East Perth’s Trinity College has partnered with the Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning Program (SAIL), to offer educational opportunities to Sudanese families of migrant and refugee background.
This year, one of Trinity College’s Year 7 Sudanese-Australian students will be benefiting from this partnership by becoming the recipient of an annual scholarship offered by the school. This will bring the total number of refugee students enrolled at Trinity College to five.
In November last year, Trinity College Headmaster Ivan Banks signed a Memorandum of Understanding with members of SAIL in order to give Sudanese-Australian students better learning opportunities
A volunteer-run, non-profit, secular organisation which provides free English support and community services to the Sudanese Australian community, SAIL offers tutoring to approximately 400 members of the Sudanese community and has a volunteer staff of around 300 people throughout Australia.
As an Edmund Rice School, Trinity College embraces the practices of Edmund Ignatius Rice – a profoundly spiritual man who used his considerable wealth to educate children facing socioeconomic barriers and “make a difference in their lives”.
“This philosophy is reflected in the Trinity College Foundation’s maxim “Assisting to educate the disadvantaged”.
When the Trinity College Foundation was approached by a representative of SAIL to ascertain whether a scholarship could be set up, the Foundation and the College both saw an opportunity to operate within the ethos of Edmund Rice and immediately agreed to the partnership. The scholarship is supported by the College and funded through the Trinity College Foundation.
Reflecting on these latest initiatives, Headmaster Ivan Banks expressed great satisfaction at seeing the school offer a Trinity Education to students who would not normally be able to afford it.
“We have had an extensive Indigenous program for many years and we are pleased to be extending this to support boys from families of diverse Sudanese backgrounds – including the Dinka, Nuer and Arabic-speaking communities,” he said.
“I am excited that we have signed this agreement with SAIL and look forward to an ongoing partnership with them,” he added.