BMRSG Helps – Two young people with so much to offer.

by Noeline Nagle

Last Tuesday I was delighted to catch up with this extraordinary young man. 5 years ago I paid for him to go to Little Athletics out of the Ocean 12 grant money. He is now the athletics champion of the Toongabbie Christian School. He has excelled academically and in sport . Now we have a delightful 16 year old with a SHEV visa.

His dad died in the war and he has such a special bond with his mum.

Multiculturalism

by Kate Blakeney

Following is a speech about ‘Multiculturalism’ given by Evanshka at her school – Giraween Public – about 3 weeks ago.

Evanshka is 9 years old. She had some assistance from her mother ( as do probably a third of all school kids in NSW) as well as her teacher with a bit of grammar and phrasing (and a little spelling). But all the ideas came from her and the writing – including the phrase commencing “and by the way!!”

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the diversity of many cultures in many regions of Australia.
Australia is an immigrant country- most people in Australia are immigrants. They come from many different countries and different ethnic groups. People have different languages, different educational backgrounds, different customs, different values, different games, different foods because they have come from many other regions of the world.

When people arrive in Australia they must learn to communicate with other people in English. New immigrants learn English and culture from Australian people or earlier immigrants around them.

The Australian Government has committed to, encourages and supports cultural diversity. Public schools have bi-lingual education programmes for new immigrant children. Children are more ready to accept different views and other values and behaviour of people from other countries.

Diversity affords students the chance to learn about other cultures, but also appreciate the ways their own cultural ideas affect their beliefs and helps minimise discrimination. We must never discriminate against people who come from different countries. This is VERY important because the person who comes from another country could have very positive thoughts and ideas.

The relationships in the Country of Australia are friendly and harmonious – and, by the way, people from different backgrounds can add richness and colour to the Country.

We learn from and understand each other more easily than before. We can eat different countries’ food and watch different countries’ song and dance performances.

Multiculturalism is good for society and people. We need to enhance and develop multiculturalism in our lives.

Cultural diversity accepts contributions from a wide variety of cultures whilst developing a new environment.

DOWNLOAD: Evanshka’s speech