A new school will open this year at Chea, in the Solomon Islands thanks to the generosity of Pambula Public School students and parents and the fundraising efforts of the Pambula Buccaneers AFL team.
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However the driving force behind the new school has been a Wolumla couple, Ross and Ann Cooper who have been regular visitors to the islands over the years.
We started going to the Solomon Islands in 2011 and it came obvious that the schools were lacking basic resources. We saw students sharing pencils, Mr Cooper said.
My wife was still teaching then and when we went there in 2011 she couldnt get over how limited the resources were.
He then enlisted the support of Pambula Public School through its highly popular International Day and associated food fair and from 2012 and 2013 events the proceeds from International Day were directed to helping schools in the Solomon Islands.
Resources were purchased for schools at Peava, Kato Kato and Chubokopi.
In 2014 the village of Chea wanted to build its own school because the kindy kids which were the under fives, were having to paddle dugout canoes for over an hour to get to nearest school, Mr Cooper explained.
In 2014 the proceeds of the International Day were all directed to the school building and the following year the Pambula Buccaneers came on board along with other private donors.
We put in close to Solomon $30,000 which was a substantial portion of the cost of the building, Mr Cooper said.
Building work started in 2014 and this year the top floor will open for the kindy kids and then work will continue on the lower section which will be another two classrooms.
We have a contact in the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands and the money is handled through the bank, he said.
The money has been used to pay for local labour while local people have cut and provided the timber. Already more money has been raised towards work on the bottom storey. We go there once a year for about eight to 10 weeks and Ann does some teaching while she is there, Mr Cooper said.
But the couple is very grateful for the support of the Pambula community.
Without the help of the Buccaneers and the wonderful support of the Pambula Public School students, parents and carers staff and families, we would not have been able to achieve this. In the Buccaneers Andrew Wright, who is also the school counsellor at Pambula, has been instrumental in helping to achieve the building through the Buccaneers fundraising, Mr Cooper said.
