A Port Macquarie youth team has raised more than $9000 and showed refugees they are with them and not against them.
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A group of students from MacKillop College are part of the PMQ Youth United team in the Act for Peace Ration Challenge.
The participating students developed an understanding of what it was like to eat the same rations as a Syrian refugee.
They raised money through sponsorship and school-based activities in support of the Ration Challenge during Refugee Week.
The funds help support Syrian refugees living in camps in Jordan and tackle injustice around the world through Act for Peace’s emergency response, long-term development and advocacy programs.
The school activities boosted awareness too.
MacKillop College youth ministry officers Emily Towle and Hannah Post were the driving forces behind the Refugee Week activities.
Emily said the activities were about changing the perception and challenging the stigma and fear.
“Displaced people are humans just like us and they deserve the same standard of living that we have,” she said.
MacKillop College activities to mark the week included a bake sale, silent rally and lunchtime rally and drumline.
The beat of drums echoed as students moved from the senior site to the junior site in the lunchtime rally on June 22.
MacKillop College student Jaslee Green took part in the Ration Challenge.
Jaslee said she supported the initiative to help people fighting persecution and trying to get to a safer place.
The 14-year-old ate rice, flatbread, chickpeas, lentils, sardines and kidney beans during the Ration Challenge.
“It opened my eyes to what they get,” Jaslee said about refugees’ rations.