Dawn Gibson
Sooke News Mirror
Two Grade 10 Edward Milne Community School students in Sooke are heading overseas to help build a school in Kenya this summer.
The two friends, Tia Helfrich and Angela Haddad, decided they wanted to volunteer after attending a youth philanthropy conference. One of the presentations was given by an author who had done similar volunteering in Africa.
“We just felt really inspired, so we searched up different places to volunteer and ended up finding a program in Kenya,” said Helfrich. “I think it will be really rewarding to go there, and to see what it’s like in a Third World country.”
The two students will be going for 20 days with a larger group as part of the ME to WE program, beginning July 7. On the trip, they will tour the area and interact with locals, as well as go to different schools and meet students.
Haddad and Helfrich said they are looking forward to meeting the children, and that it will be interesting to talk with people who have such different backgrounds from theirs.
“I feel like we are so privileged over here, and we don’t realize the great struggles that other people go through. Especially for basic things like education, that we take for granted,” said Helfrich. “Because there aren’t many schools in the area that we are going to help out in, I like the idea that the kids will now have somewhere to go and learn.”
To raise money for the trip, Helfrich has been working multiple part-time jobs, and will be holding a bottle drive in coming months, she also has a Go Fund Me page started with a goal of raising $5,000.
To donate, please go online to www.gofundme.com/VolunteerInKenya.