HELP THE CHILDREN AT ISA KIDS PROJECT
Donation protected
There is a huge over-representation of Indigenous children in youth detention centres and in child safety and Mount Isa has the highest rate of domestic violence in QLD.
Have you ever seen a child in need and wished you could do something about it? Read on to see how we are putting smiles on these little faces and how you can help.
My name is Kelly McNamara and I am a qualified counsellor and have had many years experience in child care, youth work, working in schools and I am a foster carer. With the help of Renee Dyhr who is a Teacher and foster carer, we have started a volunteer program we call ISA KIDS PROJECT in Mount Isa QLD. We are doing this because our hearts are breaking every day as we see the struggles that remote Indigenous communities face as a result of inter-generational trauma.
We undertook a pilot project that has worked on a local scale. Breaking the cycle is possible with your help to expand local solutions to more children.
The program is designed to keep children out of the criminal justice system and re-engaging children in school and other healthy and positive activities. Engaging children in school doesn’t just give them the opportunity to be educated, it keeps them occupied and off the streets. It teaches social and emotional regulation skills. It gives exposure to multiple mentors which is invaluable. It helps children build confidence to be a part of community and provides access to healthy food and other resources. The activities I offer extend on and reinforce this.
I estimate there are hundreds of children not attending school in this town. There are children reaching the end of primary school who are still at prep level, without basic literacy and numeracy skills and disconnected from society. These children have communicated to me that they are committing crimes because they are hungry or bored.
I have personally seen some of these children face the choice of going to commit serious crimes on the streets or come with me. They chose to come with me instead.
These young people have many barriers to overcome.
*TRIGGER WARNING*
The following paragraphs contain accounts of the real issues including death and suicide that remote indigenous communities are facing right now.
I have permission to share these stories.
Some of these children come from families who are struggling with addiction to alcohol or serious chronic health conditions. Many families in the community struggle financially to provide for their children due to a lack of education, skills and confidence to gain employment. Some families desperately want their children to attend school and put in the effort, however they lack the skills to support this. Often these parents just don’t want to see their children upset when they resist school and therefore keep them home. Many people in our community do not have a drivers licence or access to a vehicle. Some children have had one or both parents incarcerated or missing.
Sadly, 12 of the children from this small part of the community have had their mothers pass away.
On Mother’s Day this year, many children tried to give me their Mother’s Day gifts they made at school. One child gave me her gift and said she was keeping the card she wrote to give to her mum. I asked her where her mum was and she answered “the cemetery.” I spent all of Mother’s Day going to Bunnings to get supplies and taking children the the cemetery to fix up their mothers graves.
One mother was a child I worked with over 15 years ago. I went to see her in hospital to say goodbye to her. She was too sick to speak or open her eyes. As I was about to leave she opened her eyes once and stared straight into my eyes. I could almost hear her thoughts saying “please look out for my son.” She closed her eyes again and never woke up. She passed away the next day. I was there when her son found out the news that she was gone. He came to my house and sat next to me having not said a word the whole time. I will never forget the sound of her sons quiet and broken emotional voice as he broke down and cried and said “I miss my mum”. He didn’t want to leave my house so he stayed with us while he grieved.
Another mother was my good friend. She drank so much alcohol that her liver finally gave in. We cared for her in her final weeks as her body slowly broke down. On the last day I saw her I had her 4 year old daughter with me. She had deteriorated to a point she didn’t look like the same person. She barely had the strength to speak, but when she saw me she yelled over and over “I want to go home!” I wished so much that I could pick her up out of that hospital bed and take her back to her land and her people to live out her last day. We had to leave as she begged me to take her as I could see the pain on her daughters face. That’s the last memory her 4 year old has of her for the rest of her life.
I stood at the funeral of another mother who suddenly passed away, leaving behind 5 children. I was there pushing the wheelchair of another Mother of 4 children who only had weeks to live herself. I put my hand on her shoulder and she grabbed my wrist and rested her head on my arm as she was crying for the death of her family and fearing the death of herself at the same time.
All of these mothers were only in their early 30’s.
