A group of six Benalla P-12 College students will join four others from across north-east Victoria on an adventure to Nepal in September.
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Organised by the Outdoor School’s 15 Mile Creek and Bogong Campuses, the trip will see the youngsters assisting in medical clinic, which previous school groups helped set up.
This year will be the first visit to the fully operational clinic and local student Jessica Patterson, one of the six P-12 students attending, said she is looking forward to the experience.
‘‘It’s a three-week trip and while we are in Nepal we’ll be trekking through the Himalayas, visiting the capital, Kathmandu, and doing a home stay in a rural village,’’ Ms Patterson said.
‘‘We will get the opportunity to attend school in the village, but the main reason we are going over is to participate in a development program whereby we will assist at the medical clinic.
‘‘It’s based in a village that is only accessible by foot, so we’ll have some hiking to do to get there.’’
The students have been arranging fundraising initiatives since finding out about the trip.
‘‘It’s an expensive trip, so to help raise money for it we did a wood raffle and barbecue with Baddaginnie CFA,’’ Ms Patterson said.
‘‘We also set up a gofundme page.
‘‘A couple of us volunteered at the Winton Supersprints and during the Wall to Wall Festival we did an easter raffle.
‘‘Between all of those we’ve raised nearly $1000.’’
Ms Patterson said planning for the trip is ongoing and she is looking forward to finding out a bit more about the family she will be staying with in the rural village.
‘‘We don’t know too much about them yet,’’ Ms Patterson said.
‘‘But we have a launch program this week and we’ll get the opportunity to Skype with some of the families and get to know them a bit better.’’
With the days to departure counting down the students have an important upcoming fundraiser to help them along the way.
They are holding a movie fundraiser at BPACC with a screening of the Beatles movie Yesterday.
It is being held on Sunday, August 4, from 3.45pm. Tickets are $20, which includes afternoon tea, with 50 per cent going towards the students’ Nepal trip.