Zephyr Education Inc (formerly, Zephyr Foundation) was founded in 2013 by Isabella Bevan, David Bevan AM, Carmel Martin and Terry Martin to help children at domestic violence shelters resume their education by supplying them with everything they need to start at their new school.
The charity was established after Isabella read a newspaper article about the plight of these children. At the time, she was managing the uniform shop of a large secondary school so she knew exactly what the children needed. Isabella is the charity’s President.
David, Carmel and Terry all had legal careers. David was the Queensland Ombudsman from 2001 to 2010, Carmel was a partner in a Brisbane law firm and Terry was a judge of Queensland’s District Courts. David and Carmel are also members of the charity’s management committee of five and Terry remains actively involved in its work.
The other committee members are Anthony Johnson, our Secretary and Principal Finance Officer, and Nicola Henderson, Coordinator of Zephyr’s WA operations. Anthony has extensive experience in governance and regulatory processes having spent 9 years as Director of Compliance in the Queensland Office of Fair Trading. Nicola is a primary school teacher with many years’ experience.
The management committee oversees the work of more than 50 dedicated volunteers. Committee members and volunteers receive no remuneration or allowances for their work enabling us to operate with negligible administration costs.
‘Zephyr’ is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as ‘a soft, gentle breeze’. We chose the word as expressing the fundamental purpose of our charitable work, which is to help initiate a fresh change for the children we support as well as their mothers or carers.
Our mission is to help these children make as smooth a transition as possible to their new school.