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Kids’ double Christmas
By Cpl Corinne Boer
Edition 1175, September 20, 2007 |
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MP on a mission: Cpl Steve Giuliani, 3 MP Coy, comes bearing gifts for the Mary McKillop Orphanage in Dili.
Photo by LS Kade Rogers |
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SOLDIERS from the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) distributed toys and equipment to an orphanage in Dili on August 25.
Excited children helped carry toys, bikes, educational material and furniture into the orphanage.
Musical instruments, including a piano, were the most popular items. A boy unwrapped a small guitar and started strumming a melody. The children grouped together and sang for the soldiers.
Maj Michael Dawson, in Timor-Leste as a UN liaison officer, said the donation stemmed from a charity cricket game.
“When we looked for a charity to support we thought about the various aspects of life in Timor that could improve,” maj Dawson said.
“We decided that the best way forward was to go with education for children because education is the future of Timor-Leste.
“We decided on the Mary McKillop Institute, which is a Catholic Church foundation. They support orphans and families who adopt orphans, and they also support schools right across Timor.”
The soldiers collected money and goods in Townsville from the community and their families.
They raised $6000, some of which has been used to build a toilet block at a remote school that Australian engineers built in 1999.
“When we first announced this initiative the children told the Catholic sisters that it was like Christmas for the second time,” Maj Dawson said. |
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