First Term 2008 Completed

We survived Term One - a bit hard for thireen year olds to be away from home. But there was good leadership from the older two, who are almost seventeen.

It was a successful term was successful ending in good spirits. On Easter Sunday the kids sang at the Kenmore Parish mass - a big assignment for bush kids to sing for the Lord with 500 people watching!

They were aided by Tania who had been a Lay Missionary on the Tiwi Islands twenty years ago, and by Boniface and Ada who were visiting from Nigeria. Ada is one of 16 Nigerian Nephrologists serving the 160million Nigerians. She is is assisting an effort to beat the epidemic of Kidney Disease affecting Aboriginal and other transitional cultures.
Our task is now to get the older kids starting TAFE studies, while they are at Downlands, so there is focus and vision of where all this education is leading to.

Our kids have the problem that when they look around their community, they do not see Lawyers and Accountants and Doctors - as they can do in Nigeria.

Much of the interesting work in aboriginal communities is done by 'fly in Europeans'. So the menial work is done by Tiwi.
It does not get better, because workplace standards improve faster than the average "fly-in" can keep pace so the needle always moves beyond the reach of locals.

We hope to get kids along the track to a qualification which can be completed in Darwin.

Airlines are looking for Aboriginal hostesses. This is a good one, for a kid could fly out of Darwin and spend off time back at Nguiu.

Touch Football is on now. Had to buy boots for four girls and two boys. Of course as the Tiwi dominate the game their esteem grows amid and the communication improves. $40 per kid is not expensive in the cost/plus!

It was mighty to see all the kids yell 'HooRoo" as Tiwi left Downlands yesterday. You get the idea that the Tiwi are adding something wonderful to the Downlands community.

If you are free to help fund this project, go to Vinnie's website: https://www.vinnies.org.au/show_appeal.cfm?table=appeals&parentid=0&id=43