2019 110th Anniversary Grant Winners

By Belinda Burton (Tjeuw, 1991)

Rebecca Ladd (1981)
This Grant will assist Rebecca in providing professional development opportunities for two teachers and interpreters from the Wangsel Institute of the Deaf in Bhutan. We are so proud to hear of the great work she is doing to improve education for deaf students in Bhutan and were shocked to discover that school education for deaf children in Bhutan only commenced in 2003. Teacher education is badly needed in order to better support these children and as such, we are very pleased to be supporting this project.

Helen Hoskin (1969)
Helen has been doing amazing work in setting up the Bunda Girls Secondary School in Tanzania. This Grant will provide a two-year scholarship for an academically gifted girl to attend the Bunda Girls Secondary School. Without the scholarship, this girl would not be able to study at this school and most likely would not continue her education at all. At Abbotsleigh, we pride ourselves in empowering young women and value the importance of education. Through education, we can help transform the life of a young woman, her family and their village. Mary Masanja (pictured) has now been selected as the scholarship recipient and commenced Form One (Year 7) at the beginning of this year. She was selected as an able student from a poor background from the local primary schools surrounding Bunda Girls Secondary School. Mary hopes to be a doctor when she leaves school, so this is a dream come true and she is very excited to have this opportunity. On behalf of Mary and her family, Headmistress Deninsia and all the staff of BGSS, Helen sends her heartfelt thanks. If anyone is interested in further supporting Helen’s project, please contact the Old Girls Office.

Gillian Truman (1999)
Many of you may know Gill and the group of nine Abbotsleigh girls who set up the charity MotorOn in 2015 to support those with motor neuron disease (MND). Gill herself has been diagnosed with MND, yet her focus is on helping others suffering from the disease. The money from this Grant has been donated to the Macquarie University MND Research Centre, Australia’s largest MND research facility and in particular, to support the purchase of a Neurotrack module. This is a microscope that can assess new drugs for neuroprotection and neurorepair for MND. We very much hope that through the continued research by Macquarie University MND Research Centre, a cure for this terrible disease can be found soon