Sept10 LOCAL RESIDENT SUPPORTING

Local Dayborite, Marie Tarrant is heading abroad as a volunteer this year.  One of the countries she’ll visit is Borneo doing wildlife survey work.

In the course of making arrangements for the trip a strange coincidence led Marie to try to raise funds for a couple of worthy causes that dove-tailed very neatly together.
Watching TV recently Marie was really impressed watching a programme about a not-for-profit association called ‘Australian Goodwill Bicycles Abroad’. The Australian public donates the bicycles. They are examined for safety, oiled, partly dismantled and stored before being loaded into containers and shipped to partners in developing countries.
Mark and Jenny who started the program had this to say about recycling bicycles “People have few options to dispose of unwanted bicycles. Most charitable organisations will not take bicycles due to new OHS laws and the general Australian population choosing to buy new budget priced bicycles. In our experience, people are pleased to see their bicycles going to a good cause, rather than being turned into scrap metal or sent for landfill. The comment we regularly receive is “We did not want to just throw the bicycle away when someone else can put I to good use’.
Less than a fortnight after seeing the TV program that impressed Marie so much she became acquainted with the ‘Borneo Child Aid society’ a Non-profit social NGO providing education for thousands of children who live in plantations and other remote areas far from schools in the Malaysian state Sabah on Borneo.
These children are currently without access to basic education because of distance, poverty or legal status.
Marie noted that the Borneo Child Aid Society involved in the educational opportunities happened to have on their wish list a wish of ‘300 bicycles’ for their teachers and some of the older kids so that they can access an education. Marie confirmed the need for the bicycles with the organisation, saw the opportunity to get involved in shipping some bikes over and set about raising funds ever since – with fundraising activities held in her workplace and some private donations the fundraising looks set to achieve a grand total of $2,000 but sadly this is only half the amount needed to ship a 40’ container holding 500 bicycles over to the project.
Can you help?  I’m now hoping that there may be opportunities for a sponsor or that some locals may want to make personal donations and we can meet the shortfall this way.  Maybe even local schools may want to get on board with fund raising activities ‘teachers helping teachers’.  If you would like to help please contact me directly.  I’ll be travelling as a volunteer from 8th October but will still access my emails and be working to continue to raise the necessary funds.
Marie Tarrant