Posted on: 19/11/2024Posted on: September 1st 2017
Borneo - Summer 2017
In the summer 2017 a group of our sixth form students spent four weeks of their summer in South East Asia on the island of Borneo. They achieved some amazing things and are rightly very proud of what they have accomplished and contributed.
Whilst in Borneo, students spent some time in a rural murat tribe village which had no electricity or regular running water. During periods of drought or heavy rain, the reservoir which supplied their water would either empty or swell cutting off any water going into the village. The money students fundraised for last year, financed the construction of a new water reservoir and piping. Students then helped to install the piping which guarantees regular running water into the 15 homes in the village no matter the weather.
Not content with this, the students also helped the locals to build a “takraw” court. Takraw is the local sport which is essentially volleyball but played with your feet. The locals used to play the game on a stoney patch of grass which often resulted in injury. After a few days of helping the locals collect stone from a quarry and mixing cement, the group finished the court. The night the court was finished young people came from all the surrounding areas and stayed playing on the court until 1am in near zero light.
On their last day in the village, students went to the local secondary school and took part in their sports day allowing the local students to practice their english.
As well as their work in the village, students completed two 5 day treks in the Bornean jungle. On one of these treks, the students got to 1420m up Mount Kinabalu, higher than the summit of Ben Nevis. They camped out on these treks sleeping in hammocks. On one of the nights, they hunted, caught and cooked their own dinner which consisted of some frog, crickets and other insects. They managed to see all sorts of wildlife in this time including various snakes, sun bears, various huge insects, elephants, orangoutangs and proboscis monkeys.
The students couldn’t have been better ambassadors for our School. They acted with maturity beyond their years throughout and really gelled as a team.
A massive thank you on behalf of the group to everyone who supported the group in their fundraising efforts over the past 12 months and to everyone who indeed donated to their fundraising cause.
