Wagga Participants befriend Solomon Islands

Alex Sarantakos has been The Duke of Ed Coordinator at The Riverina Anglican College for the past six years and has worked alongside his Participants in achieving their Awards and taking part in some incredible opportunities. One such opportunity for prospective Gold Participants has been to travel to the Island of Isabel in the Solomon Islands as part of their Adventurous Journey.

 

For Participants to be successful they needed to have the right drive, determination and motivation as they were preparing for the trip alongside their normal school workload and other commitments.

 

"The Participants needed to have a good level of determination as they were having to fit in activities and preparation leading up to the travel along with their other school and community work...before the trip they had to create a lesson plan to teach at the school on the island and come up with a 20 minute media presentation of their life as an Australian teenager which they presented," said Alex.

 

The Participants also took part in fundraising activities in preparation for their journey to subsidise part of their travel costs, purchase resources to take with them, along with giving some of the money raised to local charities as a way of supporting their own community.

 

The students left for the Solomon Islands during their semester break and learned a great deal about the customs of the island. For all of them this was the first time they had ever been in a community where their hosts had no refrigeration, electric or gas stove, and everything they consumed was caught, harvested and prepared that same day.  The Participants also delivered a variety of programs which they developed to the local school students.

 

Alex said that they each had a role to play in their team and the community, and although Participants were shocked by the lifestyle which was so primitive, they could have stayed for a much longer period of time.

 

"The Participants came back with so much more appreciation for life, and although it has taken a lot of work, we proved that it is achievable...it was incredible to see them take that sense of ownership over a project so big."