, there is a localised power shortage or one of our housemates tapes over our copy that would be great!!

Farewell to our car collection gurus!
It is with much tearing-of-hair that we farewell our brilliant car collection gurus. Tanya and Jo worked on SAIL car collection tirelessly at different times of late with Tanya setting up the system, Jo taking over, then Tanya stepping in to fill in for Jo…..from LONDON! Yep, our first long distance SAILor. Unfortunately both women are no longer able to perform this role for us and we farewell them. Thanks for bearing with us as we have tried to keep the system from falling apart! We sincerely thank Nicole, our SAIL about coordinator, for agreeing to step up and fill the void they left!

Hail to the Bus Driver
We are pleased to announce the arrival of our new bus driver, Luke. Luke will be assisting Akon with the morning car collections and hopefully giving Akon a little rest at times. If there are any drivers who are able to join the SAIL bus driving team, please let us know. This could potentially allow us give transport to families who we are currently unable to bring to SAIL.

Recruitment Guru
As you know, the community continues to grow and as such we are always in search of new tremendous volunteers like your selves. We are therefore pleased to welcome Kate who will be helping to find new tutors for the burgeoning Sudanese community.

SAIL Turns three and we will celebrate in style with a weekend of festivities…

SAIL Birthday House Party
We are having an enormous, wonderful, delightfully chaotic birthday bash on 27 August 2004 for all SAIL volunteers to celebrate SAIL turning three. Be sure to bring your party shoes, a party plate of nibbles and your good cheer. Details will be sent out once Will’s housemates are consulted on the construction of a diving board in the bathroom. We are hoping to see you all for some groovy African beats, some reminiscing and some good fun.

SAIL Saturday Morning Bash
Watch this space for information on the SAIL Saturday morning birthday bash on 28 August 2004…..

Resources from Africa
Hopefully you will all have seen the wonderful new resources that have been sent to SAIL all the way from Matthew Albert in Kenya. Matthew has kindly shipped over a whole lot of books with black skinned protagonists and stories that are relevant to life in Africa. Thanks Matt. These books are an invaluable addition to our library! There are books for all ages and reading levels. For SAIL senior tutors who have been finding it hard to find relevant stories for their adult students of low level English literacy these will be a great resource. The parcel also included half a dozen black dolls, which are a very welcome addition to our junior room playthings that have so far been dominated by stuffed animals and white skinned dolls.


Missive from our Roving Reporter Matt Albert

23 June 2004
I write from my desk in Nairobi, Kenya. Although Nairobi is almost right on the equator I feel like I am on top of the world. The trip is going fabulously well and is stimulating to the point of exhaustion.

I thought I would write after a couple of people requested an update but also to let you now about the news from Sudan as I see it from here.

In short, the mood of excitement and expectation about the Peace Process is invigorating for all involved. The Peace Talks, which have been happening just down the road from Nairobi, are in their final stages. The word on the street is that they will conclude in August with a comprehensive peace deal.

On two occasions I have managed to be in the thick of the action. On one occasion I accidentally walked in not only on the secured venue where the talks are being held but in the very room where the negotiations are taking place. Needless to say, I was gently escorted from the premises sometime soon after.

I have had the opportunity to speak with and hear speak the chief negotiator, Lazarus Sumbeiywo. He is upbeat about the progress. But, like most, he has his concerns.

I am sure that some of the Sudanese SAILors will be asking if it is time to think of returning home. For those emailing me about it, I am telling them that I think it is unadvisable. In fact, if this peace process has revealed just one thing, it is a few pivotal dates at which peace could go awry. The last of these is the referendum of Southerners set for 2010. If it were me, I would not return until at least a year after this. The question most frequently being asked by non-Sudanese SAILors seems to be; but how does the Darfur crisis fit in? It is a good question and one I heard asked of General Sumbeiywo just last week.

What is happening there is thoroughly horrific. We get twice daily updates from the ground and most beggar belief. The answer to the question is that the conflict itself is not related to the southerners but it is most definitely related to the northerners. Some commentators are saying it is an effort to destabilize the country and bring about an endless Peace Process for Sudan. A more balanced view is that the Northern government has lost control of its militias. In essence, therefore, one should think of this conflict as one that is distinct from the process for the south although they are not inextricable. As for its effect on SAIL, I am almost certain there will be none. In conversations with senior immigration official from Oz here, they confirmed that Australia will not be establishing a presence in the camps in Chad. As such, few if any of the Fur tribe will be coming to Melbourne.

