Assumption High students Marie Clements, left, and Ariel Gariepy discuss their plans to visit Cambodia. (By Martha Elson, The Courier-Journal)
The Global Issues Club at Assumption High School does a lot more than take an interest in world affairs from afar.
Over the past three years, the members confronted a problem in Cambodia — girls their age more than 8,000 miles away being forced into prostitution — and raised more than $20,000 to build a school there.
Now, 10 senior members of the club are raising more money to go to Cambodia during Assumption Mission Week Feb. 6-15 to visit their school, which opened in January in Kampong Cham province northeast of the capital of Phnom Penh.
“We worked on it for three years, and we just wanted to actually go over and meet the children and see Cambodia,” said Marie Clements, a club leader. “Freshman year, it just seemed like such a difficult goal.”
Details are still being worked out. “We do know that when we go, we're going to have an opening ceremony, even though it's been open,” said Ariel Gariepy, another club leader. They'll stay in hotels and visit other sites, too, including a museum about 1970s genocide in the country.
The trip will cost about $3,000 each — including $1,400 for air fare. Marie and Ariel are earning money working as lifeguards at Lakeside Swim Club and say they've given up other interests, such as drama and sports, to concentrate on the Cambodia project.
“It's worth it,” Marie said.
They also hope to take school supplies and newly released translations of the second Harry Potter book.
They will hold a yard sale Saturday in the parking lot at the school and are sending letters to businesses and others soliciting help. They also held bake sale and pie-in-the-face fundraisers at school. Last year, they held a Coins for Cambodia 5K Walk through Seneca Park that raised about $8,000 for the school.
The club undertook the project through an organization called American Assistance for Cambodia, based in Tokyo, with a fundraising address in Forest Hills, N.Y. The organization started a rural school building project in 1999 and says hundreds of villages in the country still lack a functional primary and secondary school.
The Assumption club members hope that better education will create more life options and a better future for girls in Cambodia.
The club is led by geography teacher Matthew Cope, who said the club members had “always kicked around the idea of going to Cambodia” before deciding this school year to pursue it.
Another teacher, Becca Joaquin, also will go, along with the Rev. John Burke, the priest at Good Shepherd Catholic parish in Portland, who holds Mass at Assumption and is in touch with a priest in Cambodia who's helping with arrangements.
The club plans to continue contributing about $6,000 a year to keep the school operating.
The trip will “will personalize” the project, said club member Megan Foley. “It puts a face to all the work we've been doing.”
Reporter Martha Elson can be reached at (502) 582-7061.
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