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Aim
Following on from the incredible success of our Pesach Appeal last year, we are continuing our support for the staff and volunteers at Djarragun College in Cairns. Therefore, we are aiming to double our contribution to the DJARRAGUN COLLEGE Breakfast program and raise $30,000 this year.

Please Donate now

View a short video about the Djarragun College Breakfast Program

How the money will be used
Most of us can not fully comprehend the conditions that many in our society live under on a day to day basis. For the students at Djarragun College, it is not uncommon for many of them to come to school without having had a proper breakfast or dinner the night before. It is therefore not surprising that many of the children have in the past displayed irrational behaviour and poor concentration, both of which can be linked to malnutrition. We want to help. Therefore all money raised will go directly to purchasing and preparing breakfast, lunch and morning tea for as many students as possible. Mazon Australia is the prinicple sponsor of this program (providing a grant of $15,500 last year), therefore the program's ongoing survival is currently reliant on our support.		 Djarragun Kids

Background to DJARRAGUN COLLEGE
Djarragun College is an Indigenous high school located just outside of Cairns. It caters for students from areas all over northern Queensland from grade one to “thirteen” (a post schooling year in which students can elect to return to school to study a Vocational certificate of their choice). The school, which currently has 445 students, has gone through an amazing transformation over the past 5 years. A key defining element of their change has been the establishment of a curriculum based on values education that has meaning to the indigenous student body.

Jean Illingworth, Principal of the school sums it up at follows:
“Committed and dedicated staff have worked hard to turn the appalling levels of literacy and numeracy around and have achieved more than a modicum of success. Students who could not read, could barely write their own names, and had absolutely no social skills whatsoever, have become competent readers and writers who are achieving sound educational outcomes. We run a Values Education programme across the school and incorporate the teaching of universal values through the medium of virtues such as generosity, kindness, compassion, courage, endurance, trust and honesty. A programme called Rock and Water gives dimension and stimulus to our Values Education programme and provides a language that students and staff alike use in class and on the sports’ field which in turn cements concepts learned through that programme.”
Background to the Breakfast Program
About 80% of the students come from extremely dysfunctional family backgrounds. Much of the ill health is due to poor nutrition or simply not eating enough. Many students arrive at school having not had breakfast, dinner the night before and often the only food they eat is when they come to school and get a ‘free lunch’. The school has a dream to be able to run a breakfast programme for all their day students. As soon as students arrive on the bus at school in the morning, they would usher them straight into the dining room for a healthy and nourishing breakfast. The long term consequences for a successful future do not look good for young people who constantly live on the edge of hunger or are so poorly malnourished that they cannot concentrate, have little energy and many become angry and display challenging behaviours. There is a wealth of research that has been done linking ADD, ADHD, lack of educational outcomes and criminality to poor nutrition.		 Djarragun Staff

Funding
For just $2:50 a day the College staff can feed students wholesome and nutritious meals by buying in bulk and cooking basic, tasty and satisfying meals. They currently have about 445 day students. Of this they have between 50 and 100 who seek free meals on a daily basis. This does not mean to say the rest of them who do not seek a free meal are well nourished or fed. On the contrary, the number who seek free food are usually those who are extremely hungry.

Amount
What this money could provide
$2,000 Provide four children with breakfast and lunch plus fruit for morning tea every day of the school year
$10,000 Provide twenty children with breakfast and lunch plus fruit for morning tea every day of the school year
$50,000 Provide 100 children with breakfast and lunch every day of the school year.
$100,000 Provide 200 students with breakfast and lunch plus fruit for morning tea every day.
"I believe that by providing nutritious food on a daily basis for students the impact would be instant and obvious. The educational outcomes would be improved across the board and students would be more able to ward off viruses instead of succumbing to every single one that does the rounds. This would mean better attendance at school. Hopefully students would not indulge in so much junk food if they are better nourished. Currently once a fortnight when various benefits are paid, students indulge in fast food junk that is satisfying and filling for a couple of days and then back to nothing when the money runs out." Jean Illingworth, Principal Djarragun Kids

Please help us raise money to provide nutritious meals forr the children of Djarragun College by donating now
all donations over $2 are tax-deductible

For more information contact Nick Seemann, nick.seemann@mazon.org.au