ALMOST 100 south-west students are jetting across the world for end-of-year trips — not to party, but to help those in need.
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A group of 13 Emmanuel College students will tomorrow depart on a trip to Atauro Island, 40 kilometres north of Dili in Timor Leste (East Timor), while 20 Brauer College students are visiting the Philippines and 11 school-leavers from Portland’s Bayview College are volunteering at a Vietnamese secondary school.
Emmanuel College teacher James Laidler said their trip would be the first as part of an ongoing Destination Dreaming program which aims to build a relationship with the school.
“This is providing a different option to students compared to the typical Gold Coast experience,” he said.
“Hopefully it’s a lot more meaningful and it’s a good way to make the transition into that next stage of life as global citizens.
“This is our inaugural trip as ambassadors, so we’ll be breaking new ground, building relationships and seeing what possibilities there actually are.
“We’ll be going back every year to the same community and building a mutual relationship.”
Bayview College’s Schoolies with a Cause (SWAC) program will take students and teachers Clint Foster and Jacqui Kilby to Vietnam’s Thanh Loc Commune for 10 days. They will be at the Thanh Loc Secondary School working on the playground.
Student Meg Ryan is following in the footsteps of her older sister, Amelia, who was part of the school’s inaugural SWAC project in 2011.
“Experiencing a different culture, getting a hands-on insight into the lives of the people stricken by poverty is what I’m most looking forward to,” she said.
It isn’t just school-leavers getting in on the global charity work. There are 17 students from Warrnambool College and 25 year 11 students from Emmanuel College also bound for Third-World countries in World Challenge Expeditions, along with more than 100 other Australian schools. Emmanuel College teachers and students will spend four weeks in Borneo from November 28, based in Long Atip Village, while Warrnambool College will visit Chitwan, Nepal, for a month from Wednesday.
The student-led educational adventures will give students and teachers the opportunity to immerse themselves in diverse cultures and participate in charitable projects helping local communities.
Last year’s World Challenge teams helped renovate more than 130 school classrooms, established 25 new community vegetable gardens and assisted over 20 projects dedicated to conserving endangered species.
