The Unley Primary School SRC is excited to launch our sister school project with the Dalousu Village School in the Solomon Islands. The SRC has been planning this project after working with members of the Unley Rotary Club at the start of this term.
Through our partnership with Unley Rotary, we have connected with people who are directly involved in humanitarian work in the Solomon Islands. We have learned that the country is ranked as having one of the highest rates of poverty in the world.
When we discussed at our SRC meeting how we could make a difference to the lives of the people in Dalousu Village, we wanted to do something to benefit both the children who can go to school as well as those who can’t.
Attending school is a huge privilege for kids in the Solomon Islands as many families are unable to afford to send their kids. Currently there are 120 children at the Dalousu Village School. It costs approximately $100 for a child to attend school for a year.
We did the maths in an SRC meeting and worked out that if every student at Unley Primary School donated between $3 and $5, we could raise enough money to sponsor 20 children to go to school – that’s one child for each class at UPS! We have plans to become pen pals with these children and begin an ongoing connection.
But we didn’t want to stop there! The children who are fortunate enough to attend school do not have adequate supplies to use to help them learn. For example, students can only afford to have one pencil and one small notebook for the whole year. Their school does not have a library and there are no books, dictionaries or atlases for students to read and learn from. We want to donate stationery items for the kids to use. For example, we could donate pencils, textas, pens and note paper. Our school library will also donate some culturally appropriate books and encyclopedias.
Starting from next week, Monday 14th September, the front office will be accepting stationery donations until the end of the term. Please bring in unused items of stationery such as: lead pencils, coloured pencils, textas, paper and pencil sharpeners. We really hope everyone can get involved and help out – just like you all did for the Foodbank fundraiser last term which went really well.
To help us reach our fundraising goal, on the last day of school this term, Friday the 25th of September, we will be hosting a casual clothes day and inviting everyone to make a donation to this project. A small amount of $3-$5 dollars per UPS student will be enough for each class to sponsor a child to attend school. Any donation will be appreciated.
If you would prefer to make a donation online, we invite you to use the Qkr App that we use for electronic school payments.
Thank you for your consideration and generosity.
Sincerely,
Hannah, Nabila, William, Jemima, Ben, Emily, Matthew and Josh on behalf of the Unley Primary School Student Representative Council
A photo of the school in Dalousu Village
