By Tanya Faulkner
There’s nothing more rewarding than getting amongst your community and lending a helping hand, something local students have experienced earlier this month.
As part of their service week, ADRA Ferntree Gully Emergency Relief Centre opened their doors to several local year 9 students from Nunawading Christian College, as part of their service curriculum through school.
ADRA FTG director Sue Beament said they have run the program for the past two years with the students, and they get right into the ‘dirty work’ each year.
“The students lent a hand with our food parcels and clothing racks, seeing what it was like to support their local community.
“The students came down around 9:30 on Monday 11 September and worked through the school day with ADRA
“They helped clean and sort eggs and vegetables from Coles (through the Second Bite program), helped to bring it back to church hall, sorted and packed into family lots.
Ms Beament said it’s a very rewarding experience for the students.
“For some of the students it can be quite confronting and eye opening, because they see people coming in real need, and it helps them to understand they are very blessed.
“It only takes an accident, or losing a job, to go from being a secure family on a safe income, to becoming financially vulnerable,” she said.
The students also helped to prepare the food packages for ADRA’s clients to come and pick up, where they had the opportunity to meet the people they were helping.
Ms Beament said their clients also loved seeing the students helping the ADRA team.
“The kids help to carry out the parcels, so they see the actual people coming in and get to interact with them.
“Our clients love seeing the kids, and think it’s wonderful,” she said.
The goal of ADRA Ferntree Gully, and Victoria, is to help people get back on their feet.
Overall, the feedback from the students has been very positive.
“The kids have three other services they help as part of their community service curriculum, but they love ADRA the best,” she said.
What really landed in Ms Beament’s heart, is the students’ willingness to help those who needed it.
“At ADRA we ask our clients for a small donation, if they can contribute it, to help us keep running, however some of them can’t afford to do so.
“Some of the students saw these people struggling, and were offering to put their own donations forward towards their food parcels.
“This was their own personal money and home savings they were offering to help our clients,” she said.
At the end of the day the students helped to clean up the hall, with a real sense of responsibility and pride.
Ms Beament said that five hours of service really helped the students to realise how lucky they are.
“When they were sorting the vegetables and food – some of which are close to their expiry dates, and seeing how grateful people were to be receiving the food, made them realise that they need to be more grateful for what they have at home,” she said.
Some of the Nunawading Christian College students have already volunteered to come and help ADRA during their school holidays.