The high rate of suicide in youth and adults in these remote communities is getting out of control and those left behind are continually mourning their loved ones who just couldn’t find a way to live in this society. I spoke to a member of the community and he pointed around the street at the locations of the incidents as he counted the number of people that had hung themselves. 9 people in one street. This person said “the children have seen them all. They talk about what it looked like. They talk about their faces and how their tongues were hanging out of their mouths.” A mother said “They have nightmares about it all the time. They threaten to kill themselves when they get upset.” They are learning that this is a normal way to deal with life’s problems.
One morning I went into the community to find children pretending to hang themselves from skipping ropes they had tied to the play equipment. As I unwrapped the rope that was tightly wound around one child’s neck and took the rope down, I listened to their stories. One child told me that he cut the rope his uncle was hanging from in a nearby tree. This is the point I knew I had to do something to help before things got any worse for my little friends. I needed to be there for them.
There is a shortage of housing in Mount Isa which leads to overcrowding, making it difficult for the children to sleep. I often see 4 children sharing a bed and they push themselves to wake up in the morning to go to school. There are many families sleeping under the bridge and in the riverbeds. Sometimes they break into buildings at night to find somewhere warm to sleep.
I frequently hear, “It’s the parents responsibility or fault.” We need to remember that some of these adults were these children too and the struggles get passed from generation to generation until we find a way to break the cycle.
This community cares a lot about their children and places a lot of value on family connection, sharing what they have with each other and being there for each other. There are so many people looking after other peoples children, trying to keep their family together.
I’ve asked the community what they need and they have asked for help and support.
There is inadequate support provided by local services. Although there are services that would provide some parts of the program, I was unsuccessful in finding a service that would take the full program on due to being full or their funding agreement not allowing for some age groups or activities. When I did try to step back and hand it over, the program fell apart and almost all of the children stopped attending school and some went to the streets and began engaging in crime.
We are not asking for hand-outs, rather a hand up. It’s about empowering people. Through this program I have seen the culture in this community around education and healthcare start to improve. This community is proud of their children going to school! They have now seen that it is possible! Although there has been an improvement, it’s going to take a long time before they can all do it on their own. The children never get something for nothing. If they want the rewards, they have to keep attending!
This program started in week 4 of term 1 and ran for 12 weeks.
I provided transport, food, uniforms, school bags, lunch boxes, shoes, clothes, support and anything children need to get them back to school. I also provide diversionary activities, “reward days” and access to sporting activities for all of the children with good attendance and improved behaviour.
By the end of the 12 week program we had the following results…
9 young people enrolled and still regularly attending.
4 young people with attendance below 30% regularly attending.
3 enrolment applications in waiting for an interview.
1 young person enrolled and attended regularly then dropped out. (He has come back to us now)
15 young people regularly attending reward days to keep their motivation and attendance up.
All of these children were not engaging in crime while in the program.
The most rewarding part of this program is seeing the smiles on their faces and hearing their laughter as they go out and have fun. Even if it’s only for small moments that they appear to be happy, living a life that other children get to live with families who have the money, skills and support that they don’t.
I’ve had amazing support from the community in Mount Isa and other communities. People have donated many new and second hand supplies and I have been so grateful and appreciative for the support, however the number of young people I am working with is continuing to grow rapidly. I am unable to keep up with the demands both financially and time wise. The children would love to choose their own clothes and shoes to wear so they can feel good about themselves. The cost of fuel, shoes and uniforms alone is not sustainable.
I have had to reduce the hours I can work to allow time to do this, causing a significant impact on my own families finances.
With your help, we can cover the cost of all of these things as well as food, clothes, incentives and activities to promote wellbeing and a better future. My goal is to have enough funds to buy a 12 seater bus to transport the children safely to school and activities.
If I got substantial funding I could do a lot more for this community.
These children are deserving of a chance to have an enriched life which in turn gives them the opportunity to give back.
Please help us out here? We need you!
You can follow our progress here on Facebook…
If you have trouble donating through GoFundMe then please message me for the account details.
Thank you for your support! You are changing lives!
Organizer
Kelly McNamara
Organizer
Ranken NT
