St Patrick’s Technical College students and staff will travel to Cambodia in September 2017 to learn new skills and share their knowledge to help build stronger communities.
With the help of the Rotary Club of Elizabeth, 14 students and three teachers will spend ten days in Cambodia’s Siem Reap area helping to improve the lives of local school students. Elizabeth Rotary has kindly donated $5000 to financially assist a number of students to take part in the trip.
The 2017 trip will include two projects:
The major project will see students and staff undertake a construction project. This will use the skills the technical college students have learnt while in the school’s workshops in northern Adelaide and apply them to help a school in Cambodia. The students will also be asked to teach the local students many of the construction skills to ensure the project can be maintained for the long-term. This year the students will build on the work they did in 2016, which saw 800m of water pipe laid from the local well to the school, by helping to bring water to the community market.
The second project will see the school create book packs, buy uniforms and purchase bicycles for students of a remote school. Without these things, students cannot attend the government school. StPatsTech hopes to ease the burden on the local families by buying books, stationery, uniforms and bicycles so remote students can more easily access school each day.
The College has launched a GoFundMe page which will raise money that will go directly towards construction material and school needs of Cambodian children. StPatsTech will purchase the goods in-country to reduce shipping costs and support the local economy and encourage those who are able to donate via the GoFundMe page.
The journey to Cambodia embodies the St Patrick’s Technical College belief of Faith in Action. Passing on and sharing skills to ensure projects are successful for a lifetime, is an important part of this work by StPatsTech.