A PERSISTENT Grant High School student and his peers are reaching out to the community to secure support for future international endeavours.
Year 9 student Joseph McMahon and a group of 10 other students will self-sufficiently travel overseas to Cambodia and Vietnam next year helping underdeveloped communities with the hope of learning valuable life skills.
The Rotary Club of Mount Gambier was approached by Joseph to help raise funds for his trip.
The club gave the student the opportunity to run the Rotary Market barbecue for four consecutive weeks, providing him a total of $1000.
“Fundraising allows us to develop our personal skills as we have to engage with the South East community, raise awareness about our project and communicate with people we may have never interacted with previously,” Joseph said.
“We will be supervised by two teachers and a travel guide over the expedition, but we are expected to work as a team and make decisions ourselves.
“This means booking all accommodation, travel, deciding where and what food we buy and how we manage our group funds,” he said.
Each individual team member is expected to raise approximately $7000 in order to participate in the trip.
“When overseas, we have the opportunity to work with individual communities and make lasting contributions,” he said.
“We will develop a better understanding of some challenges local people are faced with and will be able to work with them to develop solutions to local environmental priorities.
“Learning and experiencing a contrasting lifestyle is something I look forward to.”
Joseph will continue to seek community support in order to achieve his fundraising goal.
