My name is Chris Inglis and I am a student at Erindale college but am also a simple story teller who has been forced to put education aside in order to rise up and introduce a story, a story that is so hard to tell but is even harder to hear.
At the beginning of last year at Caroline Chisholm High School, many year Ten English classes watched a movie called ‘Invisiable Children’ which was based around the daily tortures faced by the youth of Uganda and surrounding countries, the tortures of becoming a Child Soldier. Watching this movie infuriated me so much that I saw only one option to undertake, i needed to tell the story of the Child Soldier to the rest of my school and to my wider community. After my English class i had maths and that is when i decided the best way to get our voices heard was by through petition form and send it to The House of Representatives, I formed a small group which met with the SRC of the high school and motivated them to include our school to raise funds for these children or even support unicef. We met with our local member of parliament, Annette Ellis, many times in which we expressed our thoughts that Australia was not doing all it could to stop this form of cruelty from continuing, Miss Ellis agreed with us and we found ourselves represented in parliament by her. I met with Senator Humphries and Senator Lundy and got their support. I then travelled to Frankston, Victoria and met with the lord mayor Allistair Wardle, we both appeared on the local radio station showing our grave conern for these children, if I hadnt left Frankston when I did I would have appealed to the local paper supported by the Mayor. When I arrived back in Canberra I met with Annette Ellis once more and found out that my petion had just been sent to the newly appointed standing commitee for petitions, i was so excited and to top that I was about to meet with Mr Bob McMullan to discuss aid being sent to Uganda and surrounding nations. On monday the first of September I was the first person in history to be invited to appeal to the standing commitee for petitions, I delivered a speech to all members and to representatives from the department of Foreig Affairs, and recieved a response directly from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Stephen Smith, I was also recorded by Hansard and appeared on television expressing my views and answered some questions, i was introduced to the leader of the opposition Brendon Nelson and he expressed his congradulations towards what i was doing and noted it as being highly commendable.
I now ask for The Word, s help to appeal to the people of Canberra by getting the story out there, this story if told correctly could re-introduce our old ways of standing up for the little guy and protecting what is right, which in this case are children and the future of an entire country. Politions are all ready aware of this I have brought it up enough times all it takes is for the Australian Community to speak up, you can help spread the word about this monstrosity and be the trigger of the people. Please help us speak up and stop this evil from continuing.
Sincerely Yours,
Chris Inglis
0450411530
[email protected]
P.S please feel free to look up my speech to the commitee of petitions.
