Each year Girton Grammar School offer departing Year 12 students a Community Service based "Alternative Schoolies Trip" and this year these eight wonderful students put their hand up to step out of their comfort zone and spend two weeks volunteering and learning about some inspiring foundations and organisations in Cambodia and Thailand.

 

Volunteering is challenging and volunteering in a different country is challenging but so rewarding…….

These students have not long finished a very busy year at school. Their exams are done and they are ready for some rest and relaxation. So before we roll up our sleeves and get busy we visit Cambodia for four days. We based ourselves at The Kabiki in Phnom Penh.

We did some sightseeing at the Kings palace and the Killing fields & S21

We learnt about the Daughters of Cambodia. Daughters of Cambodia exists to empower those trapped in the sex industry in Cambodia to walk free and start a new life, with healing and dignity,

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They offer a wide range of rewarding jobs, such as screen printing, chef, barista,

They teach the clients how to sustain their new life-styles in non-institutional settings, and they provide recovery programs including social work, counselling, medical treatment and life-skills classes. Daughters of Cambodia aims to help at least 100 girls each year to permanently walk free from sex-work, and to experience psychological healing and quality of life. 

 

We also visited a wonderful restaurant called Friends. The profits from our meals went towards training the chefs and the waiters at the nearby Hospitality School.

We spent time at Connecting Hands This is a training cafe  designed for young women who have escaped lives of highly vulnerable backgrounds such as human trafficking, sexual slavery and domestic violence to gain life changing skills and qualifications within the hospitality industry.

Their goal is to empower young women to change their own lives with traineeships and on the job training as cooks, baristas and customer service staff within our training cafe Through the program, every student who graduates is offered a full-time position either within the training cafe, where they can continue their learning while earning a generous and sustainable income.

Or if appropriate and the student is ready, they will be assisted to find paid permanent employment outside the training cafe using their newly established skills. By doing so they are empowering women to create a future for themselves, away from poverty, prostitution and slavery, giving them hope for a brighter and sustainable future.

 

Over the past six years Girton Grammar School have established a strong relationship with the Father Ray Foundation in Pattaya, Thailand. The Father Ray Foundation provides, free of charge, essential services care and hope for over 850 underprivileged and disadvantaged children. There are several parts to the Father Ray Foundation

Vocational School for People with Disabilities: School for the Blind, Children’s Home, Father Ray Children’s Village, Father Ray Day Care Center, and Center for Children with Special Needs.

 

Once we arrived we went shopping with the money donated to us by the Rotary Club of Bendigo Sandhurst, for donations for the different places we would be working at over the next week. We purchased educational books, games , sports equipment, rice, medical supplies, shoes. It’s amazing how far the Australian dollar can go in Thailand. Fortunately, the transport is big ute/trucks so we could travel with our purchases. Our first place was the Day Care Centre. We spent time at the Human Help Network centre where the children visit everyday from the construction sites nearby. Started as a tent in paddock. Children are fed, bathed, wounds dressed and educated by the volunteers. We purchased talcum powder, shampoo, betadine, bandages and soap.

 

When we were organising our visit to the Children’s Home we learnt that the children were waning to enter a local soccer tournament but because they didn’t have any shin pads, they were not allowed to play. One boy tried to make some out of cardboard he was that desperate to enter. We decided to purchase 20 pairs of shin guards so that the teams could enter. We also challenged them to a game of soccer.  Very hot conditions plus a few extra players on the Father Ray team resulted in a loss 1-0 for Australia.

Our Junior School students raised $2000 dollars through a Cake/Slice/Pie drive. This money sponsored a meal at the Child Protection centre, and It also ensured that all of the children at the Father Ray Children’s Village will celebrate  Christmas with a delicious lunch at a local restaurant. This is seen as a highlight of the year for the children.

