By Christine de Kock
THE New Hope Foundation has called on volunteers to assist students from a refugee background with their after-school studies.
The foundation is holding a home-work club with Footscray’s Gilmore College for Girls at the school’s library on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The school has extended the hours of its existing service to accommodate students from several schools who need further tuition.
Students who are not from Gilmore College for Girls can attend the homework club from 4pm to 6pm.
New Hope Foundation Refugee Resource Centre’s co-ordinator, John Mirabile, said the centre wanted volunteers who have gone through the education system and are comfortable in tutoring in subjects such as maths, science and English.
“We’ve had Year 11 and 12 students help,” he said.
“We would welcome people who are retired or anyone that is willing to give their time.”
Mr Mirabile said many schools in the West were not able to provide the intense attention some students required, making the homework club a necessary service.
“There are some students with a huge gap in their education,” Mr Mirabile said.
He said this was usually due to their schooling being disrupted by war, being in refugee camps or due to other setbacks.
Mulubirhan Worku, 14, travelled to Australia from Ethiopia.
She is a student at Gilmore College for Girls and makes use of the homework club for other reasons.
Mulubirhan said she was better able to concentrate in the school’s library away from young siblings and other relatives whom she found distracting at times.
