Email from Geoff Willis

Hi David & John,
 
Mark Dunn, minister at St John's Essendon (where I grew up), is seeking an eastern suburbs church for ongoing "store and forward" assistance in a national (almost) project to help asylum seekers learn/play music while in detention, and asked me over the weekend to see how GWUC is placed.
 
Details of the project are in the emails below but it would involve GWUC stockpiling somewhere, then forwarding periodically, unwanted instruments which would be dropped off to the church by members of the public/schools etc no longer needing them.
 
As I am only the messenger, can you please raise this item with Parish Council for consideration ASAP, and advise Mark of the result.  Pls also contact him directly with any queries.   He is keen to receive our response.
 
Thanks
Geoff  ♫
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Selections from the text that followed.

From: Philip Feinstein
To: [email protected]
Subject: [SPAM] Fwd: RE: Musical instruments for Detention Centres
 
Dear Mark
Thank you for the very positive email.
As detailed in the emails below, I am one of the volunteer music teachers at the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney, having coached children and adult refugees there for about 2 years now. I am also privileged to have had the opportunity of obtaining various donated music instruments for these detainees  -  I have organised over 5 pianos, 20 guitars and various other instruments. In fact, there is a saxophone and some recorders in my unit about to taken to Villawood next week. Because I reside in Sydney, collection and delivery to the detention centre, as well as to other refugee centres (STARTTS & SydWest), has been relatively easy.

Just to summarise, some of the story can be seen on this SBS-TV broadcast in mid-February:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDoTSOnqYWE&feature=youtu.be  
      and the ABC Radio broadcast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoMNX0-7WCE&feature=channel&list=UL  
More information can be accessed from various local papers, including  http://www.jewishnews.net.au/sounds-of-joy-at-villawood/22707
 
Regardless of where we stand on the political scale, I am sure that we all recognise the trauma that people go through being "locked up" in detention, despite not having committed any crime. As a member of the community, I look at the small picture to see where I can offer assistance to the individual refugees.

I was recently in Melbourne where I visited the detention centres in both Maidstone and Broadmeadows. I strongly believe that I can generate the same enthusiasm as I did in Sydney for members of the public to donate instruments to the refugees stuck in those centres. My problem is finding various places where people can deliver the instruments for final delivery to the centres. As I am only calling for small instruments (guitars, violins, bongo's, etc), I believe that storage would not be an issue. If the instruments were delivered to the centres every month or so, the space would become available again for the next lot. Should anyone want to donate any large instruments, such pianos, I would encourage them to contact me direct, so that I could arrange transportation direct to the centres from the donor's home. 

Believing that playing music can help and calm people, and following on from my successes at Villawood and the two centres in Darwin, I am now hoping to get Melbourne and other Australian centres up and running. Contact has been made with SERCO management at the detention centres who are all very keen to get things moving.

Thanks again for your email. I shall try to call you after 3pm today as you suggested.
Regards
Philip Feinstein


From: Philip Feinstein
To: Andrew Copland - Uniting Church
Subject: Fw: Musical instruments for Detention Centres
 
TO: Andrew Copland  -  Uniting Church
 
Hi Andrew
Thanks again for the reply.

Just bringing you up to date:
  1) Darwin has begun with St Vincent de Paul acting as agents to receive donated instruments
  2) We are still looking for an organisation (maybe Uniting Church) to act as agents in Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and other capital cities to receive musical instruments being donated. Full details are in my big email below.
  3) I am sending a copy of this email to Dr Mark Zirnsak (Director, Justice & International Mission Unit, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania) in the hope that the Uniting Church might become partners in this important project.
 
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Philip Feinstein


From: Philip Feinstein
To: Andrew Copland - Uniting Church
Subject: Musical instruments for Detention Centres
 
TO:  Athelstone Uniting Church
ATT: Andrew Copland

 
Dear Andrew
Thanks for your email and for taking my call today.
Firstly, here is a summary so far: I am a volunteer music teacher at the Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney, having coached children and adult refugees there for some time. I am also privileged to have had the opportunity of obtaining various donated music instruments for these detainees  -  I organised over 4 pianos, 20 guitars and various other instruments  -  Villawood is now full of instruments. 

Some of the story can be seen in this SBS-TV broadcast in mid-February:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDoTSOnqYWE&feature=youtu.be  
More information can be accessed from various newspapers, including  http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/new-australians/villawood-piano-teacher-says-look-at-the-small-picture/

Regardless of where we stand on the political scale, I am sure that we all recognise the trauma that people go through being "locked up" in detention, despite not having committed any crime. As a member of the community, I look at the small picture to see where I can offer assistance to the individual people.

Believing that playing music can help and calm people, and following on from my successes at Villawood, I now want to extend this project to all detention centres throughout Australia. I have already made contact with the appropriate SERCO people at all centres and they are keen for this project to reach them. Through networking and the media, I firmly believe I can orchestrate the same success as I did at Villawood. 

As explained to you, I now need people or organisations 'on-the-ground' in the various cities, where they can receive free instruments donated by the local population, and then deliver them to the appropriate detention centre(s). The exception to this would be pianos because of size. However, pianos will still be accepted, but I shall organise deliveries direct to the centres in conjunction with SIRCO.  

Regarding possibly teaching music to detainees at the Adelaide detention centre, the contact there is Adam Maxwell. He can be reached on [email protected]  They currently have a keyboard, 3x acoustic guitars and some bongo drums. Adam can fill you in on other details, including security requirements.

Thanks for reading my proposal. It would be wonderful if Uniting Church branches in both Adelaide and Port Augusta (and elsewhere?) could get on board with accepting instruments for both Adelaide ITA and Port Augusta IRH. 

I look forward to hearing back from you.
Regards
Philip Feinstein

CouncilCorrespondence20121017a (last edited 2019-10-31 03:24:47 by JohnHurst)