A parent, a priest, and a passionate seamstress working with a group of refugees from Bendigo have come together to provide Filipino students with school uniforms.
Second-hand uniforms, all 1,200 of them, from Bendigo's Girton Grammar Junior School have been donated to the Pangamihan Elementary School in the mountainous region of Cebu Island.
The boxes of uniforms arrived in the Philippines just a few days ago, much to the elation of the students who will soon be wearing them to school.
The project was coordinated by Girton Grammar school parent Kate Mahoney who teamed up with the Bendigo chapter of SisterWorks, a not-for-profit social enterprise based in Melbourne, to repurpose the uniforms.
"I had such a happy heart. I was absolutely thrilled given everything else that is going on in the world at the moment," Ms Mahoney said.
The other happy worker is SisterWorks manager Ginny Tan.
Her job is to empower female refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants — mainly from Karen, Afghan, and Sudanese communities in Bendigo — by teaching them new work skills.
But it was Bendigo priest Father Junray Rayna from St Kilian's Parish Church who helped facilitate the relationship in the first place.
Originally from the Philippines, he was overjoyed at the delivery of 14 "massive" boxes which also included sports uniforms, school bags, shoes and runners, and other items.
"I was very, very happy. They don't have uniforms at that school so finally those students can recognise themselves as part of that school," Father Junray said.
The committed parent and the concerned priest
The project began three years ago when the school decided to introduce a new uniform and phase out the old one.
"It's an absolute joy to see all of that stuff that could have just been sitting in the backs of peoples' cupboards or rubbish," Ms Mahoney said.
When she set up a second-hand uniform shop, combined with a chance meeting with Father Junray, the project was born.
A long-time supporter of the small, isolated Philippines school, Father Junray described it as humble with no running water and many of students from local farming families.
The money raised from the sale of the uniforms paid for the services of SisterWorks to spend two days a week over two terms at the school, sewing new labels over old ones.
"So they could proudly wear their own uniform with their own logo," Ms Mahoney said.
The passionate seamstress
Malaysian born Ms Tan said her love of sewing began after enrolling in a local sewing class, then finding a sewing machine at the tip, which she repaired.
She then went back for more, slowly building her collection.
"I just fell in love with sewing machines and I get so much pleasure from sewing," the seamstress said.
After donating some of the machines to her children's school and teaching them to sew, the trained accountant eventually went on to work at SisterWorks early this year.
"We've only got this one chance to do what we can. So if we can do something, let's do it now," Ms Tan said.
