All for a cause

A group of 33 students from St Christopher's Senior School are visiting the Chiang Mai Province in northern Thailand on a community service trip to help build a medical centre and classroom.

They finally set off this week having had their original trip cancelled late last year due to political unrest in the country which closed down the airport.

The volunteers from the Sixth Form are accompanied by four teachers and, once there, will meet with students from Wilmington Girls Grammar, from Kent in the UK, who are involved with the same project.

The students will stay at the Maekok River Resort which runs the Maekok River Village Project offering community service programmes to international schools.

"The school has taken students once before and we hope to continue the link in order to provide as much support as possible to the local community," said Louise Brown, one of the four members of faculty travelling to Thailand.

The pupils, under the guidance of their teachers, have raised funds to support the community work.

Here two of the pupils taking part write for GulfWeekly.

IN a country like Bahrain, where medical care in hospitals, a high class of education in schools and five star dining in restaurants become a part of our day to day life, it is hard to take time to feel empathy for other, less fortunate communities.

However, at St Christopher's senior school, students are becoming increasingly aware of the hardships faced by others. They are having their eyes opened to a completely alien way of life through events and trips such as the community service trip to Thailand.

This year, a selection of willing volunteers have decided to dedicate their time and effort to help improve the quality of life for a local community in northern Thailand, aiming to build a medical centre and a classroom for the local school.

In order to achieve this goal, a sufficient amount of funds needed to be raised for building material and the support of professional labourers and experts was needed. Those participating in the trip came up with a range of ideas including a bake sale which was very successful and a sponsored swim covering the distance around Bahrain.

In addition to this, the Atkins Group and BMMI generously stepped in, each accounting for a substantial sum of the total money raised.

Their generosity is really appreciated by all and we look forward to continued relations with these companies.

Our bake sale was open to the entire student body and we raised a surprising BD160 in one sale alone. The 'Swim around Bahrain' event saw students, predominantly from the Sixth Form, collectively swimming 160km, the equivalent of the distance around the country, in the school swimming pool.

Throughout the week running up to the event, the swimmers had other students, family and friends sponsor them per length, enabling participation from a large number of people, this not only raised awareness, but also increased the amount of sponsors per person, helping us towards the final sum of BD1,700, a fantastic and certainly epic event which will be well remembered by all.

Our two main sponsors, BMMI and Atkins Group, were interested in this charity, seeing the potential of our project in Thailand and therefore contributing to our funds. BMMI donated BD500 and the Atkins Group gave BD1,000.

The students attending the trip were also given a presentation on construction and health and safety by Atkins, enhancing their skills. Atkins also created T-shirts for the students, which will be in turn given to members of the local community.

We and the Thai community greatly appreciate each donation, as well as the money raised form the events. It is a wonderful feeling knowing that these efforts will improve the lives of local residents in the long term by building a stronger, brighter and healthier future which they can all look forward to.

-_By Fowzia Mahmood and Montana Sheikh (left)