The school, Don Bosco Elementary, is located in Chreh, a small village about 20 minutes outside of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. It teaches Kindergarten to Grade 6 and has no access to electronics in classrooms. The TV donated by Veritas will help Don Bosco’s teachers add variety to courses through educational video clips.
This project began with B.C.’s Catholic Education Week, in which Catholic schools chose an area in which to serve either through volunteer work or fundraising. “Unplug,” as this project has been named, sheds light on “the whole idea of Catholic education,” said former Veritas teacher Trina Botelho.
The school’s initial plan was to donate money, but a teacher at Veritas came up with a much more inventive idea: students and staff would give up use of their computers, cellphones and other electronic devices every day for the week, collecting donations for the cause during this time. Families were encouraged to support their children by playing board games or cards in the time that the kids would normally spend on electronics. Students presented a voucher with a parent’s signature for every day they went completely technology- free, and these vouchers were entered in a draw to win a number of prizes, such as T-shirts, sent from Cambodia. With 201 students, Veritas surpassed its goal of one dollar per student, raising more than $2,000 for the cause. Thanks to this success, Don Bosco was also able to improve its school P.A. system and purchase USB speakers for the TV.
The thank-you prizes from Cambodia were sent to Terrace by Botelho, a former Veritas teacher, who is teaching for a year at Don Bosco Vocational Training Centre for Girls in Phnom Penh. She teaches English and Business English to women aged 18 to 25, helping to equip them with secretarial skills.
Students in Cambodia held an assembly to thank Veritas for the financial gift, which they spent near the end of February, with a song and a message from the principal, which were filmed. Botelho says that this video will help to make the fundraising even more worthwhile for the Veritas students, who “get to see the students they’re helping,” bringing home the impact of their effort.
The students of Veritas took home an important lesson from the electronic fast. By “giving up technology to give technology,” Botelho says, the students “learn how much we don’t actually need it, and how blessed we are to have access to it.” She goes on to say that the effort will also help students learn to “focus on what is important, like family.”
(Nundal, 16, is a student of Traditional Learning Academy in Coquitlam, B.C.)