Pyjama Foundation

Bronwyn’s Story

Founder and Director of The Pyjama Foundation and Queensland Australian of the Year 2009

 

When Bronwyn Sheehan realised that children in care were not being given the same opportunities in life as other children she decided to do something about it…

 

“I founded The Pyjama Foundation 8 years ago now, to contribute to the lives of kids in care. I wanted to do something that would be positive and that would have the benefit of changing the direction of their precious little lives.  Education equates to quality of life.

 

The reason I started The Pyjama Foundation is my oldest daughter Kate went through primary school with a child in care. I met her foster carer and I was blown away by her commitment to these children. This lady had been a carer for 30 years and had had over 100 children in her home. One day I was visiting her and she had a baby boy in her arms who was only 18 months old.  This little boy had been in care for less than 24 hours, had the worst cold I have ever seen and had arrived in foster care in the middle of January with a Coles bag full of winter clothes. The reason he had winter clothes was to cover up his precious body, which was covered in bruises. He had big brown eyes, and if the eyes are the window to the soul, then his little soul had experienced far too much already. He broke my heart. I knew in that moment that I wanted to do something for kids in foster care.”

 

The issue is that there are now 39 000 children in foster care in Australia.  These children have been removed from their original homes for their own safety, and have often missed out on many positive experiences life has to offer. This pool of children also has the worst educational outcomes of any group of children in Australia (AIHW).  Statistics also show that 92% of children in foster care have below average reading skills by the time they are only seven years of age, and it is a struggle for them to catch up.

 

The single most important activity you can do to improve your children’s literacy skills is to read book aloud to them. So that is what The Pyjama Foundation does. We screen and train volunteers called Pyjama Angels, our Pyjama Angels are matched with a child in foster care, they visit the same child every week, for 1.5 hours to read books aloud, play educational games and work on their numeracy skills. I am surrounded by fantastic volunteers, who are so committed to the child they visit.  Some of my volunteers have been with their child for eight years. The relationship which forms is fantastic, the children are often waiting on the footpath for their Pyjama Angel to arrive.