Charity lends a helping hand to Indigenous kids after school

An Indigenous charity is helping children transition to life after school. Matthew Benns reports.

For Aidan Porter, leaving school meant the help that had always been there suddenly “fell off a cliff” and he felt lost, isolated and alone.

Aidan is like many indigenous young adults who have taken up scholarships in prestigious Sydney schools only to find themselves alone and far from home when school ends.

“The difference between making a success of life after school and ending up back in the bush can be as little as just having someone to talk to,” he said.

That isolation was something Bandu charity founder Edward Morgan keenly understood after 10 years working with indigenous students in secondary schools. He wanted to do more to provide the support that would help these students grow, thrive and survive once they left school.

“Ed Morgan reached out to me a few times to go and play rugby and we started talking about the problems,” Mr Porter said.

The Wiradjuri man from Dubbo went to St Joseph’s College in year seven as a boarder where he had “support and help practically 24/7 whenever I needed it.

“But when I left school that support fell off a cliff.”

Elise Djerrkura, Lochlan Philp, Aidan Porter, and Ethan Hart. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Together they formed Bandu - the Wiradjuri word for fly - in 2022 and began by helping 15 students. Just two years later they have more than 75 participating in their program of career, home and life advice.

“The support they need can be simple things to fix - just needing the train fare to get back from going home for sorry business - $40 or $50,” Mr Porter said. “Or having someone to talk through the right clothes to wear for an interview.”

Mr Morgan said completion rates for indigenous children at school had dramatically improved but fell to less than half getting through their first year of university or TAFE.

He said the organisation desperately needed government funding to help it plug the gap in care.

“We have helped three apprentices with accommodation in a house in Seaforth,” he said. “But this year we have 41 students leaving Year 12 of which 10 are apprentices needing a roof over their heads.” That means bond, rent subsidies and furniture for three more houses in a housing market critically short of rental properties.

Ethan Hart, 18, left St Joseph’s College last year and is one of those apprentices living in the house Bandu has underwritten while he completes his certificate three in landscape construction.

Aidan Porter, co-founder of new charity Bandu, in Seaforth. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“The support from Bandu means a lot because without their help we could not have found the house, filled out the forms, paid the bond or put together the furniture,” he said.

“Without it I would be back home in Coffs Harbour and I don’t know what I would be doing.”

Another grateful for the support Bandu provided is Lochlan Philp, 19, who loved his scholarship at Riverview but was worried at the statistics “the other kids would rattle off” about how indigenous people relied on the state and were less capable.

“I felt a bit worried about leaving school,” he said. “The indigenous co-ordinator introduced me to Bandu. In a word they gave me guidance.”

The Bandu team helped him through the process of applying for university and getting the scholarships that allowed him to study education at the University of Sydney.

“No one in my family has been to university so they wouldn’t have been able to help. I feel I am setting a new bar for my family,” he said. “I loved school when I was growing up. I want to do the same for other people what that did for me.”

Elise Djerrkura, 18, started working at Knight Frank thanks to contacts from Bandu and is now applying for a place at university.

“I grew up in Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory before I got a scholarship to Pymble Ladies College,” she said. “The adjustment to moving to Sydney was very hard because until then all I knew was that small town and the people in it.”

But that adjustment was nothing compared to the lack of support she found after school. Without Bandu she would have had to return home to the Northern Territory.

“Bandu was there for me straight after school. They helped me get a job to expose me to the corporate world and earn money.

“If they had not been there I would be back home because I wouldn’t be able to live in Sydney without the support they give me. Bandu provides us with a community after school,” she said.

For Aidan Porter the work with Bandu is its own reward. “One of the my favourite parts of the week is after hearing the problems on Monday and Tuesday to get the texts or calls on Friday saying that they are all sorted,” he said.