{"id":1108,"date":"2015-11-12T23:39:49","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T23:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2015-11-14T11:38:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-14T11:38:27","slug":"choosing-charity-over-cocktails-students-take-schoolies-to-nepal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1108","title":{"rendered":"Choosing charity over cocktails: Students take schoolies to Nepal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"benjot\"<\/a>Usually this would entail a trip to the coast to party, but a group of Orange students is bucking that trend.<\/p>\n

They’re swapping cocktails for international charity work.<\/p>\n

“They just said to me ‘we really don’t want to go to the Gold Coast. We want to do things for other people'”, said Mary Brell, a member of the Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak and leader of the trip.<\/p>\n

“Some were talking about going to Cambodia and Vietnam but I think when the opportunity came to go with rotary it really cemented their ideas in terms of where they wanted to go.”<\/p>\n

Rotary and Nepal<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the last six years Ms Brell and the Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak have been working with communities in Nepal.<\/p>\n

They’ve been doing everything from working in small schools to helping remote communities rebuild after an earthquake hit the nation in April 2015.<\/p>\n

It was through this work that Ms Brell met a principal from a very small school in the Chitwan Valley.<\/p>\n

“He asked if we’d come down and work with his school and I thought when we were putting together this project that this was a great school for these kids to go to,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“It’s an incredibly poor area so I think when these kids see the education over there they are going to be most surprised.”<\/p>\n

Work students will do<\/strong><\/p>\n

For three weeks the students will work in schools and spend time with the Nepalese people.<\/p>\n

“We fly into Kathmandu and then go down to the Chitwan Valley and help some kids out for about a week at a school teaching,” said Ben, one of the students involved in the trip.<\/p>\n

“And then we go on a hike and after that some of us will go back up to a village to help another school as well.”<\/p>\n

The school leavers will also be handing over equipment to the local children that they would never be able to afford.<\/p>\n

“We are taking little laptop computers, cricket kits, books and so much more,” explained Ms Brell.<\/p>\n

“The schools we are going to are incredibly poor so all this gear will go a very long way in helping them with their education.”<\/p>\n

The experience<\/strong><\/p>\n

This trip will see benefits for both the Nepalese schools and the central west students.<\/p>\n

Fleur said she is looking forward to her different schoolies experience.<\/p>\n

‘You’re giving something back to a community and there’s so much we can learn and grow from through this so I think it will be very rewarding,” she said.<\/p>\n

It’s also a chance for the school leavers to put into practice some of the lessons they’ve learnt in the classroom over the last 13 years.<\/p>\n

“Lots of people coming out of school forget half the stuff they learn,” said Jake, who is preparing to head to Nepal.<\/p>\n

“But we can now use what we’ve gained it use it to help other people which I think is very important.”<\/p>\n

How students will be welcomed<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the excitement in the 13 students is clear, Mary Brell said the most rewarding part is yet to come.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t told them a lot about how the communities will react when we arrive, but I know exactly what is going to happen,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“I’m very aware of the welcome they are going to receive from the locals particularly by the little kids over there.”<\/p>\n

With bags packed, excitement growing now the students just have to survive the long haul flight.<\/p>\n

But Jake said the experience will be worth the hours of travel and months of organisation.<\/p>\n

“Just to gain that knowledge that we are lucky to live in a country like Australia and to learn how to relate with that will be an amazing experience,” he said.<\/p>\n

Andie added that it was experiences like this that really allow you to get to know a country and make some change.<\/p>\n

“This is how we change the world by doing things like this,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everything adds up and it’s really important to do stuff like this.”<\/p>\n

And on top of all these benefits for both the central west students and Nepalese communities, Mary Brell said parents are benefiting as well.<\/p>\n

“As you can imagine the students’ parents are much happier that they’re coming to Nepal and doing something for other people than spending a few weeks at schoolies,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really a project and situation that everyone can feel good about.”<\/p>\n

Source: ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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