NEWSLETTER: Footscray campus (August 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!

Come one, come all to SAIL’s 4th Birthday Carnival on Saturday 27 August!
Prepare for party food, party activities and party performances on Saturday 27 August to celebrate four years of SAILing! The celebrations will kick off at about 11:30am when we will be graced by a diva of Sudanese music, Ajak Kwai from Tasmania’s Sudanese community. Our super talented circus performers will put on a show full of thrills and skills and we will have, for the records, a whole campus photo! Please plan to stick about until about 1pm for all the fun and festivities.

The SAIL Altona crew will also be coming to Footscray to share the celebrations, so if you see Catherine, Wayn or the gang, say g’day and give them a birthday hug!

A birthday party needs one thing; a birthday cake…. or twenty! For those with a penchant for cake baking, your contributions are very welcome on the day! Please deliver them directly to the celebrated culinary team!

We hope you will join us at the annual cross-campus celebrations at 7:30pm at 82 Perry Street Collingwood where you can meet fellow Footscray tutors, say hello to the Dandenong and Altona folks, swap stories of the year gone by and celebrate another year of SAIL. Please BYO drinks and we’ll provide the nibbles.

Thank you to everyone who has been helping out with the pack-up post SAIL. If anyone is able to further assist by doing 30 minutes of vacuuming after SAIL, this would also help; please contact Will or Cait.

A quick note about looking after the Church, please discourage SAILors from eating in the Church, we have had a couple of ham-sandwich offerings to the gods left at the altar and despite the generous intent, we don’t want to anger the vegetarian gods. Also another note from Father Don, could we also try to keep an eye on students so that texta-murals on the pews are kept to a minimum.

After a messy slip up (which ended up in hospital), we just wanted to remind SAIL tutors of the rules regarding taking SAILors on excursions outside SAIL time. No activity is to happen without the consent of both the parents AND the SAIL co-ordinators. In addition, a request form must be completed before the excursion takes place. This mandates that SAIL excursions must be attended by at least two volunteers at any one time. This form, in English and Arabic is available from the website here! If you have any queries about this, please let us know.

Socially unacceptable as it is, we ask for all your SAIL-related photos as a birthday present, but we will pay for it… which arguably does not make it a present, ah well. In an effort to keep good records of SAIL’s endless growth and development, we put out an annual plea for copies of these photos. SAIL will be glad to pay reproduction costs.

While we are on the topic, and courtesy of two web-savvy SAILors there are two online photo galleries which now display images from the SAIL Program. The first, taken by Pavol at Footscray campus Christmas last year, is available here! .

To see snaps of the newest ship in the SAIL fleet, SAIL Altona, visit here! . Here you will find snaps from the whole campus camp to the Wimmera where a group of SAILors went tree planting.

The library at Footscray now boasts a series of rare books especially concerned with all things Sudanese. The following titles are available through the Sudanese Australian Research Centre part of the SAIL Footscray library. Volunteers are welcome to use these texts for academic purposes at any time after consultation with the library team.

1. Cleaned the Crocodile's Teeth, Nuer Song
2. Dinka of the Sudan
3. Dinka Vowel System (Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 82)
4. Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka
5. Nuer Journeys, Nuer Lives: Sudanese Refugees in Minnesota
6. Socio-Political Order (Studies on Emergencies and Disaster Relief, 9)
7. South Sudan: Forgotten Tragedy
8. Sudan: North Against South (World in Conflict)
9. Who Is Ruling in South Sudan?: The Role of Ngos in Rebuilding

In addition, and with great excitement, we are thrilled to announce the pending arrival of the world’s first Dinka (predominant language of SAILors at Footscray and Altona campus) dictionaries. We have placed an order through the Sydney publishing house for numerous copies of the picture dictionary. They will be available through the library within the next month. We especially encourage those with newly arrived students to make use of them as a ready-made beginner’s tool in SAIL time.

For the second year running, the good producers of the Medicine Revue at Melbourne University have offered to donate all proceeds of their shows to the SAIL Program. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support and to plug their laugh-a-minute (or so they tell us) show.

