You might remember the incredible ‘5 changemakers in 5 days’ series brought to us by Common Ground during reconciliation week? (Check it out here if you missed it).
One of those changemakers, Talei Elu, is a Saibai Koedal woman from Seisia – a small Torres Strait Islander community in remote Cape York. Moving back home to be closer to community, Talei is an incredible advocate for the small but vibrant Seisia community and was recently successful in lobbying the government and Telstra to improve telecommunications infrastructure in the area.
“This little community has so much potential, but unfortunately the lack of enabling infrastructure like good telecommunications, reliable power and water, has meant our community faces serious challenges and barriers to achieving better health outcomes, business prospects, and opportunities to access distance education.”
— Talei Elu in conversation with Common Ground
With Telstra being the only telecoms provider in the community, phone coverage and internet connectivity continue to be of low quality. Residents struggle to make 000 calls and access essential services like banking, MyGov and online education, despite paying the same amount for these services as the rest of Australia. Although Seisia was recently successful in securing a grant to build a Telstra tower for better coverage and faster internet, this tower will take months to build, and the community is desperate to find an interim solution, especially for households with Elders and individuals who have high medical needs.
In response, Seisia is seeking donations to purchase Telstra GoRepeaters for these households which will boost the network signal and can maintain good enough coverage for calls.
We’ve given $690 to the cause this quarter, which is the remaining amount from our paying the rent commitment.
If you’d also like to support the Seisia community, please donate to:
Seisia Community Corporation
BSB: 064 804
Account: 133 51 509
Tag: SEISIA TELECOMS
With special thanks to Talei Elu and Common Ground for raising awareness on this issue.
*Pure Community and Pure Finance have no direct affiliation with the organisations and causes listed above, we simply appreciate the work that they do, and choose to show our appreciation by donating to them.