Editorial: A rewarding experience
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INSTEAD of partying at the Gold Coast, Byron Bay or Lorne, a group of Border students is undertaking a schoolies’ trip with a little more meaning.
About a dozen students from six high schools are heading to Cambodia on Sunday to undertake aid work.
The students will assist local residents by building a playground, painting buildings and tidying up, with the trip to include work at a school in Siem Reap.
Students pay their own costs and have been stocking up with toothbrushes, lice treatment and hair ties to give to those in need.
Cameron Roberts, one of three Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Belvoir-Wodonga who will join the students, said it was an opportunity to accomplish something.
“They get a different sort of schoolies as a result,” he said.
“It shows young people what can be achieved for those who are less fortunate and gives them a taste of volunteer work.
“They still have a fun time away at schoolies, but it’s a very different experience.”
According to the World Bank, one in five Cambodians lived in poverty in 2011.
Karla Donovan and her partner Beau Anderson, both 18, are looking forward to the trip.
“We decided that instead of going to get drunk at the Gold Coast, we’d just help people instead,” Mr Anderson said.
“Hopefully it will make a big difference.”
The two-week trip will also include tours of Phnom Penh, the Angkor Wat temples and the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.
