Progress in hardship

It is a well-documented fact that innovation and progress often come out of hardship.

Save the Children is the facilitating partner for the Communities for Children portfolio, a Department of Social Services stream of funding, in the East Kimberley region.

Five programs are up and running — in Kununurra, Warmun and Wyndham plus two new community partners across the Halls Creek shire, stretching out to the Tanami Desert.

Save the Children is in the tremendous position to be working with some exceptional community partner organisations, to include: the Wunan Foundation, the Mirima Language and Culture Centre, Gawooleng Yawoodeng Corporation, Warmun Community Inc, the Shire of Halls Creek, Purnululu Aboriginal Independent Community School and the Wyndham Early Learning Activity Centre.

Purnululu School in Frog Hollow Community has been providing amazing tri-lingual online learning material.

It is engaging, fresh and kid-safe. If you are not following them on social media, we believe you truly should.

A school of 50 children, from toddlers to Year 10, they stop at nothing to support the aspirations and dreams of a tiny, cohesive community.

When indigenous communities started initiating self-isolation to and from service centres at the end of March, Purnululu Aboriginal Independent School decided to set up its own miniature store.

We at Save the Children were in a fortunate position to access some additional resources to send grocery and toiletry items to assist with this.

Our Miriwoong families did not lag as they made the best of self-isolation and, supported by the team at Mirima Language Centre, used extended family time as a linguistic laboratory to embed, review and grow more of a good thing — the Miriwoong language.

The team threw some techno magic into the mix and a new, amazingly interactive Miriwoong language app is about to be released.

For kids, adults, locals, everyone.

Please look them up or call us, as their work is groundbreaking and multi award-winning.

If any of these programs sounds interesting to you, please call us on 9168 2300.

Save the Children Australia is a registered charity and donations of more than $2 attract a tax rebate.

Callan Hatchman is the Kimberley regional manager for Save the Children.