Today I thought for something different I would take you for a moment away from your Laptop in to another country not all that far from here and share something’s that may change the way you think about your own life. Three years ago I was deployed to the Solomon Islands as part of a Regional Assistance Mission as this third world country was being run in to the ground by greedy leaders who only looked after their own interests. Most people at the moment in Australia all have a lot to say about the Government, let me just say this, it could be so much worse the last 7 Prime Ministers of the Solomon Islands have all been jailed for crimes they greedily took part in which saw the country remain poor and the children mostly uneducated.
Education in the Solomon Islands is not compulsory and only 60% of children have access to primary education. The Government continue to make little effort to include education in the budget, they don’t even pay the teachers, can you believe that? Here is a picture of me in a classroom at a primary school we visited. There were only a handful of children this day as their mode of transport is their bare feet, if it rains school is cancelled, it rains for 6 months of the year, this was a rainy day. Call the kids to the computer show them and tell them how lucky they are to live in Australia and how lucky they are to go to school!
We often visited schools and gave them pencils and paper to use as they have so little, most of the kids don’t have clothes let alone school uniforms, if they are lucky enough to have a uniform chances are they don’t have shoes. Could you imagine your kids going to primary school without books or not bringing home origami they made in Japanese, or a painting they made in Art? So tomorrow morning when the kids are complaining that they don’t want to go to school, or they want two LCMs, or someone else in the class has a Buzz Lightyear school bag and it’s not fair, drag them over to the computer and show them just how lucky they really are to have what they have. We really are living in the best country in the world, I can say that as I have visited 15 different countries and Australia is just an amazing place, I can understand why all the immigrants are desperate to get in here. Don’t take what we have for granted, don’t let the kids take it for granted, take a deep breath tomorrow morning when you are elbow deep in school bags, lunch boxes and shoe laces and just think for a moment just how lucky you and our kids are!
Renee
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