Rotary Furniture Goodwill Program

This is an extension program of the Building Education Revolution making use of redundant furniture from the schools program by providing an opportunity for others.


The BER Program
The BER Prog ram has been set up to give advantage to the young people of Australia while stimulating the economy. The BER reaches every community in Australia and gives benefits to the local economy. But the program can have further benefits.

Redundant Furniture
There will be furniture replacements that will leave existing furniture that is currently in service available for other uses. Why trash that furniture and send off to recycling or worse still to landfill tips? This furniture can create its ow n mini BER – It can be sent to developing countries for further use as school desks and chairs. Many students in these countries have not been privileged enough to have a chair to sit on in their whole education experience. We collectively can make a difference!

Rotary Furniture Goodwill Program
It is proposed to pack the furniture and send it by sea to developing countries through an organization called Rotary.

How Will It Work?
The furniture will be taken from your school, packed into containers and shipped to foreign ports. From there it will be distributed to regions within the country and on to schools. Many of these schools are in remote areas and on islands in the Pacific.

The Donor School Role
Firstly, the school will assess and organize furniture to get the optimum quality and fit for the school. That will leave “redundant” furniture to be taken away from the school. Furniture removalists will come to the school, dismantle the furniture and pack it into shipping containers. This should cause little disruption to the school. The second part of this Goodwill Program is to build a bond with the recipient schools. It is Rotary’s wish to create goodwill between schools – Donor schools to Recipient schools. Rotary would like to create a wave of goodwill that has a relationship between students from each end of the process corresponding with each other. This communication will build understanding, peace and goodwill. The principals of schools, it is hoped, will embrace this philosophy and encourage the teachers and students to participate. Communication may be letters (snail mail) or electronic mail or any other way that the school sees fit. Stickers have been created to convey the message of goodwill. Rotary seeks the school’s support to place the stickers on the right hand top corner of the desk.

The Recipient School Role
The recipient school will be given the boost of furniture and the bonus of communication with the donor school. It is again hoped that we can enthuse the recipient school principal, staff and students to take on this program. By participation in the Goodwill Program education of students will be greatly enhanced.

Rotary Has a Role
The local Rotary clubs will be able to bring the schools together as they will be the link between the packing of containers, shipment and the receiving school. Rotarians will communicate the school’s name and contact details to the school at the other end of the chain. From here it is up to the schools to make contact and start the communication process happening.

Further Information
For any further information please contact: Graeme Boler -
e: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
m: 0410 228 543


Documents

 Rotary Furniture Goodwill Program - Final Report (April 2011) (308.35 kB)

BER Program - Presentation to Eastern Region Nov 2010 (1.38 MB)

Information for Proposed Exporters of Furniture (29 kB)

Leaflet to Principals (566.5 kB)

RACWS Committee Report – September 2010 (595.5 kB)

Media Release – The Hon Verity Firth MP, Minister for Education and Training (43.2 kB)

NSW and ACT Value News – August 2010 (2.35 MB)