Federation Training VCAL students are taking the welfare of a fellow student on the other side of the globe in Uganda into their own hands by fundraising to support him through school.
The VCAL students hosted a public fundraising event for their sponsor child, Amon, titled ‘Amon’s Mad Feed’ on Thursday with the aim of raising $200 towards his education and related expenses.
VCAL student Felicity Pyatt said students helped organise the fundraising event, which took the form of a gold-coin-donation lunch with other activities such as a raffle and a ‘guess how many lollies are in the jar’ competition.
“We have a raffle, and we [the students] went around Moe, Morwell and Traralgon to collect donations,” Ms Pyatt said.
“We have been planning since the start of the year and it has progressed slowly over the year.”
Ms Pyatt said the fundraising event taught students about planning events.
“It has given us experience in planning stuff out and it is a good deed, giving to a child in need,” she said.
VCAL teacher Jo Portelli said the students were sponsoring Amon through locally-founded organisation One Planet Classrooms which, among other things, works to provide educational opportunities for children in Ugandan villages who otherwise wouldn’t have those opportunities.
“Students have made the food and got to do some of the organising,” Ms Portelli said.
“It is good for them to get those teamwork skills, communication skills and for them to develop empathy for another person.”
Founded by Gippsland woman Kerryn Vaughan, One Planet Classroom also works to fund projects in villages such as water tanks and sew sanitary pads for young women who otherwise couldn’t attend school while menstruating.
The fundraising event raised $570 some of which may also go towards a water project in Amon’s village.
For more information about One Planet Classrooms, visit oneplanetclassrooms.com.
