MENTORING BOARDING KIDS

We continued throughout 2017 to provide support to Kowanyama kids who are out at boarding school.

Sticking it out at boarding school can be really tough for these remote kids and having a ‘family-like’ environment where they know people who know them and where they come from - to go to on weekends – can make a real difference.

We aim to provide as much mentoring support as possible, often working closely wth boarding schools. this can include career guidance, help with schoolwork, someone to talk to, and leadership development. so often we find that if it wasnt for that caring support many more of these kids would 'fall through the gaps'.

COLBI PROGRAM

What a wonderful end to the year with some more Kowanyama students graduating high school including a couple of our COLBI support program recipients. And it was exciting to see Shekia graduate this year when she also 'graduated' as a 'senior camp leader' after volunteering and training for several years as a junior leader.

All of the kids who graduated this year had also been regulars at our holiday programs and/or youth groups over the years as 'littlies' - so wonderful to see them growing up. Our hope is that we will see a larger proportion finish successfully like this in future. Both of our COLBI recipients from 2017 are currently working or in training.

SUPPORT

With the generous support of Cairns Floral Supplies we were able to provide a range of beautiful silk flowers to be used at the cemetery and church for the memorial of the tragic accident in Oct 2016 that took a life and injured many others and deeply affected the community.

Hinterland Aviation also continued to generously support us assisting with flights especially for our Leadership camp.

Rosanna Christian Church continues to send us regular donations that support our work.

Community Demonstration Garden Project

We were approached in 2017 by RISE (formerly Jobfind) who wanted their work program participants to get involved in the demonstration vegetable garden. This was a great chance for a partnership and we offered to provide training from our volunteers on all aspects of the garden.

This occurred a couple of times over second half of 2017 and formed the foundation for our 2018 project ( more info to come).

Kowanyama Youth mentoring trip

July school holidays was a great opportunity to take some of the kids we mentor at boarding school out on country for some holiday fun and leadership mentoring. Had some great talks about relevant issues, helped the boys get some wallaby and pig, taught the boys how to cook their bush tucker with some healthy greens from the community garden and even better the boys got to show off their skills and teach us  a few things too like skinning a wallaby.

PRIMARY BOARDING

Four primary kids went well at Tarzali primary boarding in 2017 and came back ready for a great year after their Christmas holidays with their families in community. They made their families, communities and OTK proud with their magnificent behavious and efforts at school gaining many awards.

What did the teachers at Malanda Primary think of the Kowie primary boarding kids in 2017?? These are some of the comments they emailed with the names taken out.

"He has been an absolute pleasure to have with us and really brought something special to the class."

"It has been an absolute pleasure to teach the boys this year, they are wonderful kids."

"He has moved 6 reading levels in one year - absolutely amazing effort!"

"He is a fabulous boy! I've thoroughly enjoyed teaching him this year!!!!"

Congratulations to one of our founding members and long term volunteers Liz and her husband Joel who have welcomed their first child.

CONTRIBUTE

Please consider looking at ways you can contribute and assist in our programs that are 100% volunteer run and with no government funding. You can donate through our website www.otk.org.au or contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to find out how to donate directly via bank deposit.

We also wanted to let you know about an awesome new way you can donate to Out there kowanyama at no cost to you, using the Out there kowanyama Easy Fundraiser.

We’ve partnered with SHOPNATE to give you a new online shopping extension called Easy Fundraiser, which you can install.

Once you’ve got one for your browser, anytime youdo your online shopping Out there kowanyama will receive a donation from the retailers that support the scheme (a bar will appear on the screen to confirm the donation). When you make a purchase, they make a donation – at no cost to you.