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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 via the online "Can't Come Sheet".
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 the
co-ordinators on Saturday- it will be ready for you the following week!
2. 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.
Diary dates
1.
The week 5 tutor talks for 2006 occur on 22 July, 2 September (SAIL's
birthday), 7 October, 11 November, 16 December (Christmas)
2. If you are interested in attending any upcoming African Australian events click here for the details. Please read this newsletter in the following week, it gives updates on SAIL past, present and future!
Tutor talk We are very excited to have Karen coming in to run a session on the reading comprehension program that will be implemented at SAIL following the extensive testing conducted by Tracey and Karen in the past months. Karen will explain how the comprehension program works, its significance for tutors and students, the 12-level reading program that will be in place at SAIL and how to use it. We strongly encourage you to make the time to attend this session, it will prove very useful for all tutors. Community Talk On Saturday, July 29th Dave Taylor and team from the Springvale Community Legal Centre will be back at SAIL Dandy for the third module of their series. The past two presentations have been very informative and highly successful, it would be great to have a few more SAIL Senior students along for the hat trick session. It would be greatly appreciated if you could encourage students to make a special effort to attend. Themes The current theme, ‘A Healthy Me’ is rocketing along, we have noticed some fantastic food pyramids and delicious looking artistic impressions of healthy eating. There are tutor resources on the front table for anyone hungry for more. The next theme, leading up to the very exciting and amazing SAIL Birthday Spectacular will be ‘Sudan’, kicking off on the 12th of August. This theme will cover all things Sudanese and will no doubt provide an opportunity for tutors to learn a thing or two from those they are meant to be teaching. Some ideas to consider for this theme include: § Where is Sudan? § What is the capital of Sudan? § What is the population of Sudan? § What sort of animals live in Sudan? § How is Sudanese culture? § What is the Sudanese national anthem? § What are some Sudanese foods? § Which languages are spoken in Sudan? Calling for Contributions to the SAIL Star! We are on the hunt for submissions to SAIL’s own student newspaper, the SAIL Star. Contributions can be anything from SAIL Star worksheets, to word-finds or crosswords SAILors have made, to reports about their SAIL Saturday School. Please pop any contributions into the bright, new yellow SAIL Star box on the stage. Hall Clean Up: Thank-you! It is a magnificent sight to see so many willing and able SAILors pitching in to ensure the hall is spick and span at the end of each week. Our sincere thanks to all those who make the extra effort to keep SAIL Dandy looking sublime. Thank you very much for stacking chairs, folding tables and sweeping the floor, your efforts are hugely appreciated! Big Thank You to our Kitchen Team Each and every week, SAILors enjoy freshly cut fruit, healthy, delicious salad rolls, and delectable delicacies that somehow appear from the kitchen. A huge thanks to Jo, Joy, Fiona and Louise who somehow put on a feast each and every week. We encourage you to pop into the kitchen and pass on your thanks. Arriving on Time With cold winter weather setting in, the degree of difficulty in getting out of bed on a Saturday morning can be likened to that of an aerial skiing quadruple backflip. However, we would encourage all tutors to set a hideously loud alarm so that we can all kick off at 11:00am sharp. We only have a short hour and a half each week, and students appreciate the chance to maximise their SAIL time. We really appreciate everyone making a big effort to arrive before 11:00 so that the students are ready to go at 11:00. SAIL Photos: Here’s the link! Jump onto our new and improved website to check out photos from each and every SAIL campus: http://sailprogram.org.au/SAILPhotos/
SAILors Senior opportunity - Victorian Interpreter Card
The
interpreter symbol and Victorian Interpreter card is a great new
initiative to help Victorians from non-English speaking backgrounds
access government services such as doctors and Centrelink. The
Victorian Interpreter card is a wallet-sized card that also aims to
help agencies arrange language assistance in the correct language. AMES
together with Centrelink and other agencies will be the key
distribution point for the Victorian Interpreter Cards. The cards will
be available to all AMES sites in Victoria, and posters and stickers
are also coming. Should you have more queries in regards to the
Victorian Interpreter Card initiative please visit www.voma.vic.gov.au
House Wanted – Cleaning Services Available
A
former Footscray SAILor who now attends Dandenong SAIL is looking for
house-cleaning jobs. Having completed cleaning units of a TAFE
hospitality course and with a growing wealth of private cleaning
experience, Rebecca is ready to take on more. For more information,
please call her SAILor buddy, Judy on 9531-1619.
ABC Radio – A broadcast on the refugee experience
Recently,
a genuine SAIL star was interviewed at length by Phillip Adams on ABC
Radio. The interview was to discuss the growing number of Sudanese
refugees in Australia and to track their journey by reference to the
book, The Longest Journey, written in part at SAIL, by Peter Browne. To
download the interview, please click here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/lnl_20060626.mp3
Driving Mentors Wanted: “L” Platers need Practice!
If
you or someone you know has a car, a full license & a spare couple
of hours each week, we ask for your assistance to teach members of the
SAIL community to become licensed drivers. Courtesy of two of the
longest SAILing SAILors, Maureen and Rob, all the participants in the
mini-program have already undertaken a day of basic driver training at
the Metropolitan Traffic Education Centre, some have had additional
private driving lessons, but very few have access to cars and/or fully
licensed drivers to enable them to achieve the recommended 120 hours of
practice before going for their probationary licenses. If you can help,
please contact Maureen at roomoo2@ozemail.com.au
Forced Migration Online: A Comprehensive Online Research Guide on Refugees
FMO
provides a wealth of information on people affected by “forced
migration” – from general information on refugees to promote awareness
to academic dissertations on the subject. Peter Verney’s guide
specifically deals with Sudan, its history and its peoples displaced by
internal strife. If you are wanting a superb background of the
situation that currently engulfs Sudan please visit: http://www .forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo040/
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Public information event on Darfur
Darfur
Human Rights and Development Organsation of Australia invite you to
their inaugural event. This event will take the form of a seminar with
three presenters discussing different aspects of the Darfur crisis. The
speakers will be: Nicole Batch, National Project Leader of the Red
Cross, Associate Professor David Dorward, Director of the African
Research Institute at LaTrobe University and finally, a representative
of the Sudanese community. It will take place in Lecture Theatre 3
(Pheonix Theatre) at Deakin University, Burwood Hwy, Burwood on August
2, at 6.30pm.Fundraiser for Amnesty Internaitonal
Longtime SAILor, Marg asked that we extend an invitation to all SAILors for the following event: Jindabyne,
a film about Aboriginal Australia will be screened on 23 July at 7pm to
raise funds for the local chapter of AI. It will be showing at the Sun
Theatre, Ballarat St, Yarraville. Cost; $12.50.
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Total trivia
The
1996 Australian Bureau of Statistics report on the Sudanese community
in Australia includes a break down of languages spoken in the homes of
Sudanese Australian families. Unsurprisingly, Arabic is most widely
spoken.
According to the same survey, the language spoken at home by
1.7% of Sudanese people in Australia is … Greek. (To show that we are
not making this up, see the official report on the website of the
Department of Immigration which is available at: http://www.immi.gov.au/statistics/stat_info/comm_summ/sudan.pdf
After
some careful arithmetic, we have deduced that approximately 1.7% of the
Sudanese population who responded to the census in 1996 had absolutely
no idea what they were filling in.
Thank you for your contribution to the SAIL Program and to Australia’s fastest growing (and most oddly lingual) community!
Matthew, Nik and Matt |