TUTORING maths to high-school students has provided retired maths head teacher, Drew Bogema, with a way to raise funds for a range of charities that are close to his heart.

Raising some $13,000 during 2021 and 2022 from after-school-hours maths tutoring, through the students’ fees, Drew donates 100 percent of the payments to a pool of local, national and international charities: the Uniting Church Soup Place, Frontier Projects Haiti, Sudanese Education Fund (administered by the Coffs Harbour Council of Churches), Ukraine (Act For Peace, World Vision, World Food Fund) and the Fred Hollows Foundation.

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Kicking off in 2023, Drew is filling his weekly schedule with Monday and Tuesday afternoons already fully booked and Wednesday through Friday available.

Usual tutoring time is 4-6pm (or later) Monday to Friday at $40 an hour.

There may be an option of running special classes for Year 11/12 on Saturdays.

“If enough students are interested, we could run classes on Saturday of up to five students for each of the senior levels General Mathematics, Advanced Mathematics, Extension 1 or 2 for an hour each at a cost $20 per hour,” Drew told News Of The Area.

Sessions are held at the Uniting Church Minister’s office, located at the corner of Vernon and Gordon Streets.

“Why am I doing this work?” Drew posed.

“There are nearly 100 million refugees in our world and there are people starving in Africa and Arabia.

“Millions of people have been displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Fred Hollows’ work in the third world has been legendary.

“Haiti has become virtually ungovernable because of the rise of gang warfare.

“We cannot afford to allow such poverty and disease to prosper while we enjoy the comfortable lifestyle of the ‘lucky country’.

“Each of us must try to do something,” he said.

“All money received for tutoring goes to the charities mentioned, except $40 last year for the purchase of a senior revision textbook and photocopying costs,” Drew told NOTA.

“The students know this, and I will allow them to choose the charity they wish to support.”

In most cases Drew will pay to the charity by credit card.

“Since I was tutoring the son of Allan Cooke of Big Country Meats, Max, who volunteered at The Soup Place, we opened a line of credit at the butchery for The Soup Place to use to purchase meats for the daily meals they provide to their clients.

“This amounted to approximately $120 per week.

“Since donations from individuals have been reduced through Covid, our soup kitchen was very appreciative,” said Drew.

Drew Bogema was a full-time teacher in the NSW Department of Education from 1974-2019.

He is a former Maths Head Teacher at Dunedoo Central (1988-1997), Macksville High School (1998-2007) and Glen Innes High School (2019).

To contact Drew call 0431 351933 or 02 6658 7070.

He is the present chairperson of the Coffs Harbour Council of Churches and Congregation Chairperson of the Coffs Harbour Uniting Church.

He has also been president of the Rotary Club of Sawtell three times.

He is driven to help those who suffer, locally, nationally and internationally.

By Andrea FERRARI