Service and fundraising in Morocco
During the IB Geography field trip to Morocco at Easter, a group
of Lower Sixth students took learning resources to a women’s
association and met girls living at a boarding house that Sevenoaks
supports through fundraising.
The women’s association, based in Zagora in south-eastern
Morocco, helps recently widowed or divorced ladies who require
refuge. They collaborate to grow food, look after children and teach
one another craft skills that can lead to employment, including
weaving and textiles.
The Sevenoaks students took ‘school in a box’ bags to hand out to
the children. These brightly coloured rucksacks proved to be very
popular. They were full of stationery, such as pencils, maths sets and
calculators, as well as workbooks, stickers and toys, providing them
with the tools they need to continue with their education.
The bags are an extension of Sevenoaks School’s Outreach Box
programme, which was launched in September 2017 and provides
fun and specialist learning resources for primary schools in and
around Sevenoaks. This new venture with outreach bags has enabled
us to share the initiative globally.
While in Morocco, the IB students also visited a boarding house that
enables girls from mountain villages to have an education. The house
is run by the charity Education for All, which we have supported for
a number of years, through profits raised from our popular
Geography Calendar. This year we successfully raised £2000. Several
of the Sixth Formers had contacted the girls at the Education for All
house in advance and, through sharing ideas, images and language,
generated a highly valuable cultural exchange.
It was with a healthy mixture of excitement and trepidation
that 11 Lower Sixth students met at Solefields on a cool June
morning for the journey to Mumbai on this year’s PROMO trip.
We visited the various charitable NGOs that the school
supports and immersed ourselves in Indian culture.
We hope that next year’s field trip to Morocco will be able to build
on the links established with the refuge and play a small part in
improving the life chances of children living in this challenging
desert margin environment.
Graeme Lawrie, Elen Harris and Gareth Willis
“All of the children loved the bags and
the women and children at the refuge
were hugely appreciative. In fact many
of the kids did not worry about what
was inside – the fact that they had a
bright rucksack to wear appeared to
make their day!”
Elen Harris
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SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2017-2018
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