A group of school leavers from Portmarnock, Co Dublin swapped a post-Leaving Cert holiday in Ayia Napa, for a fortnight of charity work in South Africa
A GROUP of 13 students from Portmarnock Community School returned to Dublin on Saturday from a post-Leaving Cert holiday with a difference. Instead of the traditional booze cruise to Ayia Napa or Zakynthos, the pupils travelled to Lusikisiki village in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, to help put the finishing touches to a network of community buildings for the care of HIV/Aids orphans.
“We went out on the morning after the results,” says Ben Reinhardt (18). “I took it easy on the night knowing that I had a 13-hour flight ahead of me.”
For Ben, there was no contest between a typical holiday and this trip. “Opportunities like this don’t come along too often. I could go on a booze cruise any time of my life.”
They were encouraged to take part by fellow pupil Sarah Kane (19), who had been in South Africa on a similar trip in 2007, as part of the school’s transition-year programme. It made such an impression that when Sarah suggested a return visit, many jumped at the chance.
Five girls and eight boys signed up for the trip, which was run in cooperation with Friends in Ireland, a charity set up by Marian Finucane and John Clarke. They were accompanied by Niall Fitzgerald, a teacher at the school, Eleanor Ryan (a nurse), and a small group of parents involved in architecture and other relevant industries.
The students had to find €2,500 per person to pay for the trip. “It was suggested that the pupils or their parents pay €800-1,000 each, a typical cost for the other kind of Leaving Cert holiday,” says Sarah’s mother, Anne Kane. “For the rest, we fundraised. In my house we had a coffee morning, which raised €1,500. There were pub quizzes, a race night, a church-gate collection and a raffle. The fundraising itself was an experience for the young people.
“I would have begged, borrowed and stolen to send her on something like this instead of one of those other holidays. It was great that they were doing something for others.”
The school’s previous visit to South Africa had given the pupils some idea of what to expect, but the extreme poverty still came as a shock. “The people were living in shacks. The kids were playing in piles of garbage. It was awful really,” says Sarah.
They set to work, painting the walls of a new crèche building, and landscaping its grounds. “The girls started off painting murals in the crèche,” says Sarah. “Two of them – Aisling Byrne and Laura Creaby – had studied art and they did the really artistic stuff. The lads were mostly outside digging holes and planting and laying a path. We also laid a floor in the crèche.”
“Our job was mainly landscaping,” says Ben Reinhardt. “We started digging holes and labouring. We planted a potato patch, banana plants and other vegetables. We dug paths between the buildings, mixed the cement and poured it in.”
“On a few of the days, some of the local kids came up to the site. They would sing and dance for you and we played a bit of football. They varied in age from about three to 13. It can be hard to tell their ages. You would be shocked at the ages sometimes because some of them are very small as a result of malnourishment.”
The pupils worked from 8.30am until about 5pm each day. “We made friends with two of the barmen in our hotel, Snow and Moussi,” says Sarah Kane. “At night the workers would entertain us, singing and doing traditional dance, and we played some guitar and stuff for them as well. But we knew we’d be working the next day, so we didn’t get hammered or anything.”
The group were rewarded with two days in Cape Town at the end of their trip. “Ultimately, I feel that the trip has made a difference to the people there, and to me as well,” Sarah says.
