NEWSLETTER: Footscray campus (June 2005)

The 'let us know' list

1. If any of your contact details have changed, please let us know.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Let us know if you are going to miss a Saturday by email, phone or the "Can't Come Sheet"- now also online here!
5. Please check and read your emails each week- if possible, Friday is best!
6. Please let us know before you speak publicly or publish an article about SAIL.

Ongoing offers

1. Photocopying- for any SAIL related photocopying, simply mark the pages from the books you want copied and give the book to Will, Cait or the library crew on Saturday- it will be ready for you the following week!

2. 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@africanoz.com to be included in the next newsletter.

3. 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 here!


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

In an effort to make sure every SAILor is being properly cared for, SAIL has been spliced up into geographical zones. A co-ordinator is assigned to each. If you are in need of a coordinator during tutoring time, this is where we can be seen wandering from 11am;

Cait- Church and foyer
Will- Hall and front lawn
Matt (on weeks 2, 4 and 5) – Foyer and roaming
Cam –Hall and front lawn
Caitlin – Junior and Church.
Prue- VCE Centre (Years 10-12)
Poly and Fiona- Nursing home with the adults
Bridg- Behind the worksheets table and in the library

June 20 is World Refugee Day. As we do every year, we reserve this Week 5 for representatives of the most important SAILors of all – the Sudanese refugee community. We invite you to what, for most, is the highlight of the Week 5 talks. On 18 June 2005, we will be inviting a few members of the Sudanese community to come and tell us their stories, and speak about what it means to survive the refugee resettlement experience. As always, the talks will start right after lunch. The session will take place in the church for all tutors.

We are pleased to announce that our community talk will feature both dental hygene and diet and healthy eating courtesy of our friendly dental hygienist and dietician. Please encourage Senior students to attend, we hoping to have a live dental floss demonstration!

A quick reminder to all that you please ensure that your SAILing area is clean and packed up at the end of Saturdays. We would also ask people to make sure that students don’t draw on the pews; seems obvious, we know, but some people are allowing it to happen?! While there were some beautiful flowers drawn on some of the pews last week in texta, we would encourage such creative pursuits to be confined to paper!

A gentle reminder to all and sundry that the best place for super SAILor SAILing advice is the SAIL Panel of Experts Bulletin Board. It has been left bereft of input for some time now. Any issues you may have re behaviour concerns, learning issues, cultural question, linguistic conundrums, or general worries you want to offload should be channelled in this direction. The panel awaits…

We welcome on board our new fantastic Junior coordinators Chris, Francis and Seir who are all early childhood development professionals and responded to an ad put out with the assistance Free Kindergarten Association. We would also like to sincerely and superlatively thank Rachel, Louise and Sue for all their wonderful work coordinating the Junior room for last two years.

Freedebate, a group of committed debaters, will soon be running a series of workshops on debating preparation and presentation and general public speaking for our SAIL Senior students and their tutors. We are negotiating a start date and we currently have a couple of spots remaining so if tutors think there students would be interested please let us know. We would like to thank the good people of Freedebate for coming on board!

Another exciting development for our senior students is a new series of L plate and P plate written test preparation. They will be conducted by members of the Sudanese Community, Mading and William in Arabic or Dinka. These classes will take place between 12:30 and 1:30 in weeks 1 - 4 and will commence on 25 June 2005. Please let your students know about these sessions. There will be an info session regarding this on 11 June 2005 at 12:30 for those interested to find out more.

SAILors continue to Xtend themselves in a range of hair-raising activities; circus, cooking, soccer and recorder (some of the noises from that room are especially hair raising?!)

A small request for SAILor drivers; if your passengers are involved in SAIL Xtend please ensure that they asked whether they want to stay back for it. Similarly, if you taking SAILors on excursions, please try to slot these in after Xtend time!

Bridgid is queen of SAIL worksheets. Her throne room is the library or behind the worksheets table on a Saturday. Bridg's main jobs at SAIL this year is to assist tutors with ideas and any guidance regarding teaching materials, as well as to get tutor resources in order! If you have not visited the worksheets folders yet this year, please do! They are more organised and user friendly than ever before. There are also few new 'helpful hints' sheets on ideas for your first lesson with a new student, 20 tips for teaching with a book, and how to use themes in teaching. You can grab a copy of these from Will, Cait or Bridg or ask for one by e.mail.

And of course, don't forget visit the tutor resources section of the SAIL website for loads of tutoring resources!

Over the next couple of months tutor resources will be having a 'makeover' and Bridg will be the surgeon. It is time for all tutors to make their teaching needs known, no matter how big or small, so Bridg can do her best to accommodate them. Be sure to either send an e.mail to SAILFootscray@africanoz.com with ideas and requests, otherwise, chat to Bridg on a Saturday for any help, to offer suggestions, or if you are just feeling a little lost in the wonderful organised chaos of SAIL!

Prue reports that Amissi recently enjoyed his work experience with the mechanics of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Apparently Amissi had an absolute blast! We have another student about to undertake work experience as a computer technician. If you or someone you know can assist another work experience seeker in finding work in nursing, please let us know.

Last week Bruce Mildenhall MP, State Member for Footscray visited the SAIL Program for the first time. He was overwhelmed and enthused by what he saw and has generously offered his assistance in any future projects in which he could play a role!

