Success!!!

Success!!!


So it’s been a while since I last blogged but between completing my HSC and organising things from our school Exo Day, the chapel devotion on our last day of school and of course the Girls for Girls walkathon – I have been incredibly busy!

But…WE DID IT!!

On the 15th of September 2010, 35 girls departed our boarding house in Walla Walla and headed over to Culcairn to begin the walk. We met a lady from the local newspaper and did a quick interview before setting out on the walk.

It was a very long 20 kilometres….but very worth it! We also justified our sore legs and bruised feet by trying to imagine what girl’s who are being trafficked must be going through…and then our big blisters didn’t seem so big anymore.

As I was in charge, it was my job to walk back along the line of girl’s and make sure everything was ok. Once I had reached the end of the line, I then had to run back up to the front where I would walk for a couple more kilometres before doing it all over again. And while this wasn’t a problem when the girl’s were only within the space of about 200 metres, once they had managed to stretch themselves out over a kilometre…I promptly gave up.

We stopped for afternoon tea which consisted of lollies and biscuits (we discovered that much of our lollie stash had been depleted by the support staff in our support cars).

By the time we reached our final destination we were tired and hungry, but we had done it! A group of normal teenage girls had completed the first ever girls for girls walkathon.

Our support cars were fantastic! They were incredibly patient with the girl’s and we wouldn’t have been able to do it with out them.

I counted the money a few days ago and we were aiming to raise $1000 for A21; however, when I counted we had easily reached $1394.85 – which was still increasing.

Thank you to the people who sponsored us – your generosity was brilliant.



Well this might be over and out for a little while – University beckons!

However, I will be blogging again in the future, as the universal declaration of human rights is still being violated, girls are still being used as sex slaves across the globe and 27 million people remain captive…out of sight…and out of mind.

Until next time…



Love EmmieRed

xox

Clearance

Crazy Stuff!
So all the staff at my school have cleared us to do the walkathon and not only that, they are willing to support us the entire way.
Brilliant!
I sent the letters off to Greece today and my Principle has asked me to do a write-up for our school news letter. I contacted the council today and they have given me some of the core issues that we're to have to sort out - which is pretty much done and dusted!
The walkathon will be held on the 15th of September, and we're going to be walking approximately 20 kilometres.
I've been reading the book 'Not For Sale' and I just wanted to say that it is BRILLIANT!
There are approximately 10million children in the world today who are in slavery!
The girl's in the boarding house are starting to do their researh - looking it up human trafficking on the web and watching movies such as Taken.
I handed out sponsorship forms last night so the girl's can start their fundraising.
Everything is happening at once!

Love EmmieRed xox

Letters!

So after Hillsong Conference I was looking on the A21 website and saw that we could write letters to girls in the A21 shelter.



Immediately my brain started processing thoughts and ideas - how we could write letters, when we could write them, should we decorate the letters, what would they say etc.

So on Wednesday night (4th of August), most of the girls in the boarding house got together and we each wrote a letter to a girl who has been rescued from Human Trafficking.


It was brilliant and all the girls got really into it. Nearly all of them wanted their letters to be perfect so they drafted them before they wrote them out properly. We stuck stickers all over the letters and drew pictures up the sides.


It was so much fun and I was so proud of all the girls.


In the end we had something like 30 letters – a couple of girls were away due to sickness etc, and I’m going to be posting the letters to Greece over the weekend.


I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to receive a letter like the ones we wrote. To have been so badly abused and beaten – and then receive a letter telling you that you’re beautiful and that people on the other side of the world who don’t even know your name care about you and want you to know that they’re thinking of you!


Could you imagine it?


I’m still waiting on news from the Principle as to whether the staff will pass our fundraising proposal – I should be finding out on Tuesday!


Here are some pictures of the girls writing their letters.


Enjoy.

 

Love EmmieRed xox

These girls are amazing!

YES!

When I finally reached our boarding house, after being on a plane from midnight, until 6am, having a six hour stop over in the airport and then catching our connecting flight back to school, all I could think of was the millions of people currently being forced into prostitution and human trafficking. I asked my dorm parent if I could schedule a meeting with her about doing a fundraiser, and sure enough, forty minutes later I was walking into her office. To my surprise she agreed…brilliant! I had one person on my side! So the next day I had a quick meeting with the dorm chaplain, and of course she was all for it, and being the brilliant person that she is, she went one step further and designed us a wicked little logo!

So that Friday night I sat up until midnight, and typed a ten page report on Human Trafficking, and included our proposal to do a fundraiser to raise awareness. I went around and talked to all the girls about our fundraising idea, I was so excited when they all signed a form to say they were willing to participate!

So on Tuesday the 27th of July, I walked into my principles office with my ten page report in one hand, my folder full of information in the other, and my friend Loz by my side.

To cut a long story short…he said YES! He only has to convince the rest of the staff to go through with the idea and then we’re good!

Excitement!!!

So what are we actually doing for this fundraiser?

We’re going to do a walkathon! My boarding house, with its 39 normal teenage girls, is going to walk 21 kilometres to the neighbouring town.

Yep...we’re actually going to do it!

We’re going to call our fundraising ventures ‘Girls for Girls’ (hence the title of my blog), because when you break it down, when you bring everything back to the start…it’s about us for them…Girls for Girls!

Love EmmieRed xox

The Beginning

So after a hectic week at Hillsong Conference 2010, where I attended the Church and Global Issues elective,
I came out feeling motivated and convicted to do something!
I went home and wasted the rest of my holidays on facebook (as you do when you're a teenager), and talked to my friends endlessly about the slave trade and human trafficking.
From our late night converstaions on facebook we decided that it was time to get out there and start raising awareness and doing something about this injustice!
We had more ideas than we knew what to do with (well I did),
but we stuck to three basics

• writing letters to girls who have been rescued and are taking shelter with A21
• sending a gift box over to rescued girls, filled with goodies and toiletries
• organising a fundraising event to raise awareness of Human Trafficking

So I caught my flight back to boarding school, loaded with statistics, information and a 30page folder which I assembled myself, which had all the information I could find in it...
My friends and I were ready to put our ideas forward to the school!