What started out as a vacation for Noel Chilcott, ended up providing a wonderful benefit for the children of Aitutaki.
Chilcott, a member of the Rotary Club of Waitara in Taranaki, visited Pacific Resort Aitutaki in August last year and during his visit he started speaking with Resort concierge Ted Tavai about the education system in the Cook Islands.
He mentioned that the Rotary Club had provided dictionaries for schools in North Taranaki in New Zealand as part on an ongoing aiding education project and asked if this would help in Aitutaki.
The vision is to provide students starting their secondary school education equipped with an illustrated dictionary to serve as a reference book for them through their senior years.
Tavai’s wife Shelly was tutoring students in one of the schools and after discussions with the deputy principal of Araura College, Gaylyn Lockington, logistics were resolved and the books arrived earlier this year and were delivered to three classes at Araura school.
Since this initial rollout, Rotary has indicated it is looking to implement an ongoing programme to ensure that the children of Aitutaki all receive this illustrated dictionary as a resource to assist them into the future.
The Bay of Islands Rotary Club recently delivered and presented dictionaries to year 9 students at Araura College.
source: https://www.araura.edu.ck/holidaymaker-organises-donation-of-dictionaries
sponsored by www.oratrust.com