In small townships like Collinsville and Cannonvale in the Bowen region of Queensland, there are few options for buying books. As a result, in many homes there are no books at all. Over the past two years, however, that has been slowly changing.
When Vivian Mook, Manager of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Wellbeing Program at the Girudala Community Cooperative Ltd first heard about the ILF Book Supply, she was tempted to set up a reading corner in the office. But then she thought “outside the box” and realised it would be far better for the books to be used where families lived.
“I wanted to plant the seed of reading in the home,” she explains.
Working one-on-one in a parenting program, Vivian models reading to young children with the parents and families.
Knowing that it’s never too early to introduce books to babies, Vivian gifts books from the ILF Book Supply when a new baby is born into a family she’s working with. There’s usually a flow-on effect, with older siblings loving the books too, and often chatting about them.
“There’s no way we could afford to buy books from our budget, so getting these books is really important to us and the work we do, and very much appreciated.”
IMPORTANT: No images were available from Girudala Community Cooperative Ltd. Image above is from Milikapiti School on Melville Island who also receive books from our Book Supply program.
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