Bribie students return from Cambodia
15 October 2009
By Sophie Skordilis
Mending fences ... A group of Year 11 girls from Bribie Island State High recently volunteered at an orphanage in Cambodia.
Sleeping on bamboo mats on the floor was one of the challenges faced by a group of Bribie Island students when they travelled to Cambodia earlier this month.
The nine Year 11 girls from Bribie Island State High School, north of Brisbane, volunteered at the Garden of Joy Orphanage in the small village of Sobhan.
Accompanying the students was teacher and co-organiser Jen Williams. She said the girls gave up their creature comforts of home to live, eat and sleep alongside the orphaned Khmer children.
Ms Williams, who also took a team of students on the same trip last year, said the girls enjoyed the experience once they adjusted to their new conditions.
'It becomes a life changing and gratifying experience,' she said.
'The children are delightful and so appreciative. We played lots of fun games with them.
'The girls gave the children English lessons and worked very hard to help build a 350-metre fence around the orphanage - to keep thieves out and chickens in.
The students from Bribie Island State High working with some of the children at the orphanage.
'They got a real feel for the country and its people as they moved around visiting local villages, a hospital and a school.'
Fellow organiser and Bribie Island teacher Paul Hodges said the experience helped students develop leadership qualities and deepened their own identities as young adults.
'The students can't help but be inspired to want to make the world a better place when they see the poverty and inequity that exists in other societies,' Mr Hodges said.
'After coming back from the trip, I have found the girls have a better understanding of developing countries and a new appreciation of what they have at home.'
Mr Hodges said the local school community had supported the initiative.
'The Bribie Island Handicraft Ladies knitted teddy bears for the orphans and each of the girls raised the $3500 needed to attend,' he said.
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