Read more to hear about our BBQ Fundraiser yesterday and an update from our English faculty.
The Lost Children of Jonglei BBQ Fundraiser
On Thursday the Year 12 Prefects and Student Leaders hosted a fundraiser BBQ for ACC students to help fund students from Kakuma Refugee Camp to gain further education. Earlier this term, Aduk Dau, founder of the Lost Children of Jonglei Scholarships, addressed our Secondary Students at an assembly. She explained the plight of young people in refugee camps and the opportunity a scholarship to a boarding school offers these students.
Students from Kindergarten to Year 12 supported this fundraiser by purchasing a sausage sandwich and drink. Some students also purchased metal water bottles that had been donated for the occasion. We would like to thank Mrs Sarah Aydin, Mr Hezekiah Rose and Mrs Deb Truman for all the work they put into organising the event and the senior students who worked hard on the day to ensure hundreds of students had a sausage lunch.
We would like to thank families for the support and excitedly announce that we raised $3,088.65 on the day. One year of school fees cost approximately $1800 and so we have nearly raised enough for two students to receive an education. Anyone else who would like to donate can contribute through Anglicare.
Link to donate: https://anglicanaid.org.au/donate/?GID=a0e7F000006zDUuQAM
English Faculty Update
This term, Year 9 have been learning about the migrant experience by studying Anh Do’s Memoir, The Happiest Refugee, and other supplementary texts.
Last week, Miss Tranter’s class undertook an “empathy task” where they were encouraged to step into the shoes of those who have sought refuge by boat. In Do’s memoir, he uses powerful and vivid imagery to write about his experience of being smuggled out of Vietnam at the age of 3. On this trip, Anh and his family experienced extreme temperatures, hunger, two pirate attacks and a variety of other setbacks.
Year 9 measured out the size of the boat with tape which was 9 metres by 2.5 metres. Year 9 then had to sit in the boundaries of the “boat” and write two diary entries from Day One and Day Five of being on the boat. Through this task, students were promoted to also utilise the vivid imagery that Do uses in his memoir. Year 9 described what they were seeing, feeling, thinking, smelling, tasting and hearing on the boat.
Blake Mitton
Day 1
It’s my first day on the boat. I can feel the scorching sun roasting away at my skin . There’s a stench so bad that I actually considered cutting off my smell. It’s a scent of vomit mixed with sweat and a hint of human waste. I can feel the shudders of the people either side of me, squeezing me in between them. My whole body was numb from standing for so long. It was only the first day, but I was already sick and tired of the plain rice. As night fell, it was terrifying as we were surrounded by a dark abyss.
Isaac Adams
Day 1
We’ve made it. We’re off and onward into an infinite horizon of sea. This huge, chocked, huddled crowd of living hope has been floating for hours now. It’s pretty difficult to not be pressed against someone else…
Day 5
As much as I am patient, my health is not looking well anymore. In fact, things are looking way more hopeless. My skin is becoming a desert, my tongue is gonna fall off soon, and there's nothing around in the sea for miles. People feel less smooth, more sandpaper-ish. The hope that was once gleaming to this boat may be starting to gleam weaker.
