Students without Borders Murdoch Guild of Students
Working towards a Better Future
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We acknowledge and respect the traditional custodians whose ancestral lands we are now part of. We acknowledge and remember the horrific atrocities inflicted upon them. This is and will forever be their land. |
Students
Without Borders follows in the footsteps of Doctors Without
Borders, Engineers Without Borders and many of the other
Without
Borders. The organisation takes advantage of our student community,
which represents tremendous natural and social capital. The students
who become involved gain the incredible benefits from making a
difference. They add to both their identity and capacities. Students Without Borders was inspired by several recycling programs and additional and support learning initiatives by Gerry Georgatos, now the current Murdoch University Guild of Students Manager. These initiatives were further developed during the last three years by Gerry Georgatos and in liaison with partner organisations. At Murdoch University, the Murdoch Guild in kind supported the establishment of a Murdoch chapter. One of these initiatives, begun from within Gerry's family home, the now famous Students Without Border program, the 8BALL computer program, and because it was grassroots and non bureaucratic, went on to become one of Australia's most voluminous recycling programs. Hence with this inspiration Gerry Georgatos went on develop further programs, predicated by social justice and community development, and brought them under the banner of Students Without Borders.
The Murdoch Guild, May 2007, unanimously decided to assist the development of Students Without Borders and to ensure its value to Murdoch University students, to all Perth Universities and Australia wide. Students Without Borders is now national and is self funding. SWB has 150 programs and 100 campaigns. We are concentrating efforts on developing these and more programs . The programs provide students with pre-entry workplace skills, hands on experiences, interpersonal skills, intra and inter cultural awareness, regional and global awareness, new perspectives and many other positive attributes. Community members are able to participate, and do.
Get Involved
Anyone can get involved with one of our many programs, internships, partnerships, contributions, forums. Simply fill in a form or drop in to Students Without Borders, prominent on Murdoch University’s Bush Court, next to Physical Sciences or through your Guild or Student Services at your university or through our contact details. If regional or interstate ask your local Guild or your University's Student Services to assist you with your inquiries. Universities throughout Australia are bringing on Students Without Borders and your best bet would be to contact your campus Guild. You can add to your education and make a difference. If you're a student your experience, if we have an agreement with your University, will be recorded on your University Academic Transcript.
UNICEF through Students Without Borders
The 8Ball Program was ACUMA's 2007 National Award Runner Up for Best Student Development Program and also received ACUMA’s 2007 Honourable Mention
SWB has won ACUMA's 2008 National Award for Best Website!
SWB has been awarded 1st place at the ACUMA/TAG Awards for Best Student Development Program in 2009!!!
ACUMA is the Australasian Campus Unions Manager Associations and TAG is the Tertiary Access Group of Australia.
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MAKE A
DIFFERENCE ON CAMPUS
Apply to be a UNICEF University Liason Officer  UNICEF
are looking
for a 2009 University
Liaison Officer (ULO). If you would like to apply, please
send
your CV and a covering letter to
studentswithoutborders@rocketmail.com |
Upcoming Events
| Date | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 6, 2009 | Duck & Cover Hop | Dance the night away at the Duck & Cover Hop - a fancy dress fundraiser for the campaign to stop uranium mining in WA. More info |
| Nov 8, 3009 | Windows for Peace Fundraiser | The One World Centre & Curtin Uni Centre for Human Rights Education invite you to a fundraiser for Windows for Peace: "Encounter Point" - a movie about reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. More info |
| Nov 8, 2009 | Generation Next Teen Seminar |
Generation Next, a national teen parenting seminar series presented by five of Australia's leading experts and media commentators, is coming to Perth. More info |
| Nov 14 - Dec 10, 2009 | ARTillery Youth Arts Festival | Amnesty International's ARTillery Youth Arts Festival is back for 2009 and bigger than ever. During the festival, young people in Perth will use ART as their ARTillery to fight for human rights, whilst attending local multi-art events. More info |
| Nov 18, 2009 | 'End of the Line' special screening | Join the Wilderness Society in South Perth for a special pre-release screening of internationally acclaimed film 'The End of the Line'. More info |
| Nov 20, 2009 | 'End of the Line' special screening | Join the Wilderness Society in Fremantle for a special pre-release screening of internationally acclaimed film 'The End of the Line'. More info |
| Nov 20, 2009 | Timor Leste Fundraiser | Timor Leste Vision (TLV) is hosting a fundraising evening "Aussie Sundowner with a Timor Twist" at Newman College, 6.30pm. All funds raised will directly assist the remote community of Ainaro to improve the quality and access to education in Timor Leste. |
| Nov 27, 2009 | WAR ON HUNGER Fight Hunger - Eat Out! | The SWB Action Group is hosting a 3 course meal to raise funds for the World Food Program. It costs less than US$1 to feed 4 people, so even a small donation can make a real difference. Tickets are just $15 and all profits will go directly to the WFP. More info |
| Dec 4 - 6, 2009 | Breaking Down Boundaries | Breaking Down Boundaries is an intervarsity social justice conference packed with opportunities to learn, debate, network and be inspired. More info |
Helping communities in Uganda
Students Without Borders has shipped 9 containers of recycled computers
and other goods to international destinations to assist people out of
acute poverty. We have sent recycled computers to Uganda (twice),
Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, India and to Indonesia. These
superseded computers, which otherwise would have become junk litter and
toxic waste, have been recycled, refurbished and donated by university
students who are part of the Students Without Borders' program 8Ball
Computer Recycling. Students from Murdoch and Curtin universities, and
several volunteers from the Melville and Willagee communities, are who
at this time are
refurbishing the computers. Our last container left for Uganda in early March destined for the northern province of Kasese. 215 Computers are now being used primary schools that prior to us had none, and by training centres and other regional centres. Our next international project is for Uruguay, and we have begun. Through the International Red Cross and the Uruguayan government we will ensure a minimum of 200 computers that will be sent to schools, school hall training centres and other facilities throughout certain regions of Uruguay to assist paraplegic students. We are also working on sending hundreds to Aboriginal communities near Kalgoorlie.