Tomorrow I am off to the Kakuma refugee camp on mission for 10 days. I am very excited about finally experiencing the place which maintains a mythical aura when spoken of in the SAIL world.
I sincerely hope the good ship SAIL is SAILing well. All reports indicate it is riding the breeze of change without a lurch.

I miss SAIL very dearly and look forward to my return to the Saturday celebration in late October. Please pass on my love and best wishes to the Sudanese SAILors who are so privileged to have you are their supporters. Assure them that not a single day passes without me thinking of them and admiring their phenomenal ability to survive here, travel there and thrive where-ever they go.

[If you or the kids would like direct contact, please contact Widg for the necessaries.]

SAIL out and About

World Refugee Day
June 19 2004 saw the running of ‘Diversity’ a multicultural and refugee awareness program run at Victoria University by our very own Poly Kigaya. The boys from Dambai put together an amazing set and entertained a crowd of all nations. SAIL was fortunate enough to be given a stall at this event, which was looked after by our SAILors, Yvonne, Sarah and Toby. Thanks to all three for generously donating their time.

Baggy Pants
Also on June 19 Hayley took a bunch of SAILors to see the performance of Baggy Pants, performed by Polyglot Puppet Theatre. This performance combined puppetry, dance, clothing and music to create a sensory sensation! It was a hit.

Circus Oz
In mid June Andrew, Luke, Caitlin and Josh took some SAILors to see saw flame throwers, contortionists, and acrobats of all shapes and sizes at Circus Oz. One of the kids was so impressed he removed the strings from his tennis racket in an attempt to fit his body through….the tennis racket is still attached to his left shoulder!


Possum Magic
We were luck enough to receive tickets to the kids play Possum Magic. This was performed in the recent school holidays and the SAILors who attended had rave stories about the crazy possums and everyone had an amazing time.

Bulletin Board Question of the Month

Question
“Hi, long time reader first time poster..
I have been tutoring a boy for about a month, and his english skills are very basic.. He more or less knows his alphabet now, although he seems to keep relapsing after I think he has got a grasp of it, and he seems to struggle a bit with the whole upper-case/lower-case thing. I am trying to consolidate his knowledge of the alphabet, but it is proving very difficult. He seems good-natured enough, and he seems a bit shy as well, and simply communicating with him is extremely difficult, as he responds to most questions with 'yes', regardless of the question. Hi is my first student here at SAIL, and although I have done some tutoring work in the past, it was not on anywhere like this level, especially not so basic considering the age of the student, he is about 15 or 16 I would guess. The other SAIL kids his age and younger also have a high skill level than him, which can't be good for his self esteem. I think I am a bit out of my depth here. He is due to start language school in a couple of weeks, and I don't think he gets much English practice outside of SAIL, if any. I was ill last Saturday, and couldn't attend SAIL, but I am very keen for any help with this student that I could use this coming Saturday.”

Response from Davina Lipman

“Hi, it's Davina here. I think John is out of the country for a bit so I thought I would post an interim reply while you wait for John's more authoritative response.

A few things come to mind. I admire both you and your student for persevering together when it is not easy for either of you. He is obviously keen to learn from you and although he doesn't understand all you say, he is delighted to be with you. Hence the common 'Yes' response.

Use concrete examples all the time. Anything abstract means you don't know if he understands. Do you have an inkling of his interests? I was wondering if you could borrow a magazine from the uni library on an area that interests him. Cars, sport, music, a TV weekly maybe, do you think he would follow movies? Perhaps bring one that interests you as a starter. When you speak of whatever is in the photos in the mag., use simple, short sentences.

Use the same vocabulary over and over. Let him listen to your English, the sounds, the rhythm, the patterns. Let him respond with facial gestures rather than speak. He needs to hear heaps and heaps and heaps of you speaking before he'll be able to say anything. Be prepared to monologue - repetitiously! You'll be doing him such a great favour. He may not feel comfortable making mistakes. That's why he's hesitant. Don't correct him if he does speak. So long as you have the gist of what he means, even if it is by mime, that's fine at this early stage.

Do practical activities. Would he be interested in handling an AFL footy? Perhaps a soccer ball is familiar to him. Move away from the younger kids. Find a way for him to be himself, not overwhelmed by the more boisterous, confident ones. It would be daunting, wouldn't it.

Some ideas following your literacy queries are to ease the tension through games: avoid writing with pen and paper by writing by finger. You model, let him imitate. Write your name on the seat, with your finger: on your arm, on his arm, on his back. Perhaps the shape of a letter. Very simple short words if you are game - yes, no, and. Guess it between you.

What about alphabet Bingo? Make up a sheet or board with 9 equal squares. Write a capital letter in each square. Cut the same letters, written exactly the same into small squares to fit over each on the board. You know how it goes, don't you.

