Press Clippings 7

Profile of a community project

Children of all ages running around chasing each other and grabbing your hand along the way, a group of adults talking, clusters of young people waiting patiently whilst more children noisily run around each other trying to find a spare lap to sit on.

You could be right in thinking that it was a congregation waiting for Mass on a Sunday morning. Except, it’s Saturday. And this gathering aren’t waiting for communion. In fact, most aren't even Christian. They’re here as part of SAIL.

The SAIL (Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning) program is a volunteer run, non-profit program which provides English-as-a-Second-Language tutors to the southern Sudanese refugee community in the western suburbs. It began with a plea from community leaders for Sudanese children to be provided with language assistance outside of school.

The call reached the Melbourne University Student Union and it’s coordinators, Matthew Albert (a 2002 Student Ambassador) and Anna-Grace Hopkins (both University of Melbourne students) began to develop this program originally, as part of the University’s CommUNIty program.

Initially starting with seven students, one tutor volunteered her time to tutor English to young children within the Sudanese community, it wasn’t long before word spread and attendance of tutors increased. The SAIL program now has over 80 tutors, 2 librarians, 3 lunch makers, 2 administrators and has subsequently been able to expand it’s service to high-school students and adults within the Sudanese community.

As it continues to grow in size, it still to provides an invaluable source of support for community members as well as being an ideal place for cultural exchange

The tutoring is informal and tutors work one-on-one or with small groups of students helping with a variety of activities designed to improve reading, writing, spelling, pronunciation, comprehension, and perhaps most importantly, confidence. For this reason, commitment from volunteers is crucial.

Most of the SAIL participants have, like many refugees, experienced trauma and war. Establishing rapport and trust is the first step towards what the SAIL program is trying to achieve. SAIL not only provides a key to the door of Australian society, it is also mentoring a new generation of Australians.

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