Kimberley Community Grants video transcript
We came up with the idea of partnering with the local Lions Club and creating a Community Grants Scheme.
Part of the process out there is to treat the wastewater and then dispose of it and it's disposed of on some irrigation pivots.
So we grow Rhodes grass as a crop. That's a grass that's great for cattle fodder.
So we irrigate the crops with the treated wastewater, turn it into hay, sell it to local farmers and the funds that we get from that we give back to the community.
One of the groups that received funding through the Grant Scheme was a wildlife rehabilitation group called Native Animal Rescue Broome and we received some money to buy some equipment which lifted our profile out in the community.
So we not only do wildlife rescue and rehabilitation but we undertake educational displays. So we do a lot of displays at schools, community groups.
Just having that extra equipment and lifting that professionalism up was a great advantage to us.
The funding that we got from the Water Corporation was used to support cultural activities for the woman's program that we run.
We were able to engage an Aboriginal elder, a woman who's incredibly well-known and respected in the community and we were able to engage her to come out on country with us with the women for the day. Then what we would do is we would bring the women back to here, to talk about their cultural history; to talk about their connections, not just with the land, but also with each other. So that they can then go into that other space where they start to talk about that really hard conversation about what family violence is.
We're out there trying to educate people saying, "Look, live with wildlife. Enjoy it but don't hurt it." And that's a great achievement when we can get that message through especially the kids at the primary schools love it.
They're the ones you can work on and, you know, tomorrow's generation is the ones that will actually make things happen.