Rotarians hear how students overcame World challenge
TWO students from King Edward VI School were guest speakers at Stratford-upon-Avon Rotary Club recently where they described their experiences following a World Challenge expedition to Morocco.
During the summer, six members of the school’s teaching staff led a party of 38 year 13 students on an expedition to Morocco.
World Challenge takes place every two years to enable all sixth form students to have an opportunity to participate, with the objective of carrying out useful voluntary work and to gain practical experience of working in another country.
The individual costs of the expedition have to be raised by the participants themselves and they did this by part-time working, sales of cakes and sponsored sports activities.
The group flew to Marrakech, then split into three teams going to three different towns in the interior, each team supported by two teachers and a World Challenge expedition leader and local guides where necessary.
They stayed with local project hosts in family homes and local community facilities. The voluntary work centred around improving facilities in local junior schools, specifically improving toilet and sanitation facilities and enhancing security through improving walls and gates.
They helped with general gardening to improve water retention in plant beds and developing sporting facilities.
After one week of voluntary work, the groups set off for different locations to trek through the High Atlas Mountains, wild camping near villages and starting their treks very early in the morning to avoid the high mid-day temperatures.
Two students, Roxy Francombe and Jamie Chang, described their experiences to Rotary members and spoke of the cultural experiences of staying with local people, the lifestyle, customs and food with which they were unfamiliar and the inevitable difficulties of communication since the people they met spoke either Arabic or the Berber language, though some people in the towns spoke French but almost no English was heard.
The accomplished and confident presentation by these two students of their experiences led to many questions from Rotary members about places they stayed, the families they met, the foods they liked and the memories they brought away with them.
The students expressed their thanks for Rotary financial support for equipment and supplies required for their building work.
