The Zephyr Story

Dear All,

I don't know how you're feeling out there with what's going on in the world but I thought I'd deal with some of the pervading uncertainty by sending my yearly email a little earlier than usual, because Zephyr continues to have the same immediate, practical, uplifting effect on not just the thousands of children we support but also the parents, carers, case workers, supporters and the tireless volunteers who are in its orbit.

Zephyr, named for the soft, gentle breeze of change (and not after the car), is 13 years old and so much has happened in those thirteen years. We started with 2 Brisbane Women's shelters (as they were then called), and we now support 277 DFV organisations where those affected by domestic and family violence seek refuge. Those 277 organisations are now spread throughout every Australian State and Territory with 155 in Queensland from the Gold Coast to Weipa and the far west.

Zephyr was born to assist those unfortunate women and children who land in these refuges. We assist them to resume their education as quickly as possible with all they need to do this effectively. The reality is that it's almost entirely children who benefit from Zephyr's work. We outfit them with their every school need from shoes, socks and uniforms to stationery, laptops and iPads. We pay for sporting fees and equipment, camp fees and the like so that these children are given the exact same opportunities as their classmates.

We do this because we believe that outfitting these children to look like their classmates, and giving them the same equipment and stationery as their classmates, gives them the best chance of resuming their education in a new school after they have been spirited out of their familiar surroundings, often leaving friends, pets and most all their belongings to start somewhere new. If you're one of the lucky ones who hasn't gone through this personally or knows someone who has, just imagine how this feels.

We firmly believe that education gives these children the best chance of finding their way out of this scourge of violence that afflicts our society. Bri Lee in her book Who Gets to be Smart says education is a 'rare and expensive passport' — hopefully to a better life.

Apart from the fact that I, my co-founders and our original volunteers are thirteen years older, a lot has changed — or should I say evolved and expanded, not least of which is that our homegrown, family charity which started with two shelters, now operates Australia wide. This, despite Isabella's promise to stop registering organisations for support once she reached the magic number of 25.

Apropos Zephyr's rapid growth, just recently Isabella took a call from a Tasmanian case worker connected to one of our earlier registrations. When the case worker heard Isabella's voice she exclaimed: "Oh Isabella, it's you! I thought you would have burned out by now."

What hasn't changed is that we are still ALL VOLUNTEERS — no one is paid a salary or reimbursed any personal expenses; virtually every dollar donated to Zephyr is spent outfitting these children with their every school need; our overheads remain negligible — last financial year 0.8 of 1%.

For those of you who are receiving this email for the first time, Isabella and David Bevan, Terry and I, are the four co-founders of Zephyr Education. Most of you know that in 2013, Isabella read Kathleen Noonan's article in the Courier Mail speaking in heart wrenching terms about children arriving at Brisbane refuges without shoes or school bags. She asked if someone in the community could do something about it. Isabella burst into tears, enlisted David's, Terry's and my support and here we are thirteen years later.

Zephyr would have remained small in terms of how much assistance it could provide but for two fundamentals. The first is that our donors and supporters trust us and embrace our cause so that we have been able to confidently register more organisations for support, and secondly, there are now 50 plus devoted volunteers who have joined the ranks doing the work.

After immediate and frugal consideration, all approved requests are met within 24 to 48 hours if necessary, as dictated by Isabella all those years ago and still adhered to today. I believe this is one of the distinguishing and most effective features of Zephyr's operations.

During one of our not infrequent storms, one of our volunteers had a tree land on her home and consequently she had no power (as well as a big hole in her roof). It so happened that it was her shift as a responder to requests that morning. Some of our other responders immediately offered to do her shift. She was undeterred. She thanked them kindly but advised that her neighbours had provided her with a generator and she could hotspot her computer to her phone — so all good!

Another volunteer's husband inquired of his wife if she was 'zephyring' again. A new word has been added to the English lexicon.

On the Friday before school started after the long weekend, Terry was delivering to a suburb on the northside, on his way back from a run to Caboolture and Morayfield. A couple of shelter employees came out to help carry the load inside. They told him that the Mum and her three children had arrived that very morning with virtually nothing, and they were at a complete loss as to how they might have these children ready for school. And here they were with everything these kids needed just a few hours later. They were at pains to have Terry understand what it meant to have him arrive with the goods and to make sure he let the Zephyr team know what it meant to all of them.

On the day school started this year we received this from a government employee of the Department of Child Safety:

Breaks your heart, doesn't it? By the next morning a backpack full of stationery, pencils, etc, lunch box, water bottle and a pair of school shoes were on a Followmont truck, on its way to this little boy. Also in the pack were toys and games Isabella had raided from her grandsons' supply at her home.

From January to February in the back to school period, we provided support to the value of $445,460. Since 1 July 2025 we have provided support of $1,030,000. So it's reasonable to expect we will surpass last year's figure by the end of June. This figure scares me but Isabella keeps urging me to keep my eyes on the horizon!

Zephyr is an acknowledged game changer in the sector and we do this with no government funding.

Much inspiration to keep going comes from unsolicited responses to our work:

When they refer to "you all", it means you too. Thank you for your support — moral, financial and practical. It's at the heart of Zephyr — a huge team effort. As I keep bleating, Isabella's hijacked a lot of retirements, but as long as the need is there, Zephyr will be as well.

We are mindful of creeping age and have put a lot in place to ensure succession, because unfortunately, there does not seem to be an end in sight to the problems Zephyr helps alleviate — one child at a time. If what you've read resonates, please share this with family and friends.