Know people in Canberra who may be interested in the SAIL Program? Hell, anything would be interesting if you lived in Canberra (we hear that dry stone walling is really taking off, for example!).

If so, please direct them to the Tuggeranong Arts Centre throughout June. This arts centre is hosting the photography exhibition which was run in Melbourne over Australia Day 2005. The exhibition features the work of three photojournalists (including Matthew Albert) who map the journey of Sudanese people from Sudan all the way to the cosy halls of the SAIL Program. Entry is free or by donation to the SAIL Program. For more information, go to http://www.tca.asn.au/gallery.html or
http://www.africanoz.com/af_event/af_event.html#act or
http://www.unhcr.org.au/WorldRefugeeDayEvents.shtml.

From 7 – 9 July 25 SAILors will be heading to the SAIL camp HQ at the Cottage By the Sea at Queenscliffe. SAILors who will fit the age bracket bill will be invited on the camp in coming weeks.

The biggest SAIL celebration of the year is fast approaching. SAIL will soon officially turn four! We want to note the dates to ensure that everyone keep the date free! On Saturday 27 August, normal SAIL time will be partially over-run with the traditional carnival celebrations. That night we have the SAIL party of the year for the volunteers. It will be from 7:30pm at 82 Perry St, Collingwood. We hope you will keep this night free as we hope to have all SAILors from all campuses together in celebration for the first time.

Finally, our sincere thanks to the Prefects at Westbourne Grammar School who recently arranged a Soup for SAIL day to raise money to buy pens and books for the SAIL team! Now, doesn’t that just give you a warm, fuzzy feeling!

Courtesy, of our magnificent SAIL About letter writer, Emily, there are two big ticket offers available exclusively to SAILors. If you are interested in booking tickets to any of these events, please email sail@africanoz.com.

Circus Oz
High flyers acrobats, gymnastics extraordinairres, flyer people. Roll up, roll up! SAIL is off to the circus on Friday 24 June, 7:30pm at Birrarung Marr. If you would like to join the huge crew attending this once off event, please email sail@africanoz.com ASAP!

Kiss Me Kate
SAIL has been kindly donated five tickets to the upcoming production of "Kiss Me Kate" on Wednesday 20th July at 2pm at the State Theatre. If you would like to take some SAILors to it, please let us know at sail@africanoz.com and they are all yours!

REFUGEE & ASYLUM SEEKERS FESTIVAL 2005
As World Refugee Day approaches a large free community festival is being organized around the Fitzroy area. Dazzling music and dance performances from Melbourne ’s refugee communities, a unique cultural marketplace, an action packed inaugural Soccer Carnivale featuring four Horn of Africa teams, and a hit play by notable Australian writer Linda Jaivin are just some of the highlights of this year’s Refugee and Asylum Seekers Festival. There are also loads of Sudanese performers on show including Sudan Azza, South Sudan Musica, and the Sudanese Catholic Choir For all the details please visit; http://www.multiculturalarts.com.au/bannerevent.html

Other upcoming free kiddy-type events that we would encourage you to take SAILors to (with a form completed first) are as follows;

NGV (National Gallery of Victoria)
Free film screening – “Finding Nemo”
An enchanting computer-animated feature about a father clown fish, Marlin, searching the vast ocean near Sydney for his lost son, Nemo. An action-packed, sometimes fearsome and fun-filled adventure.
Date(s) 3 July
Time Starts 3pm.
Running time: 97 mins (Rated G)

Free film screening – “Blinky Bill”
Blinky Bill the Koala sets off to try and find his mother after their peaceful bush home is destroyed by loggers. He meets new friends and has many adventures along the way in this delightful animated film, based on Dorothy Wall’s classic story.
Date(s) 6 July
Time Starts 10am.
Running time: 93 mins (Rated G)

Free film screening – “Dot and the Kangaroo”
Dot, the little daughter of a settler in the Australian outback loses her way in the bush. Terrified by the dark shadows and unfamiliar sounds of the bush, she is soon befriended by a big kangaroo. Dot travels in the kangaroo’s pouch on an adventure packed journey.
Date(s) 7 July at 3.00pm
Time Starts 10am
Running time: 72 mins (Rated G)

Where NGV Australia is located on the corner of Russell Street extension and Flinders Street, Melbourne

The story of the humble SAIL sandwich.
Now you may munch nonchalantly into your roll at SAIL each week and not ponder its long journey from the dirtied fields of rural Victoria to your hand. Well, it is time to rethink the humble SAIL roll and acknowledge its long and arduous journey!

SAIL rolls are the result of a long trip from numerous locations across Melbourne.

The bread is reliably collected by Maureen and Rob in St Kilda, Jackie in Dandenong and one of us at Victoria Gardens. On Saturday, before SAIL time, it heads off in three directions to one of the SAIL campuses.
The fillings meanwhile take a somewhat more convoluted trip. First they are bought by SAIL’s oldest volunteer who may or may not be 80, Lesley at her local supermarket. It then travels to Mount Waverly where Louise prepares it on Friday night. On Saturday, Yvonne collects the food for Footscray and Altona and Jackie collects it for Dandenong. Once at Footscray, Wayn then collects the Altona share and trundles it over to Altona.

The hot food meanwhile, is collected reliably by Lieu who takes it to Footscray from Southgate.

The humble SAIL lunches belie their journey. We strongly recommend you talk to your roll next Saturday. Everything has a story to tell and our rolls are no different.