Recycling for Refugees

“What are you doing,” asks Margot.

Counting cans. Wanna help? 

Yes, is her reply, and she joins our team with her friend Bodhi, and collects handfuls of cans – three or four at a time – as we sort the materials, then she taps two glass bottles together, enjoys the sound – clink, clink, clink – and she’s head down, bum up, hitching up her skirt, putting the plastic here, aluminium there, working with others, doing the task at hand.

“This is fun,” I hear her say, to nobody in particular. 

And it was, and now the job is done; the money has been raised, and the Afghan family of five children and their widowed mother have arrived, and they’ve started their new life in a house we’ve set up for them in Dandenong.

Thank you to all in the SKiPPS community who have helped make this happen. 

My last counting session with the children was smaller than usual, but no less rewarding and enjoyable. 

“We’ve been doing really well, but I feel like we’ve had better weeks,” said Jo Jo – a regular and valued contributor – before we started. And he was right, and this was interesting to me because his mind was working in volumes – he could estimate the value of collection, by its size. 

Jo Jo and Vinnie joined, and Leo came along at the end, and the two girls helped, and we spilled out the contents of the two boxes and got to work and counted 220 aluminium cans (counting in multiples of two), 70 plastic bottles, and 47 glass bottles. Then we did the addition – 337 – and with pen and paper worked out the value, with each item worth 10c. 

10 cans = $1. 100 cans = $10. So, 300 cans are worth what? Plus, the 37 cans, how much are they worth?

Last week I made the last transfer of 10c container deposit scheme items from SKiPPS into our fundraising group’s bank account - $33.70 – but the worth of this initiative was in far more than the dollars and cents.

Hopefully, it was in little conversations started around so many kitchen tables; in a shared pursuit, a collective effort; in maths equations, in numeracy; in a lunchtime activity offered to all children; in social inclusion; and learned patterns of behaviour; maybe in new words like “aluminium” and “refugee” introduced into a child’s lexicon; in the tactility and fine motor skills of the task; the discipline of working collaboratively in small and large groups; in the novelty and spectacle of what we did; in the application of recycling, within families, as a community; in the visual stimulation and aesthetic of the two playground boxes made for the school; in ideas it may have stimulated; in the routine of each Wednesday, the counting day; in the example it set; in the sense of purpose and achievement.

And also, this: in showing the children the joy and pleasure of giving, and of caring (for the environment, for others) and how it can be so much fun!

Many thanks to Neil and Allison for allowing me to run this initiative through your school community, and to all who filled the boxes with containers, and all the children who sorted and counted them. I hope it was an activity they might always remember.

The lunchtimes they counted cans!

Also, to the beautiful SKiPPS parents who took it upon themselves to make donations to our group’s tax deductible fundraising account, and offer such kind-hearted messages of support. The generosity was in the donation, but also in the encouragement and acknowledgement. It made my heart skip, it made it all worthwhile, this knowing that others were interested in what I was doing, and gave this help.

Thank you to Lucy Saliba, the Daly family, Liddeaux family, Turner family, Barbuto family, Cotter family, Rachel Kennedy and Saunders family (and geez, if there’s anyone I’ve missed, please let me know!) for their kindness, their support.

Also, in response to a Facebook post of mine about enrolling a 10-year-old girl from the Afghan family in a local primary school in Dandenong – and the needs of a low socio-economic community in Melbourne with a large cohort of newly-arrived citizens – one incredibly generous SKiPPS family have donated $1000 that I’ll spread equally at two primary schools in Dandenong. This money will go directly to buying school clothes for children whose parents cannot afford them. 

Here is a beauty of giving: of supporting a larger local community that will help support the Afghan family our group – and so many at SKiPPS – have helped support. We should never forget how fortunate we are to live in Melbourne, because ours is a city – a community – with so much civility, so accepting of others, where there’s so much kindness and care if you go looking for it.

On a personal note, I’ve been laid low with a virus and have a rental housing crisis I need to resolve (which I have the capacity to do), so have been unable as yet to meet the Afghan family. Others in our group have been doing all the time-consuming work of assisting them to settle in and find their feet. Once I’m back on my feet, I’ll be out at Dandenong, doing my bit.

In a few weeks’ I’ll send a final update, a report from Dandenong, from the two school communities who’ll benefit directly from the generosity of a SKiPPS family. 

In the meantime, I’ll leave the collection boxes at the school, and Allison has kindly offered to oversee the gathering (I’ll still volunteer to collect and process the items, and I’ll transfer the money to Allison), but please know future funds will no longer go to the refugee cause. In time, I’ll ‘rebrand’ the boxes to ‘Recycling for Good Stuff’.

I’ve discussed with a few at SKiPPS how I would like these funds to go toward local projects that directly benefit your school community. But ultimately, I’m keen for the children to decide. Give them agency. In time, I’d like to pitch a proposal to them. I hope they think it’s a good idea. 

Also, if any are interested, the chook house we built last year was featured last week in the ABC’s Organic Gardener magazine! The highlight of the spread are the exquisite photos of the children taken by SKiPPS mum Bec Walton. I’m still trying to find time to edit the stunning film footage taken by SKiPPS dad Mat Gdanitz, and Poppy and Katya. If any have access to any local film grants, that might focus the mind, and speed up the process!

All good things, they take time. 

Like raising money, 10 cents at a time.

Dugald Jellie