8Ball, since its inception in late 2004, has recycled more than 46,000 computers, most of them donated to students, and numerous communities within WA.
If you wish to get involved with the 8Ball program, either to help with contributions, or your IT skills, or in terms of funding and in kind support, please contact studentswithoutborders@rocketmail.com.
SWB perennially thanks the Murdoch University Guild of Students for its historical support in assisting SWB with a running start and though SWB is growing as a national body with global social reach, the Murdoch Guild can take pride in its relationship and support of the SWB Murdoch chapter and in supporting Gerry and SWB when it mattered.
Emancipating Education For All
Reclaim Your Education Week
Global Week of Action November 16-22, 2009
Students Without Borders International and the unaffiliated small but growing group Reclaim Your Education Australia have joined an international education movement begun in Germany and now spreading around the world, to rally cries for the end of overt commercialisation of our universities and the cruel death of the socially inclusive identity forming nature of critical thinking based tertiary education.
Rallies
and gatherings occurred all over the world in a Global Week of Action
for Reclaimyoureducation, from April 20 to April 29, 2009.
People around the world already successfully united for the 'International Day of Action against the Commercialisation of Education' (05/11/08) and the 'Reclaim your Education - Global Week of Action' (20-29/04/09). With each internationally co-ordinated protest we get stronger! We are very motivated now to unite for a Global Week of Action coming this November, which will be even bigger than the previous day and week of action.
To read about all the rallies and gatherings worldwide, please visit http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/actions-during-global-week-action-summary
To read about the coming GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION, NOVEMBER 16-22, incorporating November 17, the International Student Activists Day (which remembers the students and citizens who had their lives taken in student protests at the Athens Polytechnic and on and off universitycampuses in Greece, Nov. 17, 1973), please visit http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/global-week-action-2009
"Students Without Borders, working with ReclaimYourEducation, coordinated rallies in the city parks of Perth, the Esplanade and Hyde Park, on April 20, 24 and 25. We attracted an average of 50 students and citizens to each peaceful and informative gathering. For us, this was a good start, although quite poor and indicative of apathy when contrasted with efforts everywhere else. We relied on the often proved fact that from little things big things grow. We spoke about education as notionally identity forming and its commercialisation in terms of a corporate world's hierarchical wants needing to be addressed or that we shall continue to devolve into automatons. We hope that they will all become members of SWB and RYE and get involved in the campaigns to address the pervasive endemic problems" - Gerry Georgatos.
Reclaimyoureducation Australia needs university staff and students to get involved with its group in order to strengthen and coordinate campaigns and dissemination and position themselves as a legitimate lobby group.
Students Without Borders Murdoch has always been about improving tertiary education and providing tertiary education with every opportunity in community based education towards ones degrees and service learning goals.
Please share your local examples of how public education is being commercialised to the INTERNATIONAL RECLAIMYOUREDUCATION STUDENTS MOVEMENT:
http://emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/information-and-examples-commercialisation-education
Do you have good IT skills?
Can you spare a couple of hours each week to refurbish computers?
The 8Ball Computer Recycling Program needs you!!!
We refurbish donated computers and provide them to low-income students and disadvantaged community members, both in Australia and overseas.If you would like to become involved in this fantastic project, email studentswithoutborders@rocketmail.com for more details. If you provide more than 40 hours of your time you will be eligible to have your participation recorded on your Academic Transcript.
