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SAIL Program

Newsletter 11

August 2002

Super special double bumper edition

Welcome to the first ever thesis length SAIL newsletter. We plead that you READthis entire document in the following week. The contents cover important information about the past, the present and the future of SAIL and we sincerely want everyone to be aware of all the news and the changes afoot.

Diary Dates

SAIL turns one!!!!

Believe it or not, the end of this month marks the first birthday of SAIL as we know it. At the end of August 2001, SAIL got its name and its first funding and assets. For us, this is a good enough reason for some small-scale celebration.

Birthday bash for tutors

We would like to invite all tutors to a party for us to celebrate the meteoric rise of SAIL and thank everyone for their ongoing commitment.

When; 7 - 11pm, Friday, August 30, 2002.

Where;

Library tours

Back by popular demand, we are going to have two library tours in the coming month. This is an exciting event whereby you get acquainted with our little library and it gets acquainted with you. We especially encourage new-ish tutors to come along and get to know the method in the madness. The library tours will last 15 minutes and take place at 10:15am on Saturdays, August 10th and 17th. Booking are not necessary and friends are more than welcome!

Camp Adventures

During the June/July holidays, many of the SAIL families and several tutors went on camps to the Anglicare Phillip Island Discovery Centre. The camps were organized by hardworking SAIL tutor Noah Shaked and have been voted a unanimous success. They were an opportunity for us all to get out of town and breathe some sea air, a particularly novel experience for many of the children. They also provided a great opportunity for the families and tutors to gain a better understanding of each other, something that is vital to the continued success of the program. Activities included beach walks, soccer, basketball, painting, drawing, mask-making, parachute games, an initiative course as designed by Noah and much splashing about in freezing cold water. A huge thankyou to Noah for all his hard work, to Father Don and to tutors Marty, Tracy, Gwilym, Liz, Anna E, Tim Krivitsky and especially Katia for rolling with the often crazy punches and making the whole thing such a great experience for the kids.

SAIL Stars

It is with great pride that we report on the extraordinary performance of SAIL students Tina, Dalia and the Winnie at the Welcome Stranger concert at Chapel of Chapel a month or so back. The girls wowed the crowd with inspiring stories of their journey to Australia and had everyone in the palm of their hand as they performed a song about their home country. They even held their own alongside an intimidating cohort of performers which included John Wood, Rachel Maza, Joel Edgerton and, their favorite, the rather charming Todd McDonald from ‘Secret Life of Us.’ The girls conducted themselves with such poise and maturity, they were wonderful ambassadors for the community. A copy of their speech is available on the website for anyone whose interested.

SAIL out and about

The SAIL kids have been out and about on excursions galore recently, with trips to Circus Oz and Lord of the Dance particular highlights. These nights out have been great fun for all involved, but we still have many students (and tutors!) who haven’t yet enjoyed the privilege, so if anyone knows of ways to wrangle tickets (in particular to sporting events – we have rather less expertise in that area) we’d love to hear about it.

Tutor Speakers

Partner Day

Hall demolition

This probably doesn’t need to go in your diaries yet, but the chances are very high that in early 2003 the Hall will be demolished. As part of the renovations, the church building will be extended and enlarged. There will be a new kitchen built and a dedicated space created for the library. The land where the hall is will be converted into low/no-rent housing for recently arrived migrants. We will keep you posted as to the movement of SAIL during this period when the time gets closer.

Solutions in Sudan

Perhaps the best thing to happen to SAIL in the last few months has been the enormous advances being made in Sudan itself. From scattered reports that seep through to the Australian press, we have gleaned that the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the ruling government from the North have struck a peace accord. To the credit of both parties this, at least for the moment, seems to be sticking. We encourage everyone to keep updated via reports that are posted on the Internet. We have found to be a good source for information. Interestingly, the Australia press has chosen to refer to the SPLA as ‘the rebels’ Matt – I’ve noticed that almost every article on allafrica.com and other online news sources does this too.they are a rebel army after all – that doesn’t make them barbarians. . . Most SAIL attendees are members of the SPLA and, in fact, among the community are offspring of former SPLA leaders.

People problems

New SAILors

We have had two new families arrive from Sudan and neighboring countries in the last weeks and we have been forewarned of another two families with a combined total of thirteen kids arriving soon. We are therefore keenly seeking more new tutors.

We also want to extend a welcome to all the tutors who have joined SAIL and managed to blend in over the last couple of months. We hope that you will feel comfortable enough to approach others to ask any questions, queries or quibbles you may have.

We hope that experienced tutors will be willing to assist newies as they learn the ropes.

Stow-aways SAILing

Over the past months, we have noticed an increasing trend of people bringing friends along to SAIL. We love it that everyone is keen to bring their nearest and dearest along. However, as the operation continues to grow, we are increasingly concerned that we keep a check on all goings-on, especially when they involve the children. We therefore ask that, if you wish to bring any friend/ relative/ neighbour/ archrival/ step-cousins ex-husband, that you email us with their name (at least) in the days before SAIL and tell us what they are keen to do- new tutors are extra specially welcome. We will reply with information regarding what will and will not be appropriate for that coming week. For those who don’t know, the email address is .

Change of address

If you have moved are or about to, please keep us updated of your changes. We are particularly reliant on phone numbers and emails, so if either change please let us know ASAP. If there is a chance we don’t know your current details or that they may be wrong please update us via the Can’t Come Sheet (outside the library and next to the calendar).

Being the bread-winner

Our tireless bread-picker-upper-er, Maureen who collects all the donated bread from Bakers Delight continues to bring copious volumes of bread each week. We are eager for none to go to waste and so we encourage all tutors to help themselves to a bag of loaves or rolls each week. Preferably, wait until you are ready to leave so that Sudanese community members can get first pickings. Otherwise, help yourself! After all, the rubbish bin is allergic to yeast! (I don’t get it)

Money Matters

Pot of Gold

Congratulations all round for the fact that we have just been granted our largest ever cash injection. The Order of Malta have donated $5000 to the SAIL Program following a visit in April. This money should keep us going for many years??(we’re supposed to buy a computer with it) what about ‘some time’ with all the basic things we need on a weekly basis. We are also hoping to purchase computer equipment which will give the community free access to the Internet and a printer. We want to thank everyone for making SAIL look as good as it is on the weeks we have visitors who make contributions of this magnitude- that’s what is called exceptionally good timing.

Total Trivia

  • Culinary SAIL make 100 rolls each week.
  • The SAIL website is not accessible in China. We can only assume that the content of the site is inflammatory enough that access has been cut by Chinese Search Engines and or the government
  • Anna Grace’s name is Anna Grace not Ann, Anna or Aunty Grace. For the record, Matthew’s name is not Matthew Grace!
  • Since it began, SAIL has grown 2, 167%- that’s an average of 23% growth each week. What is truly amazing is if you times this number by six and take eight, you get the attendance of SAIL last week. The world is an amazing place!