The Child Protection and Development Centre provides a home for children who used to live on the streets and therefore were in danger of exploitation, abuse and extreme poverty. In all cases the children have been traumatized by events and experiences in their childhood.  The centre consists of eight residence houses, each offering space for up to eight children and a supervisor. At the moment 35 boys and 30 girls are living in CPDC.

The children living at CPDC attend public schools in the local area. CPDC supports the children in becoming independent young adults.   CPDC has several farming projects – a garden project, a pig and a chicken farm. With these projects the children learn how to plant different vegetables and herbs and how to take care of others.

We spent some time at the Technological College for People with Disabilities and helped with conversation classes. It was great for our students to see that these young adults were not that different form themselves with boyfriend issues, decisions to make about careers and when they should move out of home. It put a lot of things in perspective.

 

A highlight was a visit to the Father Ray School for the Blind. The students were challenged to experience what life is like for students who attend this school and this was for only half an hour! Two of the students had just returned from Australia where they represented Thailand in the National Goalball Championships. The object is to roll the ball into the opponent’s goal while the opposing players try to block the ball with their bodies. Bells inside the ball help to orientate the players by indicating the direction of the oncoming ball. Therefore while play is in progress, complete silence is required to allow the players to concentrate and react instantly to the ball.  Remaining silent was just as challenging as not being able to see where the ball was.

 

On behalf of Girton Grammar school I would like to thank you for your kind and generous support of our alternative Schoolies program The money you allocated to us was all spent on the children of the father Ray Foundation whether it be through the purchase of a soccer ball or ensuring that each child received the medical treatment they required. 

 

I’m just going to talk a bit about my experience on this fantastic trip. I honestly decided to join this expedition to Thailand and Cambodia for a break away with my friends, after finishing Year 12. I was actually quite nervous about travelling and going to the schools within Father Ray because I don’t travel very often and I’m quite shy and not very confident. The language barrier, also, added to my nerves because I didn’t want to overstep or insult their culture if I accidentally miscommunicated.

 

So I had all these things running through my head when we finally came to Thailand after an incredible visit in Cambodia, with the Tuk tuk rides definitely hitting the mark as one of my favourite parts. But then we got to go to the Father Ray Daycare and with all the smiling and cheeky kids running about I eventually just relaxed and made it my job to keep those kids smiling.

 

As we were fortunately able to provide some entertainment and education to other amazing places like the Human Health Network, School for Children with Special Needs, the Children’s Village and so much more, I was able to believe in myself a bit more. I got to teach some kids how to kick and handball a footy, I sang ‘Love is an Open Door’ from Frozen in front of a group of teenagers and I had a long conversation about Disney with one of the girls at the Vocational School of students with disabilities, and that was a great experience for me because she said ‘I Love You’ to me and we just kept repeating it back to each other, which really melted my heart.

 

I never thought I could do all these things and it made me feel incredible and very fortunate that I could to be apart of these kids lives and make them happy, considering the terrible reality for them all. In short, this trip was a mind-blowing experience that didn’t only inspire and encourage the children we met but also us as individuals. And me personally, I was thinking of become a teacher and studying education next year at university, so this experience really made me realise that I was capable of doing that.  Thank you.

 

 

 

The recipient of our District 9800 Scholarship at Victory College Hailey Petrowski

Here is a photo of the student who received the Foundation Scholarship grant from our club.

Her mother has passed on through the school that she is very grateful her daughter has received this grant.

Cathie

 

The meeting of Wednesday January 29th 2020 will be an Industry Visit to Pepper Green Farm, 40-44 Thunder Street,

follow the tram tracks to the Joss House. PGF has catering facilities and members will be able to order breakfast from

the menu ($15-$20 are indicative prices). There will be a presentation by Liz March, CEO of Access, followed by a tour

of the facility.PGF offers employment for people with a disability in a horticultural setting.

 

Further information contact Jim Rolfe (0407554263)

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Report from Cathie Steele, chair of Foodshare Bendigo 

Tuesday 17th December 2019