By Mikayla van Loon
Before disembarking on a two week trip to Northern Thailand, Billanook College students visited Quilts for Orphans (QFO) in Hoddles Creek to pick up a few handmade items to take with them.
The service project tour will see 20 senior school students travel to a small village in the South East Asian country where they will help build a classroom for local residents.
Director of learning and tour leader Matt Wood said the trip opens the students’ eyes to what the rest of the world might be grappling with.
“It shows them how much bigger their world is. It puts them out of their comfort zone but it just provides them with a different perspective about the needs of others,” he said.
Basing themselves in a village close to the border of Myanmar and Thailand, Mr Wood said often people who are fleeing the civil unrest in Myanmar find themselves without support from the Thai government.
By building essential infrastructure like classrooms, toilet blocks, kitchens and cafeterias, Mr Wood said it allows the students to “contribute to the community”.
Having formed a connection with QFO around 2015 through a past student’s grandmother, Mr Wood said it has become tradition for students to pass on a selected quilt.
“Every time we go over, we bring our students here and they’re presented with a quilt that they will take over and deliver,” he said.
For QFO president Annette Stone, seeing the students be so engaged and knowing the quilts are going to good homes makes all the difference.
“It pleases us to know that it gets to the people on the ground, that it’s arrived and it’s a bit of a two way win because they’re learning as well,” she said.
With hundreds of quilts ready or in the process of being ready to donate, QFO will be sending another lot with a member to Vietnam later this year.
Fiona is just one of the Year 10 and 11 students heading off on the trip in a few weeks time and although she’s not quite sure what to expect, she is looking forward to the experience.
“I’ve never been overseas before so [I’m looking forward to] going overseas and helping out people that are less privileged than me,” she said.
“I live a very privileged life and not everyone else does. So stepping out of my comfort zone and seeing how other people live.”
Knowing there might be a level of poverty unlike here in Australia, Fiona said she knows the trip might be “saddening” but also very rewarding.
A requirement of the service project is that students self fund the trip, meaning they have been working hard to fundraise money over many months, both collectively and individually.
“It’s certainly challenging. We’ve been having to work together, so it’s been a team bonding experience before we head over,” Fiona said.
Mr Wood said with students departing in the last week of term three, just six weeks away, the students are “putting the final preparations into fundraising”.
“Because the kids wear a school tie, they’ve got a tie for tie day coming up where the whole school can wear a crazy tie to raise a gold coin from everyone,” he said.
Billanook College has been running the Northern Thailand Service Project tour for around 15 years, with the last one taking place in 2019.
As of next year, middle school students will also be given the opportunity to go to Fiji on a similar service trip, with the two trips then alternating each year.
Reconnecting with QFO on Tuesday 25 July, Mr Wood and the students presented the volunteers with framed photos of past students handing over the quilts in the villages they visited.
Mr Wood is grateful knowing that these students who have elected to go are committed to bettering their own understanding of the world as well as helping a community.
“We’re just thrilled, we’re not a big school, we’re not a massive school but to have 20 kids put their hand up because at the same time we’ve got an adventure tour, a skiing trip to New Zealand for 30 to 40 kids.
“They’re doing that whereas these guys could have done that but they’ve chosen to do that level of service.”
From past experiences, Mr Wood said it’s not uncommon for students to go back years later to visit the village they once helped, reforming the bonds they make.
“Every kid that’s gone, they’ve all said the same thing, it’s given them a greater appreciation of what they’ve got here,” Mr Wood said.
“It’s really interesting to watch day one, when they arrive at the village to the last day. We put on a big celebration at the end and when we have to say goodbye there’s not a dry eye. It’s really emotional because of the bonds they form with the kids.”
As for QFO, they have two big events coming up, starting with a pop up market in Monbulk in October and then two weeks at Mont de Lancey in November with a display of quilts, as well as the sale of fat quarters just in time for the Christmas period.
For more information contact QFO president Annette Stone on 0407 648 618, email info@quiltsfororphans.org or visit the website www.quiltsfororphans.org
