PARTICIPANTS in the 10th annual Cambodia Schoolies Alternative Trip participants will return home tomorrow after two life-changing weeks abroad.
This year’s team included 25 students from Cohuna Secondary College, Kerang Technical High School and Kerang Christian College, teachers, and community and Rotary representatives.
The initiative of the Rotary Club of Kerang also included students and teachers from several Darwin schools. All participants were self-funded and raised thousands of dollars throughout the year to support house-building and other projects in Cambodia.
The group flew out of Melbourne on November 27, joining the Darwin team in Singapore before departing for Siem Reap.The first week of the trip in Siem Reap included a Khmer language lesson, shopping at local markets for items to put together health and education packs and painting buildings at the Life and Hope Association’s Children’s Development Village.
The group also visited New Hope – an organisation providing schooling and medical care to residents of one of the city’s poorest slum areas – and Green Gecko, which is supporting street kids with food, shelter and education.Their last day in Siem Reap included a visit to Angkor Wat.Moving on to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the group received a disturbing insight into Cambodia’s past with visits to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek – one of Pol Pot’s killing fields.
They have also been house-building with the Tabitha Foundation, which builds more than 1000 homes annually in Cambodia. Local State politician Peter Walsh and his wife Rosanne Kava joined the trip as leaders for the first week, and Ms Kava shared her thoughts on the saltcambodia2016.blogspot.com.au blog.
“For me, the positive ‘can-do’ energy that our young people brought to whatever tasks they were set was really impressive,” she said.
“As a Rotarian it was heartening to see the way the Kerang Rotary Club through the Schoolies project and through direct donation has built on the facilities at Green Gecko.”
Student Sam Baxter wrote that despite the crushing hardships of their lives, the Cambodian people were “inherently friendly and polite, kind and hard-working”.
“The streets are paved with rubble, loose paving slabs and half-finished constructions, but despite this they remain optimistic and push forward,” he said.