25th to 27th August, 8pm at Union Theatre, ground floor Union House, University of Melbourne, $10 concession/$15 full Bookings: 8344 7447 or go to www.union.unimelb.edu.au/mudfest

With the completion of the public speaking classes for the SAIL Senior students, the VCE Chick’s room is back in business in the room next to the hall. The VCE boys are operating in a room near the lunch area and both groups are doing really well. We have been in preliminary discussions and may run public speaking and job interview technique sessions for the VCE students if there is interest.

SAIL SENIOR

The reports from the nursing home are that the beginners and intermediate groups are going great guns. A spontaneous special farewell send-off was arranged by the students for Fiona, complete with traditional dance. Fiona has been lovingly organizing the classes and buying the Tim Tams for some time and will be sorely missed. Thank you Fiona. We may not be able to dance, but we all really appreciate the amazing work of the classes at the nursing home.

SAIL recently played host to L and P and map reading classes for the adults run by AMES. These were highly successful and we hope to have more classes in the future.

SAIL Junior has been full of singing, life and story books in recent weeks. The joyful activities have been courtesy of the fine work of our new Junior coordinators Chris, Francis and Seir. Our thanks to all of them for their innovation.

Our current Xtend cycle is humming along at tremendous speed and high energy. Our circus performers are tumbling, balancing and juggling their way to a performance later in the year. Watch this space for further details. Our jewellery-making class was tremendously popular and our art team continues to create murals of wonder on some of our trestle tables. Viva la culture.

Next cycle sees our circus performers continue their rehearsals, and new cycles of hockey and art. Thank you to Catherine, Alysia, Michelle, Evelyn, Deanna, Prue and all the tutors who have stayed back to help cook, make bracelets, paint, be security guards to prevent invasions of popular activities and generally help out.

The Richmond Soccer club under 17 team, comprising of many of our students, have overcome a mid-season slump and continue to make excellent progress in the run up to the finals. If people are interested in coming along on a Sunday to join the legion of fans, please contact Will or Cait for details of the next match.

Thank you to the regular roster of bus drivers: Ian, Phillip, Hannah, Joel, Louise and Graham. They have done a terrific job and continue to get our students to SAIL in good spirits. If anyone wants to join the roster, we are always looking for afternoon drivers. All you need is a current manual driver’s license and a sense of adventure!

It has been another hectic cycle of SAILing out and about!. 12 SAILors went to see Rove Live… live! The highlight of the evening was seeing evidence that there is no minimum IQ requirement for Big Brother participants: the latest evictee, Melanie, showed her immense lack of brain activity when she forgot the question she had just been asked?! A gaggle of SAILors went to see Circus Royale in action complete with cavorting cows and five SAILors saw the Production Company’s version of Kiss Me Kate.

Care of the SAIL About team, SAIL has had a number of tickets donated to ACMI for film screenings. There are plenty of tickets to take SAIL Adults with their babies (the “Film Bub” sessions are on Tuesdays at 11am) or for some of the Australian classics on Saturday afternoons. If you would like to take SAILor buddies to one of these, please email sail@africanoz.com – they are valid for two months.

We are also keen to hear from all SAILors who would like to join a local tree planting excursion on 24 September 2005. It will be a good day of outside activity (bring on spring-time?!) and community building. If you would like to join the trip, please email Matthew at sail@africanoz.com for details. Transport will be provided.

The SAIL About team have compiled the following list of upcoming free events for SAILors. If you do go on one of these events, please ensure you read the webpage at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sail/tutor.htm#work7 first.

ARTPLAY
ArtPlay Garden
Come and get your hands dirty and help the ArtPlay garden grow. Take away a planting of your own too!
Date(s) Sunday 23 October
Time 1pm to 3pm, for ages 6 to 10.
How to book To book, call 9664 7900 (www.artplay.com.au)
Where ArtPlay is easy to find in Birrarung Marr, next to Federation Square. Catch a train or tram to Flinders Street Station or drive and park in Federation Square carpark. If travelling by bus, parking is available nearby on St Kilda Road and drop of points are available in Russell Place.

