One example is the Emmanuel College Alternative Schoolies program - a significant initiative running since 2013. It provides a unique opportunity for senior students to travel overseas at the end of the school year and immerse themselves in another culture while serving and learning from a small community. Emmanuel College has established an ongoing relationship with the people of Ataúro Island, East Timor, and has built a connection with the local village school. This has been a life-changing experience for the students who have taken part.
With the trip currently unable to run, two members of our College community have gone to great lengths to ensure that the relationship between the College and the people of Ataúro Island remains strong. Emmanuel’s 9@RICE Program Coordinator, James Laidler, along with his wife Clare Batten, have been instrumental in developing Emmanuel’s Schoolies program. “How can we greater support this community?” was one of the questions Clare asked in the early stage of the program and she asked herself this question again when COVID affected the region.
Without being able to transport the laptop bags how were these women going to be able to send their kids to schools or even provide enough food to eat?
The Island, home to a small fishing community that lives on a subsistence economy, is located forty kilometres off the coast of Dili. Aside from fishing, the one employer on Ataúro is the Boneca de Ataúro Cooperative, which employs 68 women in making handcrafted items. The women earn about USD $120 per month.
“It took a couple of years for the idea of the Bonecas producing the laptop covers (for some 1,500 Emmanuel College laptops) to come to fruition,” says Clare. “The women developed three different prototypes to meet the requirements needed to provide sufficient protection for the computers, with adequate padding and zips. They needed to completely redesign the way they were made.”
When the first consignments of the unique and colourful laptop covers were produced they were transported back by each student on the trip bringing back 20 bags each in their luggage, but when COVID hit and the trips were cancelled, transportation posed a problem. “It was difficult to find a freight company,” says Clare. “The first company we approached wanted $9,000 just to get them to Darwin. Without being able to transport the laptop bags how were these women going to be able to send their kids to schools or even provide enough food to eat?” says Clare. “The bags had already been made and had just been sitting there since the end of 2020.”
Clare and James were determined to find a solution, approaching a number of community groups such as Rotary to see if they could assist. Clare also contacted expats she thought would have connections and even Timor Leste’s former ambassador to Australia, who did come up with an idea, but this took a further five months.
In the meantime, floods devastated Timor Leste in early April. Torrential rain caused severe flash flooding, landslides, and destruction. Heavy rainfall from Cyclone Seroja had been pelting Dili for a week before the once-in-50-years flood. Damage has been estimated at more than USD $100 million, but the longer-term effects will be seen among the traumatised and vulnerable victims.
The Boneca Cooperative’s shop was flooded and the laptop bags were semi-submerged. The women unpacked the boxes and thoroughly dried all 450 of the bags in the street before repackaging.
The laptop bags finally completed their 3,758 kilometre journey to Warrnambool, arriving on the first day of the August lockdown. We thank Clare and James for their passion and perseverance in maintaining this international friendship and look forward to resuming the Schoolies program as soon as possible.
