Oak students prepare for ‘once-in-a- lifetime’ volunteering trip abroad

STUDENTS and teachers at Melksham Oak Community School are preparing for an adventure to Thailand, Tanzania and Cambodia, where they will volunteer in communities and schools for two weeks.

A group of nineteen Year 12 students and four teachers will pack their rucksacks and split into groups to visit each country, along with students and teachers from three other schools in the White Horse Federation; The Ridgeway School in Wroughton, John Madejski Academy in Reading, and Devizes School.

The first group will visit Thailand in May half-term, with the two other trips to Tanzania and Cambodia happening in July.

With the help of teachers, the trips are being organised by Challenge Abroad, a charity with a mission to create a new generation of young people who are global citizens.

Melksham Oak teacher, Kirstie Jones, who will be heading to Cambodia with the students said, “This will be an incredible experience for the students and is aimed at creating a new generation who are well-rounded people.

Challenges

“The challenges we anticipate cropping up will be dealing with the time difference, it’s a working trip so they will be getting up very early to start work, the students will be staying in a community hostel that is not luxurious. Some students have never flown before, or even been abroad, so they have had to get passports sorted. We’ve all had to have jabs.”

To prepare for new cultures, students have attended online education sessions with Challenge Abroad. Kirstie said, “When we go to Cambodia, as females we can’t wear shorts and we aren’t allowed to show our shoulders. We will all be living on a vegetarian diet mostly in some of the countries and this may be a shock for some students who are not used to that. All of this will contribute to them becoming global citizens.”

Ruby who is going to Thailand said, “The trip will help me with my future but these things are going to stick with the people I impact, like the children in the community, for their whole lives. I think it will open my eyes to lots of cultural differences. I have never been to Thailand before, so I am very excited.”

 Caleb who is going to Cambodia said, “It’s going to be awesome. On one of the weekends, we are going to the largest religious monument in the world and that’s quite exciting.

Cultural shocks

There will be some cultural shocks that will be massive. It will be quite hard to view a life that I don’t have a lot of knowledge with, so I feel like it would be hard to adapt to it and to learn. I am there for two weeks and I will be able to adapt. I am sure they will have loads of good things in their culture to learn from.”

To be selected for the trip, the students were required to submit application forms and took part in interviews internally at the school. Kirstie said, “We had more students apply than places, so we had an interview process where the ones selected were chosen for their work ethic, team work, school attendance, how well they performed in the interview, and the skills they could bring to the trip.”

Fundraising

Challenge Abroad have funded the trips, but students are required to fundraise to put back into the charity’s funding pot.

 Kirstie said, “The students need to fundraise around £7,000. They have done a fantastic job and have held events like a disco for the year 7s where we had a ‘sponge the teacher’ game and limbo dancing. They have done a cake and refreshments stall at parents’ evening, a car boot sale, quiz night and chocolate bingo. The students have organised all of this themselves and have raised a considerable amount of money. They have done incredibly well.”

Last year, Melksham Oak’s teaching lead, Amie Hayden-Smith, took a group of Year 13 students to Nepal, where they worked in schools and volunteered in an elephant sanctuary. Following the success of that trip, the school decided to branch out to visit more communities and schools in low-income countries, and get involved with Challenge Abroad.

The students’ next fundraising event is chocolate bingo on 13th June at Melksham Oak Community School. Entry is £1 and it costs £1 to play a game. For more information, contact the school on, 01225 792700.

Pictured: Some Year 12 students and teachers L-R (Mr Bedecker; Mr Bond; Miss Hayden-Smith; and Mrs Jones).