The Pyjama Foundation
“Provides modern-day angels for Australia’s families supporting its most vulnerable children. The Pyjama Foundation is the quintessential Australian children’s charity. It recruits, screens, trains and supports Pyjama Angels or volunteer members of the community who work with the children and support true heroes, Australia’s foster families.
Pyjama Angels deliver a literacy-based mentoring programme that addresses statistics around children in care:
* 92% of children in care are below the average reading level at age seven
* 75% of these children do not complete schooling
* 50% of the homeless come from a care background
* 35% enter the juvenile justice system at some point (82% of Australian prisoners have below grade 4 level of functional literacy)
* 28% of care-leavers are parents within 12 months of leaving care
There are around 31,000 children in care in Australia, a figure which doubled in the last decade. Indigenous children vastly over-represented. Research shows that any improvement in literacy will have a positive impact on a person’s life.
Since inception only five years ago, the organisation and its founder have inspired around 1000 members of the community to become volunteer Pyjama Angels. From an initial base in Brisbane, The Pyjama Foundation has expanded to Bundaberg, Cairns, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba. In 2010 they are expanding further in Queensland and launching into NSW.
The Pyjama Foundation Patron
Most people knew Bryce Courtenay (AM) as an author or speaker and he is often acknowledged for providing inspiration and hope to his readers. It was not always that way for him.
The journey towards today’s destination started for him at age 8 when he leaned against a crate of books. He endured what many would consider a tragic childhood and can relate to the constant crisis that is the lives of children who have been abandoned, neglected or forgotten. This is the day to day reality of the children the Pyjama Foundation works with.
He had never learned to read, having spent his youth in an orphanage from 2 months old. He had been repeatedly beaten and while the bruises always healed, the scars on his soul did not. He was 15 years old before I was embraced or kissed.
Having made the 400klm journey by foot to see a doctor after cutting his finger very badly one day when he was just 8 years old, he was too weak to attempt the return journey. He leaned against a crate to take a moments respite. After catching his breath he realised it was a crate of books. Reaching into the crate, he pulled out a large green book with golden edged pages. It seemed somehow special, perhaps even magical. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He had never (and has not since) stolen but he took that book and although he could not read a word inside its cover, it stood for something magical that had previously seemed impossible to him. Eventually he returned to the orphanage book in hand and he managed to persuade a woman at the orphanage to read to him. Bit by bit he came to understand the words and the way she read them. She had taught him to read. Finding that book and learning to read changed his life.
Storytelling and imagination emerged as the essence of his life and the gift he had to offer to the world. The value of developing these skills cannot be over estimated, is desperately difficult to measure and is often overlooked. Learning to read changed the outcome of his life.” Bryce Courtenay passed away on 22 November 2012.
Get Involved
Every day their volunteer Pyjama Angels are transforming children’s lives through literacy. They rely on donations from generous individuals to help them recruit, screen, train, equip and support their volunteers. Help them transform children’s lives.
