The Schools Cultural Exchange Program was formulated to facilitate mutual insight, cross cultural understanding and racial & religious tolerance between young people from the Horn of Africa (HoA) communities and the broader Australia community.
The program was run in in partnership with Evans Intensive English Centre. Students from a HoA background from Evans IEC paired up with students from Narooma High School.
In May 2010, 16 students, 9 boys and 7 girls, ranging in ages from the ages of 12 – 18 travelled to Narooma on the South Coast and were hosted by students at the Narooma High School for the week. These students had arrived in Australia over the last couple of years from different parts of the HoA, primarily coming from refugee camps. Some of the kids had only been a couple of months in the country and levels of English therefore varied accordingly. Most (if not all) had never been to rural Australia.
They participated in the school activities, including Narooma High’s sports day, and in special excursions and events organised by the school & its community for them. The program achieved its objectives while the kids all had a wonderful time and insight into regional life in Australia. Some wonderful friendships were formed between the students of both schools and members of the Narooma community generally.
This program was kindly sponsored by Scanlon Foundation & James N Kirby Foundation.