Donations in Kind recycles school kits for Vanuatu children Island support: Rotary's Donations in Kind program member Brian Goldstraw sends medical and educational equipment to developing countries. Exercise books were so scarce in Vanuatu schools that students had to rub out their work and use the same book, again and again, for the entire six years of primary school. That situation continued until relatively recently, when volunteers from Rotary's Donations in Kind program stepped in to help. As a result, one of the program's key people in Canberra, Brian Goldstraw spends a lot of time surrounded by second-hand school desks, crutches and hospital beds. Frankly, you'd be amazed at what he finds a use for. His work with Donations in Kind results in tonnes of surplus educational and medical equipment from Australia being sent to developing countries. This means he regularly drives his ute to schools and hospitals around the ACT, picking up donated equipment. "We are looking for equipment to send overseas, mainly educational and medical equipment which has been superseded in Australia but is perfectly serviceable," he says. This could be books from schools that are no longer needed but are still in good condition, and desks and chairs. We collect hospital beds, crutches, boots to protect injured feet, over-bed tables, walking frames and wheelchairs. A while ago we were getting a fair number of beds from nursing homes after the change in regulations meant manuallyoperated, wind-up bends were replaced by electrically operated beds. The donated items from the ACT and NSW are packed into containers at a Rotary warehouse at Minchinbury in western Sydney. Mr Goldstraw, who is retired after a career with Telstra, is district chairman for the Rotary Australia World Community Service. "We have a regional meeting at our warehouse [in Sydney] every quarter so I usually take a trailerload of stuff up when I go to the meeting," he says. His club, the Rotary Club of Hall, runs the very popular Capital Region Farmers Market at EPIC on Saturday mornings. The revenue from the farmers markets allows the Hall Rotary Club to pursue its community projects, both local and overseas. It costs between $6000 and $10,000 to send each containerload of recycled materials overseas. "The cost is not so much based on the distance but whether the destination is on a main shipping route or not," Mr Goldstraw says. If so, you've got to offload it and arrange transport, either on a local ship or by road to the final destination. Mr Goldstraw has recently returned from Tanna Island in Vanuatu where Rotarians installed solar power and low voltage computers at a local school, as well as providing training to the teachers on their use. The Donations in Kind Sydney warehouse which collects from the ACT and most of Sydney is run by Miriam Jacka. Several years ago she discovered resources were so scant in Vanuatu that primary school pupils had to rub out their work and reuse their exercise books. She was so appalled to hear this, she decided to do something about it. As a result, she has devoted more than a decade helping people in that nation, on Australia's doorstop. She has spent thousands of dollars making trips to Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu's largest island, which is a 50-minute flight north of the capital, Vila. There, she distributes stationery supplies to schools and takes part in construction projects. The output of Rotary's small warehouse in Western Sydney is impressive - an average of 25 containers of surplus medical and educational equipment sent to developing countries each year. "The warehouse is a collection point for a lot of unwanted goods in health and education and health, mainly crutches, hospital beds, mattresses, school desks and chairs, library books and class readers," Ms Jacka says. "It will amaze you to learn how many different countries we send supplies to and how many different projects Rotary has in some countries," she says. And this international aid effort is done without state or federal government help. "It would be good if we could have some money towards shipping the containers," she says. I know if we don't take the hospital beds, desks and chairs, they will be landfilled and I know that they would be appreciated so much in another country because they have nothing. Ms Jacka found out about the lack of resources when she first went to Vanuatu 13 years ago. "I was told by the CEO of Vila Central Hospital that when she went to school, they had only a third of an exercise book each, half a lead pencil and a rubber, that's all they were given," she says. When that one third of an exercise book was filled, they rubbed it all out and started again and that had to last them from first class to sixth class. So we decided to do an educational kit which all fits in a Ziploc bag - three exercise books, three lead pencils, two biros, half a dozen coloured pencils, ruler, sharpener and rubber. Quite often we find bags they can put them in and which doubles up as a school bag. When I first started going to Vanuatu I was given the project and they said they needed about 15,000 kits for all the children who go to school. So I think that's benefited the education system in Vanuatu and I feel all developing countries would be the same. Ms Jacka has just returned from Espiritu Santo where she was helping build a classroom. Just before she went, she shipped another 20-foot container of donated materials, which cost $4800 in freight. "Freight to Vanuatu is expensive because the vessel goes once a month but to the Philippines it's a lot cheaper - you can get a 40 foot container there for about $3000 because the shipping company goes there weekly," she says. The money for sea freight comes from the fund-raising efforts of Rotary clubs in the ACT and NSW. "We go around to Rotary Clubs and talk about Donations in Kind and hopefully some of them will pick up the project or feel sorry for us and give us a donation," she says. The work never stops and this weekend, Rotary Club members will be at the warehouse packing another container for PNG. Twitter: @rosspeakeCT