Selfless students volunteer abroad

Opportunities to travel are an important part of the learning experience for our secondary students, in terms of understanding the context in which they live and are empowered as active global citizens.

In a student-led biennial community service tour, three groups of Year 10 and 11 students participated in months of fundraising through the lead up to their 24-day tour across Laos and Cambodia in December 2019.

While on tour, the girls learned valuable lessons as they travelled. They planned their own meals, accommodation and transport; they also managed the daily team budget, with only minimal guidance from teachers if necessary.

“The adventure and uniqueness of this trip was shaped around the self-discovery of every individual student. Leadership, selflessness, kindness and teamwork were just some of the characteristics that were challenged within each girl,” said Penrhos Captain, Mignon du Plessis.

Each group had the unique and rewarding chance to experience the day-to-day life of a local village community in either Cambodia or Laos. The girls felt humbled to have the opportunity to dedicate their mind, heart, body and spirit to a worthy community-based project, in which they helped build new classrooms and boarding dormitories. The girls’ work was physically demanding as they were required to dig more than 40 holes in hot, humid weather for three days. In doing so, the girls felt they became connected to the local community, in which they also had the chance to interact with children of a similar age and to teach them English.

The trip was physically and emotionally challenging — together, the girls battled through the heat, homesickness, tears, and illness. Mentally, one of the toughest days was when the students visited the Killing Fields and S21, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia, to learn how more than a million people were brutally killed by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979.

But the positives always outweighed the challenges. Visiting an elephant sanctuary was a collective highlight, for which the girls made stuffed banana treats to feed the elephants. It was fascinating to learn these giant creatures cry just like humans do when they are sad, and that they make noises like dogs when they are happy!