Visit the 8Ball page
Led by Gerry Georgatos, students and academics believe that to address many of the blights that the First Nation peoples of this continent continue to endure there and as a result of the Apartheid they endured there must be compulsory substantial indigenous content in all university undergraduate programs."If all Australians are educated in the truth then we will have a greater capacity for social and equitable inclusion and a greater ability to engage with another. It is not a matter of whether Universities can cost this type of education, it is a matter of whether Australia can afford not to. It has been one of the most horrific crimes of this country for far too long", Gerry Georgatos Read more
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War drove student to help kids - The West Australian, 20/04/2009
 "There has never been a convenient time to protest against injustice" Visit the SALUTE website |
 Read Issue 1 here |
 Read Issue 2 here |
Students Without Borders has won for category 1: Working Creatively To Make A Difference (small organisation) in WA. We won on the strength of the website and the scope it has for encouraging students to play a part in their community. Gerry Georgatos, the SWB creator and Murdoch Guild Manager, won 2008 Outstanding Commitment by an Individual for his contributions to education, indigenous rights and to the disadvantaged. SWB was also delighted to be a finalist for Category 3: Strengthening Volunteering (small organisation) in WA for the 8Ball Program.
The award winners were:
Category 1: Working Creatively To Make A Difference (small organisation) in WA - STUDENTS WITHOUT BORDERS WEBSITE
Category 2: Working Creatively to make a difference (large organisation) in WA - ASSOCIATION FOR SERVICES TO TORTURE AND TRAUMA SURVIVORS (ASeTTS)
Category 3: Strengthening Communities - WALPOLE COMMUNITY RESOURCE TELECENTRE
Category 4: Strengthening Volunteering - VOLUNTEER TASK FORCE
Category 5: Strengthening the Community Services Industry - NO FINALISTS SELECTED
Category 6: Business & Community Partnerships - VINCENTCARE SCRAP TO GOLD PROGRAM
Category 7: Strengthening Rural and Remote Communities - REMOTE ABORIGINAL SWIMMING POOLS PROJECT
Category 8: Organisational Excellence - KIDNEY HEALTH AUSTRALIA
Category 9: Outstanding Commitment by an Individual - GERRY GEORGATOS (the Students Without Borders Coordinator, & Murdoch Guild of Students General Manager)
Congratulations to all of the organisations and individuals who were recognised as finalists and/or winners for their dedication and hard work.
Murdoch Guild of Students -
proudly supporting the initiative that is now Students Without Borders
proudly supporting the initiative that is now Students Without Borders
Murdoch University Guild of Students, Australia's award winning Student Association, is highly regarded as the political leader of Australian Student Associations. Guilds and Student Associations throughout Australia note Murdoch Guild of Students as the most active student activist and political organisation in the country and this has continued even while in Voluntary Student Unionism. Murdoch Student Guild still manages a suite of commercial services on campus, such as the Tavern, Sports and Recreation, Cafes, Shops, the development of sport, etc.., however has remained true to its student representation, student rights issues, missions and values and engages with the general human condition and the plight of our planet.
At the 2008 Tertiary Access Group National Conference (Telstra Dome, Melbourne) Murdoch Student Guild was noted by many as a Guild built on its social justice campaigns and ethos.
The Murdoch Student Guild has survived Voluntary Student Unionism, the devastating legislation by the former Federal Government. It hangs in there amid a difficult financial climate imposed by VSU and regular bouts of needless hostility with its vice chancellery. Due to VSU, Student Associations across Australia have lost 2,600 staff during the last two years, 40% of their staff. Murdoch Student Guild continues, to the line, hanging in there, with its 25 permanent staff and 18 elected students.
Murdoch Student Guild is famous for the longest student 'sit-in' in Australian university history; 30 days (2003) when it took over the university senate over the issue of the university increasing student fees. It has been recorded and documented in HANSARD. During December 2007, its Guild President, Clare Middlemas, at the commencement of her tenure, saved student space when she led her Guild through a 14 day sit-in of the student space to save it from the vice chancellery edict to acquire this space. As a result of the student sit-in the Guild and the University built a student common room - a student meeting room that converts to a student crisis centre.
"We came in to improve the student lot. We were elected on campaigns that wanted us involved with our educational future and involved with the social ills that plague all of us," Clare Middlemas, Guild President.
There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies on the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" Mario Savio, student activist, UC Berkeley, 1964.
WAR ON HUNGER
Fight Hunger - Eat Out
1 in 6 people do not have enough food to be healthy. That means that 1.02 billion people worldwide are undernourished.
SWB is fighting world hunger by preparing a sumptuous 3 course meal to help raise funds for the UN’s World Food Program (WFP). At 7.30pm on Friday November 2009, we will be serving up homemade, traditional Indian fare at Walter’s Café in the Murdoch University library. For less than US$1, the WFP can feed 4 people, so by supporting this event, from which all profits will go directly to the WFP, you can help make a real difference.
Tickets are just $15 and will entitle you to 3 courses of fantastic food (vegan options available). The meal will be accompanied by terrific entertainment, and there will be a licensed bar if you wish to buy alcohol (ID required).
Tickets are on sale now from the Guild Shop at Murdoch University or email swbaction@guild.murdoch.edu.au for more options. Tickets are limited so buy your's early to avoid missing out! No door sales.
Thank you Santos! - 6.2.2008 
