SAIL NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER: Altona campus (August 2006)

NEWSLETTER: Altona campus (August 2006)

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 5 August, 9 September, 14 October, 18 November
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!


Week five talks

The next week five talks will take place on the 5th of August.

For the tutors, we have Anna Grace Hopkins, someone who knows SAIL very well (she started it!) and is an experienced teacher.  Anna Grace will be coming along to talk to tutors about teaching resources and to give us all some tips and ideas for working with students. 

For the Community, we have the third module from the Springvale Monash Legal team. Tutors, if you work with older secondary students or with senior students, please inform your students of this talk. We hope that you will be willing to sit in on this talk so that it can operate as a discussion point for future sessions. Community Talks commence at approximately 12.10pm.

Submissions to the SAIL Star

The pages of our very own newspaper - the SAIL Star - are looking very bare so please encourage your students to submit their work, whatever it may be! In addition to SAIL Star specific worksheets that can be found in the folders in the library, general short stories, movie reviews, CD reviews, biographies, interviews and opinion pieces are always welcome. Submissions can be handed in to the SAIL Star box in the library, or to Wayn or Catherine.

Arriving on Time

With the cold winter weather setting in, the degree of difficulty in getting out of bed on a Saturday morning can be likened to that of executing an aerial-skiing quadruple back flip. However, we 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 are keen to maximise their SAIL time. Thus, it would be much appreciated if everyone could make a big effort to arrive before 11:00am so that the students are ready to go on the hour.

It’s nearly that time of year again…

SAIL’s 5th birthday is rapidly approaching.  A day of fun, excitement and lots of cake will take place on Saturday the 26th of August.  All of us at Altona will make a special trip over to help celebrate with everyone at SAIL Footscray.  Please put this date in your diary to ensure you can attend the big day.  We will meet at Altona and all drive over to Footscray together.  With the amount of celebrating and driving, we expect SAIL to go a little bit longer than usual on this day, so if you can, please work out your work rosters and social calendars accordingly!

WholeSAIL News
House Wanted – Cleaning Services Available 
Sudanese woman in Dandenong looking for house-cleaning jobs. Has completed some cleaning units of a TAFE hospitality course and has some private cleaning experience.  Drives a car. Please contact Rebecca: 0403-662-476 or Judy 9531-1619.

 

ABC Radio – A broadcast on the refugee experience

About seventy per cent of the last year's humanitarian intake into Australia came from Africa - most of it from Sudan and other countries in the Horn of Africa. For African refugees like Sarah Malual, the journey to Australia starts in massive refugee camps in Kenya or Tanzania. The ABC broadcast discusses the Australian refugee policy, attitudes and the experiences of refugees on their way towards settling in Australia.

Download the whole radio program at:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/lnl_20060626.mp3

Driving Mentors Wanted: “L” Platers need Practice!

If you have a car, a full license & a spare couple of hours a week, you can assist members of the SAIL community to become licensed drivers.  All 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. Access the guide at:

http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo040/

 
Tomorrow Foundation Ball
In aid of Sudan, former SAILor and Tomorrow Foundation founder Kate Jackson has extended an invitation to all SAILors to attend this glittering fundraising event, A Touch of Africa. It will take place on Saturday 19 August 2006 at the Regal Ballroom in Northcote. Tickets cost $95. To book tickets please email
contact@tomorrow.org.au.

Total trivia

According to the 1996 Australian Bureau of Statistics report on the

Sudanese community in Australia, 1.7% of Sudanese people in Australia spoke Greek at home. 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 1.7% of the Sudanese population who responded to the census 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, Catherine and Wayn