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The aim of our project was to build a toilet block for
the girls of Holy Family Higher Secondary School, Alleppey,
Kerala. We did this with the support of our school,
Abbey Grange C E High School Humanities College who
raised the money for the materials for the toilet block
through their Global Justice Group's 'Spend a Penny'
Campaign
Stepping out of the airport at Cochin it finally hit
home that I was on the other side of the world, what
with the sudden heat and the mass of foreign faces staring
back at me. My friend Emily and I were met by Navin,
one of the founders of YearOutIndia who drove us to
the project site at Alleppey on the coast. It was an
experience in itself sat in a small car driving through
traffic on an Indian road for the first time as there
are few rules; if there's a space you go for it, even
if it's on the wrong side of the road.
When we got to Holy Family School, we met up with two
other girls from my sixth-form, Amy and Emily. The children
from the school wanted to know everything about us and
our life in England; they were amazed that we had gone
all that way to help build a toilet block for them.
We were in the local newspaper and on TV. The nuns and
teachers were really helpful, and the children were
great; they tried to teach us their language, which
was often difficult to pronounce. By building the toilet
block, we were helping to keep girls in school which
would, in turn, better their lives. It was such a great
feeling to know that we were having a positive impact
there.
As well as being fortunate enough to see the 'real-life'
side of India and try and improve it for those children
at the School, I got to do 'touristy' things too. One
weekend we went up to the mountains to the Periyar Tiger
Reserve, where we went on a trek through the forest
to see native wildlife and had a ride on an elephant
(which was amazing!).
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