Get informed & Get involved!

Today I spoke at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School (my old stomping ground!) to a group of Year 11 students. I spoke a bit about Australia's obligations under international law, the fact that ARRIVING IN AUSTRALIA AND SEEKING ASYLUM IS NOT A CRIME (UNDERLINE!), conditions in detention, children in detention, the asylum seekers still on Lombok, and the fact that it falls to these guys and other young people to get moving, make some noise, call their pollies to account, and make sure this stuff can't happen again in the future. It was great - they responded very well and were really keen to get informed. I love seeing people get fired up! LOVE IT! So I put my email address on the whiteboard in their centre, and I really hope to get some emails with their questions etc! I think the best way to answer those is to post the Q&As on this site so they're readily available.... So, girls, if you're reading this... hit me!

For anyone who wants to get some more info / read some more stories etc, I'd recommend getting your hands on these books:

Freeing Ali : The Human Face of the Pacific Solution (Michael Gordon - $16.95)
From Nothing to Zero : Letters from Refugees in Australia's Detention Centres (Julian Burnside QC (ed.) - Lonely Planet)

You can also get on all sorts of websites:

The Justice Project: http://www.thejusticeproject.com.au
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre: http://www.asrc.org.au/
Fitzroy Learning Network: http://www.fitzroylearningnetwork.org.au/
A Just Australia: http://www.ajustaustralia.com/home.php
ChilOut: http://www.chilout.org/
Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project: http://www.hothammission.org.au/

That should keep you busy!

Cheers

Jess