MEGT blog

English language teacher leads fund raising for Indonesian school

MEGT people raised funds for much needed English text books for an Indonesian school. This began when Nicola Gray, Director of studies at Ability English’s Melbourne campus, spent her recent holidays as a volunteer English language teacher on beautiful Gili Trawangan Isle, near Lombok in Indonesia. The school had only one English language text book per primary class.

On return, Nicola determined to raise funds for more English text books for her former students. David Windridge, CEO of MEGT (Australia) Ltd generously offered that MEGT would match $ for $ whatever amount was raised by our people.

Group effort from MEGT Education

And what could be a more Australian way to raise the necessary money to buy the text books than a barbecue? Nicola organised a sausage sizzle for people from all MEGT departments on a sunny Thursday in early February on the balcony of MEGT Institute’s Melbourne City Campus. Folk attended from across our educational organisation, including Ability English, MEGT Institute, Workforce Planning, the Australian Apprenticeship Centre, Finance, IT and Facilities.

Says Nicola Gray, “It was great to meet the challenge of raising funds for the books to help the children in Indonesia. A very real side benefit was the enjoyment of socialising with our colleagues, comparing notes about what everyone in our widespread organisation does.”

With MEGT matching the money raised by the get-together, sufficient funds were raised to provide the much needed 120 books.

Because international tourism is vital to Gili Trawangan’s economy, it is important to its children’s future to speak international languages, especially English. The text books will help ensure the children will, in time, secure worthwhile jobs.

The students and teachers of Gili Trawangan’s primary school have sent a message thanking Nicola and MEGT for their books.