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image)
Free animated kids flicks
Animated story-time favourites and Disney classics including Winnie the Pooh and Doctor De Soto.
Date(s) Mon 19 Sep - Fri 23 &
Mon 26 Sep - Fri 30
Time Starts 11am.
Running time: 48mins
How to book Tickets from Box Office essential. To book, call 8663 2583. (www.acmi.net.au)
Where Located: Federation Square, Flinders Street
The Arts Centre
The Magic Tent: The Fantastic World of the Circus
The Magic Tent is a free exhibition exploring the wonder and excitement of circus through the eyes of children. The exhibition is on display at the Arts Centre from 16 July – 2 October and is designed for children 5-12 years of age. A hands-on, interactive exhibition with dress ups, a colouring table, wobbly carnival mirrors and musical instruments to play, The Magic Tent is designed to engage children in a fun learning environment.
Date(s) 16 Jul 2005 - 2 Oct 2005
How to book Tickets from Box Office essential. To book, call 8663 2583. (www.acmi.net.au)
Where The Arts Centre, George Adams Gallery
100 St Kilda Road
MELBOURNE VIC 3004
Federation Square

NZ Big Day Out
The Waka and Te Kotahitanga will be part of a New Zealand Day. Federation Square will come alive with Maori kapahaka and Polynesian cultural groups from 12.00 onwards. At 5.30 pm the Bledisloe Cup will be screened LIVE at Federation Square. There you will be able to learn the Haka and join the All Blacks for a simultaneous Haka. Then the award winning film, the Whale Rider, will be shown at ACMI. To top this remarkable day off Rawiri Paratene, the grandfather in the Whale Rider film, will be here in person as a guest of the New Zealand Paratene, will be here in person as a guest of the New Zealand Consulate and community.Te Kotahitanga will provide a special insight into the uniwue and spiritual world of the Maori people. A day of indigenous culture form the Tangata whenua the indigenous people our nearest neghbor in not to be missed.
Date(s) Saturday 3 September
Time 12.00pm to 5.30 pm
How to book No bookings necessary
Where Federation Square, Flinders Street
The Magic Word: Musical Theatre
A spacecraft crashes to Earth and Zanna the alien is on a special mission to find the secret code to make people feel good & win friends. From award-winning Brainstorm Productions. No bookings necessary.
Date(s) Monday 19 September
Time 10.00am & 1.00pm, suits ages 3-10 years
How to book No bookings necessary
Where BMW Edge, Federation Square, Flinders Street

The Jellybugs Musical Show
Highly popular children’s music band of four funky performers and their mascot Jelly. It’s music, drama and dance just for fun.
Date(s) Tuesday 20 & Thursday 22 Sep
Time 10.30am & 1pm, suits ages 2-8 years
How to book No bookings necessary
Where BMW Edge, Federation Square, Flinders Street

If you want a piece of the action for ticketed events, please email sail@africanoz.com to register your interest in taking other SAILors!

As part of the Australian Football League, Football Victoria and Department of Victorian Communities sponsored Multicultural Football Program, families representing several multicultural communities as well as other Australians attended a game of Australian football for the first time as part of the AFL's Family Weekend Round of matches. Families from the SAIL Program went along to experience Australian Football by watching the Western Bulldogs v St Kilda game on Sunday 3 July 2005 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The families travel by bus to the MCG and upon their arrival were officially welcomed by the Western Bulldogs President, David Smorgon and the St Kilda President Rod Butterss. All the children among the families were presented with Australian football introductory packs by Victorian Multicultural Police Officers.

There has been a big public reaction to the TV mokumentary currently airing on the ABC called “We could be heroes; finding the Australian of the Year.” People have responded especially to the Ja’mie character who “holds the Australian record for the largest number of children sponsored through Global Vision.” All the children are Sudanese, as is her friend who is in immigration detention.

The images of the Sudanese children she sponsors were all taken in Sudan last year by SAILor, Matthew Albert (that’s the trivial bit?!). For the record, though, to the best of our knowledge the notion that Southern Sudanese people have been put in detention, as shown in the program, is inaccurate. A number of Northern Sudanese people were put in detention for extended periods (including one man who was inside for over 7 years) but none from the South have been processed this way.