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MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Friday 29 September 2017
Principal ‘amused’ by Bernardi's dress day outrage as school raises $275,000
Paul Luke proud of Craigburn primary students after conservative senator criticises fundraiser as ‘gender morphing’
Craigburn primary principal Paul Luke with One Girl chief executive
Morgan Koegel at the school on Friday. Students wore dresses to school
to raise money for education for girls in Africa.
Photograph: James Hall/AAP
The principal of the school whose charity fundraiser was criticised
as “gender morphing” by Cory Bernadi says he was “amused” by the
controversy as students wore dresses or casual clothes on Friday to mark
the event.
Year 5 students at Craigburn primary school in South Australia
initiated the “do it in a dress” fundraiser and had hoped to raise $900
from gold coin donations on the last day of the school term for the One
Girl charity, which helps provide education for girls in Africa.
But the students raised more than $275,000 after Bernardi’s criticism of the event made it a global story.
On Friday the chief executive of Melbourne-based One Girl, Morgan Koegel, flew to Adelaide to thank the students and explain where their donations will go.
The charity helps provide education for girls in Sierra Leone and
Uganda, and Koegel said the school’s fundraising would support
scholarships for more than 900 students.
Koegel said since Bernardi’s tweet, there had been an influx in other
schools and universities signing up to raise money for the charity.
“We’ve had hundreds of schools take part over the years but since all
of this happened there’s been a big increase ... we’ve definitely had
more schools and universities sign on since that time,” she said.
“We didn’t even have the chance to become concerned initially because
by the time I’d seen [Bernadi’s] tweet the donations had already flown
in, there wasn’t even an opportunity to see it as a negative before it
turned into feeling grateful, humbled and proud of the students and the
Australian community.”
Stoked to be speaking with Craigburn Primary about the impact that their #doitinadress fundraising has had! @onegirlorg
The principal of Craigburn primary school, Paul Luke, wore a dress on
the day. He said he was proud of the students and “amused” by the
controversy that had enveloped the fundraiser.
“Not in a derogatory sense, but just understanding the world we live
in now where any communication is only a push of a button [and] everyone
has a voice,” he said.
He said the school had tried to stay clear of the controversy.
“Certainly from the students’ point of view they’ve been pretty
shielded from what’s been happening on social media,” he said. “What
they have been doing on a daily basis is looking at the online metre of
donations ticking over and how many kids that translated into.”
How cool is Will from Craigburn Primary School! Do It In A Dress today for a great cause, with a touch of Crows @theTiser
SenatorLast week Bernardi last week said the school’s timing of the fundraiser was poor.
“In the hypersensitive time where we’ve got same-sex marriage
debate, we’ve got people concerned about gender ideological training in
schools, I think this is entirely inappropriate,” he said.
But the campaign has run annually for six years, with a growing number of schools taking part.
It has nothing to do with the marriage equality debate or gender
identity, and is based on the school dress being a symbol of empowerment
in developing countries.
Koegel said the fundraising always took place between August and October.
“We’re Australian-based but all of our work is in Africa; we’ve never before been asked to weigh in on Australian politics.”
Luke said the students had chosen the One Girl charity after learning about education around the world.
Craigburn Primary broken the record for One Girl charity by raising the most money from one event @abcnewsAdelaide
“They’d been finding out kids not experiencing schooling as they are
[and] realising that some kids, particularly girls in some parts of Africa, don’t go to school at all,” he said.
“We certainly weren’t encouraging them to wear dresses ... they were
obviously able to just wear their casual clothes, and the students
understood it was a symbolic thing.”
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