Victorian Governor Professor David de Kretser presents Peter Cole with his OAM.
By Casey Neill
FERNTREE Gully charity Spirit of Sharing will deliver more than $80,000 in improvements to some of Fiji’s poorest people.
A team of volunteers will work on the island from 10 October to 14 November building a school dormitory, donating sporting, education and hospital equipment and installing water tanks.
Ferntree Gully resident and Knox councillor Peter Cole established The Spirit of Sharing in 2001.
He and his team will install five 5000 litre water tanks at a primary school ‘with a huge typhoid problem’.
‘Over 40 kids have contracted it in the last 12 months,’ Cr Cole said.
They will also install a 25,000 litre water tank at a primary school on Taveuni, and build a dormitory for 40 girls at a secondary college on the island.
‘The dormitory is urgently required to allow parents from remote parts of the island to send their children to school,’ Cr Cole said.
‘At present only the most basic education is available in some of the remote areas.’
The team will deliver full sporting equipment kits to more than 50 schools on Taveuni and surrounding islands, and 20-foot containers filled with hospital items to two hospitals.
Cr Cole started The Spirit of Sharing following a trip to Fiji in 2001.
‘The children were kicking empty bottles around as soccer balls and improvising games with sticks and stones,’ he said.
‘This to me this was just not good enough, so I decided to do something about it.’
The project has now reached more than 300 schools on eight islands.
The 27-year-old was one of 313 Australians to receive a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
The award recognised his ‘service to the international community through the Spirit of Sharing mission’.
Cr Cole this month received his medal at an official function at Government House.
Donations to The Spirit of Sharing are tax deductible.
Call Peter Cole on 0439 997 583 or visit www.spiritofsharing.com.au for more information or to lend a hand.
