Last week was an extra busy and fun filled week at S.C.A.O, with the arrival of pen pal letters from a school in Melbourne called Eltham College.
A few months ago children from S.C.A.O wrote pen pal letters to children at Eltham College. The Australian kids received their letters and were inspired to do some fund raising for their new friends and their school in Cambodia. They came up with the idea of running a cake stall and a free dress day, through which they raised enough money to buy many of the items on a wish list of things for the S.C.A.O kids and their school.
Miranda and Justin (friends of a volunteer at S.C.A.O named Alice) are teachers at Eltham College. They spent the week at, S.C.A.O bringing with them books, toys and funds donated and raised by the Australian school, it’s students and their families.
The children at S.C.A.O were delighted to receive their letters from their pen pals, and to watch the movie they had made about themselves. They couldn’t believe the children had baked all the wonderful looking cakes by themselves and were very excited to find out more about them and see their photos and drawings.
The week at English school (S.C.A.O) was spent reading and writing back to their letters, filming oral presentations about themselves and the school to send over to Australia, making and decorating envelopes, drawing pictures and reading books donated by Eltham College.
The money raised by the children at Eltham College was used to buy many bags of rice, fans for the school, sporting equipment, fruit and bread, a water filter, toys, a new set of clothes and shoes for every child living at the centre, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, dishwashing liquid, laundry powder and medicine and have a 15th birthday party for Li.
Now the S.C.A.O children’s beautiful pen pal letters are on their way over to Australia and the children are already thinking about the next letters they will send. With the enthusiasm shared by the children here and in Australia we hope this could be the beginning of some long and lasting friendships and a strong partnership between two great schools. It has certainly shown us the power of children and the differences they can make in the world, which thanks to some passionate kids is now feeling like a much smaller place.
