Delivery gets kids excited

The Australian way has inspired a local Dalby woman to give back to her homeland.

QUEEN SOLOMON: Mary Fasi at the Learning Tree in Dalby, where the inspiration began. Picture: James Liveris

DALBY resident Mary Fasi seized on an old stack of school chairs which will become an invaluable resource for the kids of her home town.

Mrs Fasi is from Santa Ana Island, a small remote island in the far east of the Solomon Islands.

She is the first person from home to leave and come to Australia where she has secured a working visa and works at Learning Tree as a early childhood teacher.

Mrs Fasi said this would be the first time the children on the island would ever receive anything.

"The rumours have already spread and the kids are so excited, it would've never been possible without the Learning Tree or Australia.”

Mrs Fasi said living in Australia taught her the value of giving things to people in need.

"Seeing children in this country having day to day good resources, I decided to come up with an idea with my daughters to salvage and buy old chairs to help the children in my country,” she said.

"It is very hard for the children, they don't have books, they don't have toys to play with and they sit on the dirt floor.

"Kids in Australia will have dolls to play with to pretend they are mothers, in my village the kids have to use coconuts for dolls.”

Mrs Fasi said at that moment she decided to start buying the chairs, 20 to be precise.

Learning Tree central manager Leanne Stewart said she was inspired by Mary's idea so she decided to donate the old chairs at the centre to Mary's cause, accumulating to a total of 50 chairs.

"It's amazing, it's such a good idea,” she said.

When Mary heard Leanne would donate the chairs, she said thank god, literally.

"I am really so happy for the kids,” she said.

The freighting costs to send all the chairs back exceeded Mrs Fasi's budget, however this would not stop her from lobbying her Constituency Parliamentarian in the Solomon Islands, who then decided to cover the costs.

Mrs Fasi said she was delighted to hear the project was possible.

The chairs are expected to be delivered in late December, coinciding with Christmas.

Originally published as Delivery gets kids excited