Adele is one of many students who have benefited from The Little Village Project. Here, she shares her story about how the project helped to change her life.
In primary school, I had a speech issue where I couldn’t say certain letters properly. For example, I would say “W” instead of “R,” which was so embarrassing for me because my cat’s name is Rory. I used to dread saying his name because I just couldn’t pronounce it right. My family didn’t really notice at the time, but looking back at old videos now, it was very obvious.
One day in Year 6, I was talking to my school counsellor, Ben, about random things, and I mentioned my cat, Rory. He noticed I couldn’t say “Rory” properly and asked me about it. I told him that I’d always had trouble with certain letters. A few days later, I was pulled out of class, and Ben told me it might be a good idea to fix my speech issue before going to high school. He arranged for me to get free speech therapy through The Little Village Project, and it permanently fixed the problem.
A few years later, I ran into Ben again, and he told me he had shared my story to raise money for the project—about how I couldn’t talk about my cat or Gilmore Girls properly before. Since then, I went on to win a writing competition for ABC Takeover and participated in a week-long camp where we came up with ideas for organisations and presented them on stage. During the event, I was complimented on my public speaking skills and told I had great confidence speaking in front of an audience.
The Little Village Project truly helped me by getting me the speech therapy I needed. Now, I feel confident standing on a stage and speaking into a microphone in front of people.
