Who was Jimmy Little?
Dr. Jimmy Little AO 1937 -2012 was a legendary Australian entertainer who had a vision to improve the health outcomes for Indigenous children and their families living in regional and remote communities. He established the
Jimmy Little Foundation (JLF), following his own battle with kidney disease. Jimmy passed away in 2012 but his legacy lives on through the JLF and the Uncle Jimmy Thumbs Up! Nutrition Program.
For more information on Jimmy or JLF please visit
http://www.jlf.org.au
The Challenge
The Federal Government has unfortunately discontinued funding our Thumbs Up! school and community health and well-being program.
Developed by The Jimmy Little Foundation for children living in remote Aboriginal communities, the Thumbs up! “Good Tucker – Long Life” nutrition education program has been successfully delivering preventative health messages across Australia since 2009.
We have been gradually making a positive change to what young Indigenous people choose to eat and drink from their local store.
“Thumbs Up!... gives a message clear and simple to us here in the community — eat good tucker to live a healthy life”. You have got to start somewhere and the kids are the start of that change”
~ Elizabeth “Ganygulpa” Dhurrkay – Community member Milingimbi NT
Here is an interview with Ganygulpa
https://youtu.be/sFG9mlYj_NE?list=PLwrqndHEjhpR6frYBovvULnkQqnfKSoYT
The health and living conditions in many remote communities are still close to that of the third world, with a high incidence of
preventable chronic diseases continuing to take its toll.
Early onset Diabetes is the precursor to premature kidney failure, which is up to 4 times as prevalent in Aboriginal Australians. It took the lives of Dr Yunupingu singer of Yothu Yindi and of Jimmy himself.
Our solution
We want to make a generational change to the health of those living in remote Aboriginal communities.
The Jimmy Little Foundation’s “Thumbs Up! “nutrition and healthy lifestyle program has been running successfully in over 50 communities for the past 6 years with funding predominately from the Federal Department of Health. Unfortunately, the current Federal
Government has chosen not to continue funding for this most needed and well established chronic disease prevention initiative.
So we need your help and financial support to keep us “in the game” and doing our work.
$20,000 will pay for our office, phone, insurances and a skeleton staff of one person 5 hours /week for one year while we continue to look for on going program funding. An open office will also allow us to respond to the many community
requests we receive for help and program delivery.
$50,000 will provide us an office, an administration person and some travel and accommodation expenses so we can continue travelling to communities when possible.
Anything we raise above $50,000 will be put directly into our Thumbs Up! program delivery into remote communities.
What can you do ?
After six years of groundbreaking work, we desperately need your help to continue delivering our programs to young Indigenous people and the whole of the community to guarantee a generational change in the health of all of those who live in remote Australian
communities.
You can make a real difference, today, by helping Thumbs Up! to create healthier lives for young Indigenous Australians.
Your gift will help us:
*** Make a real change to attitudes and actions that drive healthy choices for students in schools and residents of remote communities.
*** To create generational change leading to longer, healthier lives for Indigenous Australians: we’ve been delivering successful programs since 2009, so many of our first ‘Thumbs Up!’ school kids are now parents, and will become the elders who will deliver
on the impact of your gift both now and for the next generation.
Miranda was a student at the school during our first visit to Milingimbi in 2009. She is now a parent and working with a group called FAFT (families as first teachers) and recently asked us to please come back and give her children the same positive nutrition
and health messages she received through our program.
To see this video
https://youtu.be/vQfALA1RhDo?list=PLwrqndHEjhpQtnOF5IXolmKgpt7lgpEmL
Continue to do what many Indigenous community members have asked of us: “Pump [the Thumbs Up! resources] into communities where there’s capacity to deliver a comprehensive, holistic approach”.
Thank you for taking the time to look at our work.
