Queensland’s heart and sole charity that started with school shoes

Nine years ago Australia was finally waking up to the toll family violence takes on society, but it was four passionate and dedicated Queenslanders who heard a cry for help and decided to answer it.

It all started with shoes.

You forget how important shoes are to school kids. Private or public, it’s that one part of the school outfit where the students’ style becomes a ‘choice’. Shoes with the small heel, the soles that light up, laces, no laces, a pair of Jordans versus Nike Airs, or the ones with the ball that pops out beneath so they can roll their way to class.

Shoes are what first inspired the then Courier-Mail journalist Kathleen Noonan to write about students struggling to fit in at school after they had fled abusive homes. Staying in a domestic violence shelter, attending a new school with not-quite the right uniform, they were targeted by bullies. They were the ones who never had time to pack their things, who suddenly arrived at a shelter with nothing but the clothes on their back.

It was 2013, Australia was riding the mining boom and the Newstart Allowance had controversially just replaced the Parenting Payment scheme, forcing tens of thousands of single parents into tougher circumstances, regardless of mental health problems, injuries or homelessness. This inequity angered columnist Kathleen Noonan.

“I had been at a meeting about female homelessness in Queensland, hearing how children in DV shelters attended school in wrong uniforms and were bullied, because they stood out. Imagine that everyday incidental trauma on top of trauma. Of course, they didn’t want to return to school, were unhappy and sometimes, mothers returned to the violent perpetrator,” Ms Noonan said.

“I was appalled that in this prosperous country, on the back of a prolonged mining boom, no one – no government department, no politician, no company – had fixed this.’’

So, she turned her Saturday morning column about shoes into a callout, in the hope of lightening the financial burden for women by simply providing extra school shoes to the state’s DV shelters, reaching the more than 3000 children – newborns to Year 12 students – who spend time in them.

It was one of Kathleen Noonan's articles her in regular Saturday column that inspired the Zephyr journey.

When she later found out how Zephyr Education took off – founded by Isabella and husband David Bevan, Carmel Martin and husband Terry – she was blown away.

The charity was built with a core purpose to help children whose lives and education have been disrupted get back to school as quickly as possible by supplying, or paying for, school uniforms and shoes, textbooks and stationery, school bags, computers and all other school essentials.

“Australians are craving authenticity and leadership, people who do what they say, kindness and compassion. I’m not surprised good people are drawn to them.”

“Zephyr is one of Queensland’s great success stories. They’ve grown to take in the DV shelters of West Australia and Tasmania. It’s an infrastructure project as important as any damn dam. It’s building lives, rebuilding the human economy. It shows us what’s possible when we realise we live in a society, not just an economy.

“It came at the same time Australia was waking up to the toll family violence takes on society, when Dame Quentin Bryce was heading the task force that produced the Not Now, Not Ever report. Zephyr’s early intervention in children’s lives saves this country millions of dollars later on. It’s about preventing generations of broken people. Instead of having ambulances at the foot of the cliff, it’s putting guard rails at the top.’’

Over the years, Isabella, Carmel, David and Terry – and their team of volunteers – worked out of their garage, creating tailored school packs to send to children at 133 Queensland DV services – including 23 indigenous shelters and one immigrant women’s shelter -who were starting over with nothing.

Zephyr now includes 19 shelters in West Australia and all of Tasmania’s 7 shelters, somehow conquering that logistic challenge.

That garage would become the home of Zephyr Education Inc, a heart-and-soul charity built on an army of dedicated volunteers whose sole mission is to help children get back to school with all the necessary tools under their belts. And the shoes to carry on.

That’s the funny thing about shoes, they help us to keep moving forward. One step at a time.

Through its fundraising, Zephyr has taken the conversation about domestic violence into corporate boardrooms, investor meetings and even bridge clubs. They have been a part of filling the gap where there used to be silence.

Nine years after Kathleen Noonan’s first article about shoes, the Zephyr story comes full circle with the podcast Zephyr: How light gets in presented by Hedley Thomas.

“As a journalist, you are privileged to report on events, all over the world, to have a platform, to bang on about things,” Ms Noonan said.

“As any reporter knows, the story changes as soon as the words are printed. The reader takes those words and makes them their own. I’m thrilled to have played a small part in this story, which continues to be told so well in Hedley Thomas’s podcast.’’

The podcast Zephyr: How light gets in airs on Tuesday, April 12.

For more information or to donate to Zephyr Education Inc, visit the website.