By Robbo Bennetts | Project Manager
Dear Supporters,
As a volunteer organization run by people who are fully engaged in employment or child-rearing, we are unable to put energy into both running programs and fund-raising for programs. We operate on the smell of an oily rag, and what we do is very limited in a range of ways.
Desert2surf has awesome relationships with a number of remote communities in the Katherine area in the Northern Territory, and we have excellent connections with the surf industry on Victoria’s West Coast, which have enabled us to offer amazing experiences to very disadvantaged children for ten years now. However, we are running out of steam!
There are some seriously deserving people who we still want to bring down to Victoria, but right now that is looking increasingly unlikely.
One of the families that we are most connected with has just spent months living in tents (with other families) by the local billabong at Minyerri without toilets or showers or kitchens while their houses are being renovated (http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/displaced-minyerri-residents-forced-to-live-in-squalor-in-billabong-camps-after-housing-upgrade-fail/news-story/2f95879e5e20f2767602b73b3c05f86a). Three desert-2-surfers visited these families back in July during our last Trip North, taking kids from that encampment stand-up paddling at another Billabong 25km down the track. (One reason why we don’t SUP at the local billabong is because there is cultural shame attached to what would be a very public activity.) The little family group who we want to bring down next to Victoria were living in those tents.
All the best,
Desert2Surf
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