Children from the New Guinea highlands give the thumbs up as a thank you for resources donated from NSW schools.

Quest to fill 2000 boxes with primary resources

By Jim Levy

A charity venture hopes to create a 'school in a box'.

With the help of the public schools of NSW two 40-foot containers with more than $100,000 of resources were sent to the highlands of Papua New Guinea earlier this year. My sister Gayle and I returned to our hometown of Mt Hagen in September to ensure the resources were there and distributed to the district. They were most appreciated and we have come back with renewed enthusiasm.

The Levy family, with the aid of Peel Valley Lions and 1st Light Rotary, has purchased a 20-foot container and wants to 'fill it with a primary school'. We are planning to resource a public community school in the Nebyler Valley near Mt Hagen.

We have the furniture and are looking for donations of new and good quality redundant resources from primary schools. We want exercise books, pencils, pens, paper, paints, crayons, readers, library books and any other useful primary equipment.

If you can pack them tightly in paper boxes -- 2000 boxes is our aim -- and get them to Farrer, we can ship them down to Sydney where the container is.

We also need further help to pay for the shipping costs to Papua New Guinea.

Contact Jim Levy at Farrer Memorial Agricultural HS, by phone on 0413 077 571 or by email at james.levy@det.nsw.edu.au. Jim Levy teaches at Farrer Memorial Agricultural HS

For further information

November 2007 contents