Can anybody help?

A mate of mine, Trevor Cook, has passed on a message from his colleague, Keith Jackson. The message is asking for help with the case of Tasminnie. My father is a graduate of the ASOPA class of 1948, and would definitely support this cause.

SOMETHING WE CAN ALL DO

I'd ask you to spare a couple of minutes to read this. My old PNG teacher mate, Brian White, from Meringandan up Toowoomba way in Queensland, has written to me as follows.....

Keith, I'm worried about the situation with our orphan niece in PNG. We had her with us, with great immigration difficulties, for two years until the end of 2004, when she was refused further visas so had to go back to PNG and a rather unstable family situation.

We have tried all this year to bring her back, but with no luck: even to talk to her or get letters through is almost impossible, though we did manage to get a phone call through last night.

The Holy Name School in Toowoomba is leading a rally of support this week to try and push the issue further, and Nammie and I have been interviewed by our local Toowoomba Chronicle and featured on the front page this morning (29/08/05).

I wonder if my former colleagues from ASOPA and other people could lend us some support now by signing the web site petition. This would be a great help and we would appreciate the assistance.

Could you publicise this for me please, Keith? We have a wide coverage here but to go back 40 plus years to former PNG teachers would be a definite advantage.

Tas's mother was a teacher of repute in Milne Bay and other areas. I actually taught her at some stage of her primary schooling and we supported her through a lot of her tertiary education which, as you remember, was difficult to obtain in those days.

Tas wants to be a teacher too. She is quite a sophisticated girl, not a 'village girl' in any sense of the word, and has always had her sights set on a good education and being a teacher like her Mum.

We feel that if she cannot come to live permanently with us, she will be denied these opportunities and her future will be very limited. If you could lend your weight, it would be a big help.

So, please, all you Asopians, support my wife and myself in this venture. We are feeling quite desperate.

I'd urge you to go to the website at http://www.bringtasminniehome.com and sign the petition. I've let Brian and Nammie know that we all applaud their efforts on behalf of Tas.

In addition, I've asked Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone, Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou, ALP Shadow Immigration Minister Tony Burke and my colleagues Grahame Morris and Michael Baume for their support and to intervene where they can.

I hope these efforts will yield positive results. In the meantime, the least we can do is to sign the petition and give our mate Brian some much-needed support.

Here's today's article from the 'Toowoomba Chronicle'…..

PNG orphan wants to stay in Australia
By Peter Hardwick

PAPUA New Guinean orphan Tasminnie Tavari wants to live with family in Toowoomba. It was the wish of her late mother Tatupu Tavari, who died giving birth in 2002, that Tasminnie live with her Toowoomba-based aunt Nammie White (Tatupu's sister) and her husband Brian who have been granted custody of the 13-year-old by the PNG Court.

Tasminnie's extended family in PNG agree, and Mr and Mrs White are desperate to have her here with them. So what is stopping that from happening? Australia's immigration laws, that's what!

And, so far, exhaustive efforts to have Amanda Vanstone's department clear the way for this young girl to be with family and grow in a stable and loving environment have been fruitless.

Meanwhile, Tasminnie languishes in PNG, passed from one relative to another, her future literally in peril.

"Education is not compulsory in Papua New Guinea and it is difficult to get a place in high school," Mrs White explained. "If Tasminnie does not get into high school, her family will marry her off.

"She is not a village girl. Her mother was a teacher and so she was brought up around the school. Tasminnie wants to be a teacher like her mother."