Read here how Literacy Support Kits, assembled from donations at the 2022 District Conference, are making a difference in remote Northern Territory schools.

More than 360 Literacy Support Kits have been assembled from the Literacy Project at the District Conference held in Mackay in May 2022. 

Seventy kits were assembled by conference participants and brought to the conference, while many other participants and clubs contributed $20 toward the cost of a kit being assembled for them.

The $20 kits were assembled by the student leaders and staff at Mackay West State School in two sessions, supported by Rotary Club of North Mackay.

Carroll’s News (Mackay) supplied the ingredients for the kits. Daryl and Juanita Shepperson (Carroll’s News) donated $400 to add to the $2600 from participants, enabling 300 Literacy Support Kits to be assembled and packed by the Mackay West Students. The $2600 came from individual conference participant contributions and allocations from Rotary Clubs in Cairns, Bundaberg and Gladstone.

The Sheppersons further supported the project with the donation of 100 earphone sets, 100 boxes of biros and 20 school bags, totalling $2294 in value, for distribution to the schools involved in the project. Our thanks to Mackay local business, Carroll’s News for its huge support of the project.

The Literacy Support Kits are being distributed to isolated idigenous school communities in the Northern Territory Kits where students and parents don’t have ready access to shops, and where teachers indicate the kits will support students learning. Some kits are also being distributed in Timor-Leste.

Transportation of the kits to Darwin was undertaken by PDG Mark Lean and PDG Michael Buckeridge, at no cost to the project. Thanks for your support!

Rotarians Jeff and Di Borella of Rotary Darwin Sunrise acted as the local agents in Darwin, collecting the kits from the transport company and arranging distribution to identified schools. These schools were Tennant Creek and Ali Curung in the Barkly Region, and Mataranka and Barunga in the Katherine Region.

Principal Malcolm Hales (Barunga CEC, via Katherine NT) said, ‘Thanks very much to the Rotary Clubs for organising these Literacy Kits, we will make good use of them at our school. We appreciate your support and help. Rotary Making a Difference’.

Assisting Di in the distribution are Ross McHutcheon (Small Schools Director based in Katherine NT) and Rotarian Ray Fauntleroy (Past Area 1 Governor).

Ross, through his work with isolated schools in NT Education’s Big Rivers Region (based in Katherine), is working on distribution of kits to small, isolated schools. The recent flooding rain in the Victoria River area has seen communities relocated to Darwin and the Howard Springs Accommodation Centre. Ross is currently working with schools and children from these communities and will distribute the kits when everyone returns home.

Ray is managing the Literacy Support Kits on their journey to Timor-Leste. He is distributing kits to schools in Comoro, Butuguade, Balibo and Maliana, with some of the kits commencing their sea journey from Darwin on March 1. Thanks, Ray, for coordinating and organising this distribution in Timor-Leste.

The article linked below describes the work of the Rotary E-Club of Outback Australia in distributing kits in the Barkly area.

https://www.tdtimes.com.au/news/rotary-donates-school-packs-to-barkly-principals

The Literacy Support Kit project is planned to run again in conjunction with the District Conference at the request of school leaders in the NT.