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Issue 5, June 4, 2013
Walk for a Bus!
by Catherine Lutvey and Declan
Crowe
We have had an amazing four months volunteering at Don Bosco High School
and Vocational Centre in Salelologa, Savai’i. Throughout this incredible
journey we have continuously looked for ways to improve the student’s
education and wellbeing. We have learnt a lot about mission work and
ourselves, and realised that an essential part of this ‘mission’ experience is to
be present and make a commitment to this community of people around us
and help them in whatever way is needed.
Fr Mosese, the Principal of our school, has been concerned about student attendance and the student’s safety when
travelling to and from school for quite some time. He came up with the idea to walk around Savai’i and raise money for a
school bus. We wanted to be part of this cause, as we believe that this is one way we can fulfill our mission of helping this
school community and assist them to achieve this goal. We want to give all students in Savai’i the opportunity to receive a
holistic education; academically, socially, culturally and spiritually so that they can reach their full potential in life.
We believe that a bus will open up that opportunity to more young people on this island. There are four main reasons why
we are walking for a school bus:
- to provide alternative safe transport for students
- to enable those who currently can’t afford to pay
for their bus fares to come to school
- to ensure regular and punctual attendance at
school
- to provide transport to and from sporting, cultural
and educational events
We have experienced first-hand the difficulties that some
students face when travelling to and from school each day
via public transport. Village buses are extremely
overcrowded, infrequent and often drivers will take adults
as passengers before students because their fares are triple
the price. This leads to numerous problems, such as some
students having 12-hour days to travel to and from school
and others missing school as they are not being picked up
from the side the road.
On Monday 19th August, Fr Mosese and both of us are setting off to walk
180km around Savai’i to raise funds for a school bus. We are planning to
complete the walk in 7 days. Along the way, we will overnight in villages
and take the opportunity to talk with families in the village and
encourage parents to support their kids’ education. We want to send the
message that this could be as simple as helping them with their
homework or spending some time reading at home.
We are very excited about this initiative and have started our training
and preparation for this walk. If you would like to know more about how
you can support this cause, please visit The Cagliero Project’s website http://www.cagliero.org.au and follow the “Walk for
a Bus” link or ‘like’ us on Facebook to keep updated at http://www.facebook.com/WalkforaBus.
If you would like more information you can also contact Catherine at catherinelutvey@gmail.com and Declan at
dcrowe_93@hotmail.com.
