WORLD YOUTH INTERNATIONAL

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (15:42): My grievance today follows on from those of the 15^th and 16^th of this month, when I was talking about World Youth International. I had just begun talking about Matt and Amelia. Matt is a schoolteacher. He had 60 pupils in his class, but only had 20 textbooks to share amongst them. The syllabus he had to teach was strictly controlled, following the textbook rigidly.

Lessons are conducted in English, even though many of the children do not have English even as a second language, which has obvious difficulties. Students are tested on the syllabus regularly and if they fail cannot progress up through the grades. This means, of course, that if they fall behind at any stage through sickness or if for some other family reason they cannot attend school, it is very hard for them to catch up.

Senior students cannot access university, even if they pass their exams, unless they are computer literate, but there are only two computers in the whole community of Mutumbu and no local person was qualified to teach them at that stage. Matt also spent much of his free time teaching computer skills to four boys who wanted to go to university. He also took time to teach two of the community leaders so they could sustain the program after he left. It makes my tummy turn a bit, but in return they taught him how to kill chickens and skin and spit roasted goat, which I did not want them to go into more detail about.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan: Delicious!

Mrs GERAGHTY: Yes, I am sure the member for Stuart would be much better at it than me. He also bought the community two more computers out of his fundraising money. In their final months in Mutumbu, responding to a need identified by the community, Matt and Amelia refurbished an old building, making it into a community library. They cemented the floor and walls, painted and built bookshelves, bought books and painted a mural of a map of the world on one of the walls, as the people in that community have little concept of their place in Africa, let alone in the world. The community was quite thrilled with their building. When they left the children were still getting used to all the books, but because they were so enthusiastic they really appreciated the effort.

World Youth International is a well-organised, not-for-profit, non-religious group offering amazing opportunities for young Australians to change the lives of whole communities in poverty—particularly poverty-stricken areas—and at the same time for those young people who attend to change their own lives forever. As South Australians we should be very proud of these young people. Kate, Matt and Amelia—I know all three—are amazing young people. Kate is now back from her second trip. She returned on Saturday and starts university on Tuesday. She is the most amazing young woman. These young people are really and truly global citizens.

We need to value the new skills learnt, the experiences and the maturity that they now offer Australia. I commend the work of this generation Y group to the house. Many times we, perhaps, are not all that complimentary about them, but the value of having these three young people go to Africa to share their skills and experience is a wonderful thing. I encourage more young people, if they have the opportunity, to take that step because they will also learn a great deal from it and they will contribute a whole lot more.