Make several boards and card sets. Use all capitals. Use all small letters. Use the board with capitals and the letters to match in small. He can then see that B is the same as b, for example. Pretty unlikely isn't it - unless someone tells you!

Group the letters so for example
one board contains the five vowels: a - e - i - o - u
another the letters with a circle: a - b- c - d- g - o - p - q
another the letters that go high:
with letters that go low:
with letters that have straight lines:
whatever mix you can think of
Do one or two of these a week. Don't labour them, of course.

What about Junior Scrabble? Look in the SAIL Library. Steer away from anything if the content is childish.

He's so lucky to have you. You are obviously attuned to his discomfort and feelings of being overwhelmed. You're easing his path for when he goes to the Language Centre - fine work. Let us know how you're going....”

Mega Thank You

Our team in the kitchen Fern, Lieu, Jason our shopper Sue, food preparer Diana have done a tremendous job behind the scenes and continued to feed our growing number of SAILors.
Thankyou to all those who have been bringing in donations and stowing them under the front table at SAIL. Babies clothes, kitchen implements, hats and coats, toys – regardless of content, by the end of each Saturday the boxes are empty. These items are going directly to those who need them the most, and we thankyou to all who think of the SAILors and save their things.

Note from Anna Grace
A particularly big thanks to everyone who brought things in response to our special appeal for a young SAILor who needed extra support as she was expecting a baby. SAIL, working in conjunction with a local school, has been able to provide the new family with a really tremendous level of support. The baby is a beautiful little boy who, thanks to your generosity, now has a very groovy wardrobe and many other necessary items. Special thanks to Prue, whose grandmother knitted a blanket for him, and to Lindy, whose family basically refurnished his mother’s house and who even elicited a donation of 100 free nappies from one obliging company. The family were quite overwhelmed at this level of support from strangers and have asked us to pass on their most sincere thanks.

They are also very impressed with the hot water bottles that were donated. This got us thinking that hotties might be very good presents for new arrivals who haven’t got housing or heating sorted out, or for families that can’t afford good heating. So, if for some reason anyone has an abundance of hot water bottles, perhaps you might bring them in and give them to a coordinator for distribution to the families we are working with via the Home Help/Welfare program.

Famous Friends
Our very own Saturday Co-ordinator, Andrew McCutchen is running a marathon later this year to raise money for SAIL. He is currently looking for celebrities to run in the marathon training to raise profile for his fundraising run. If anyone has any famous friends who would be prepared to lend their face and running legs for a photo opportunity with Andrew and SAIL, we would be most appreciative.

Donations
We have a request for a Whiteboard. This would be used as notice board and teaching aid.

First Aiders??
If any of you have first aid qualifications it would be great if you could let us know via the ‘can’t come’ sheet or an email. We are currently revising our emergency procedures.

***LAST MINUTE ADDITIONS---***

Ideas For the Library?
The SAIL librarians are currently in development mode! We're brainstorming ideas for improving the library and we'd love to hear from both students and teachers. Do you have any ideas? Maybe you have a suggestion for new books, stationery or games. Maybe you have an idea about a way to make the library easier to use? Whatever it is, let a librarian or a co-ordinator know, or just pop a note into the
SAIL Star newsletter box.

Hat in Hand Apology
In the rush to get this newsletter out for this week we managed a terrible typo in the thanks to the Foodies…JUSTIN we know you are not JASON (some of the newsletters were fixed but others still include the typo)!! And we sincerely thank you for your awesome work each Saturday and apologise for the typo. Also missing out on the thank yous were the fabulous Jo, Min and Mike who are also a big part of the team, and a welcome to new starters Mark and Greg to the foodie fold.

Dinner to support the Parish
On Friday night the 30th of July there will be a dinner and concert to raise funds for the Parish. There will be special delectible dishes on offer, and entertainment from Tongans, Southern Sudanese, Maoris and others….tickets are $25 or $10 for children under 12. You are all warmly welcome! We understand that this is a lot of money so feel free to pass this invitation on to parents/friends/relatives with a little more to spend and a desire to experience some authentic Southern Sudanese cooking and music!!

Thanks!
Finally a big thanks to Sunday and Yvonne who went with Bridg to the Students of Sustainability conference at LaTrobe to basically sit on a SAIL stall. It was great to have SAIL’s presence felt among a number of other wonderful organisations doing great things and to be able to chat informally with interested people about the program and how they can be involved with SAIL.

Wishing you all much thanks for your supreme SAILing efforts and happy newsletter reading!!
We hope everyone is well and surviving the Melbourne Winter

Will and Bridgid