| South Africa 2011 |
| 08 March 2010 |
As part of the charity work in the school, the school has developed a partnership with the Goedgedacht Trust based in South Africa, which aims to help underprivileged youngsters in rural areas. In 2007 and 2009 the school undertook a visit to the trust to help with the work there and to build on the partnership between our institutions. Following the success of the previous visit, the school is planning to revisit the trust in July 2011.
The Goedgedacht Trust is located in a very beautiful old Cape Dutch farm situated on the slopes of the Kasteelburg, just 87km North West of Cape Town. The trust is the centre of a busy community development centre from where a determined effort is being made to make a real contribution to the new South Africa. In response to a range of rural needs an increasing number of programmes and projects are located under the umbrella of the Goedgedacht Trust. At the local level the Trust works with farm workers and their families setting in place development projects, which will hopefully change the face of rural poverty in the future.
Our students will spend five days full board on the trust. They will be working with the youth groups within a broad program organised by the trust with the aim to raise the awareness of our students and to build the confidence and self-respect of the students at the trust. Our students will also undertake activities in the local area to give them a feel of life in rural South Africa. The experiences of our students can be found on the blog from the 2009.
The school also feels it is also important to give our students an experience of the sights and sounds of the Cape and so the second half of the trip will involve visits to many of the popular tourist attractions in the Southern Cape e.g. Table Mountain, Robben Island, Cape Point, Hermanus and Aquila Private Game Reserve.
The total estimated price of the trip is £1710. Each individual student will need to fundraise a minimum of £700 towards the cost of the trip. The aim of this is to continue to raise the profile of the charity in the local community and ensure that only committed students attend.
This cost includes the cost of accommodation, travel insurance and transfers. This price is subject to change as not all suppliers who the tour operator deals with can provide guaranteed costs for any tours departing after the 1st October 2011. Also should a student withdraw from the trip they will lose their deposit, as a minimum. If it is within ten weeks prior to your departure when the balance of monies are due, then their loss could be greater as laid down in the companies booking conditions (available from Mr. Griffiths upon request).
This trip is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our students and as a result we are keen that the students who go are committed to the trust and to promoting the work of the trust in the school. To this end students who wish to take part in the South Africa visit will need to provide a letter of application addressed to the head teacher Mrs Evans, explaining:
- Why they should go on the trip to South Africa?
- What qualities they would bring to the group?
- How they are planning to fundraise?
- And what they are willing to do when they return from the visit to help promote the trust.
As well as a letter of application, students who wish to apply will need to complete the permission slip below and return it with the £250 to cover the initial deposit of the trip. Although this is a non-refundable payment, those students who are unsuccessful in their application will have this payment returned to them.
The closing date for applications will be the 12th March.
I hope that we can continue to build on the success of last years visit and the partnership that has developed between the school and the trust.
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