Friday, March 29, 2024

Aboriginal-led NFP celebrates 10 years by gifting 3,000 children’s books to schools

Recent stories

To celebrate 10 years of delivering transformational change with Aboriginal children, families and communities, Moriarty Foundation has distributed 3,000 children’s books to 17 primary schools in remote and regional Aboriginal communities including Barkly schools in Tennant Creek, Mungkarta, Neutral Junction and Ti Tree.

Moriarty Foundation delivers two well-known and highly regarded solutions to disparity, John Moriarty Football and Indi Kindi.

Through these programs, Moriarty Foundation reaches over 2,000 Indigenous children each week in 23 public schools and 19 communities in the Territory, Queensland and New South Wales and is achieving proven progress in 13 of the 17 Closing the Gap targets.

“The past decade has really proved that our community-led, locally embedded and holistic approach enables families to unlock the potential of their children.

The transformation has been exponential,” Moriarty Foundation Co-Founder and Honorary Managing Director, Ros Moriarty, said.

“This book drive is inspired by one of the first – and continuing – initiatives at Indi Kindi, our groundbreaking early years solution for Indigenous children under five, which is a book delivery in Borroloola called Library Without Walls.”

Moriarty Foundation’s Library Without Walls Book Drive was made possible by generous donations of children’s books from leading Australian publishers Allen & Unwin, Big Sky Publishing, Affirm Press and Hardie Grant.

Moriarty Foundation was founded in 2012 in the remote community of Borroloolaby Yanyuwa man John Moriarty AM – the first Indigenous footballer to be selected for Australia – and business leader and author, Ros Moriarty.

The communities where Moriarty Foundation delivers face complex intergenerational issues of disadvantage and trauma. Extreme remoteness and low levels of education, health, and employment are the context for Moriarty Foundation’s breakthrough impacts.

Mr Moriarty said from starting with just 120 children in his home town of Borroloola to now reaching 2,000 Indigenous children, their teams have created an Australian success story of radically shifting the intergenerational disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal families.

“Our upstream approach tackles many complex challenges, including life expectancy, child development, physical and mental health, education, unemployment and juvenile justice overrepresentation. We succeed because we are Indigenous-founded, Indigenous-delivered, embedded, connected to culture, holistic and authentic,” he said.

Tennant & District Times 2 December 2022

This article appeared in Tennant & District Times, 2 December 2022.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Sign up for updates from Australian Rural & Regional News

Manage your subscription

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

For all the news from the Tennant & District Times, go to https://www.tdtimes.com.au/