By JESSE GRAHAM
HEALESVILLE High School’s male students – and teachers – donned dresses for a day to raise money and make a difference in the world.
On 25 November, more than 10 boys and around five members of staff at Healesville High School wore a dress for the day, as part of a fund-raiser organised by the school’s Student Voice leadership group.
The rest of the school students had a free dress day, with each student taking part donating a gold coin to the fund-raiser, which was for the One Girl organisation.
Altogether, the event raised $433.24 for One Girl, which was then complemented by another fund-raiser by the school’s Year 9 Make a Difference participants, boosting the donation to $600.
School captain Rohan Saric-Skewes said the money would help to send two girls in Sierra Leone to school for a year.
Rohan said that he would have liked to have seen more boys at the school take part in the fund-raiser, but that cold weather may have deterred a few of the less keen fund-raisers.
“I would have liked it to be a bit better, but it was still good,” he said.
He said the school was trying to advocate and fund-raise for causes in its free dress days, and that education for women in developing countries was a good cause to fight for.
“Because women are needed to break the poverty cycle, and women’s education is very important to the world,” Rohan said.
Healesville High School principal George Perini said he felt the event was a success.
“It’s not about raising money locally for our own needs, but it’s about thinking about others,” he said.
“Our student leadership each year looks at different causes and different ways they can raise money and try to make a difference somewhere else.
“We know that education is the cornerstone of successful lives – if we can have an impact and try to make a difference in some underdeveloped countries … by educating, you open new horizons, and that’s what I think this is about.”
One Girl is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to help women and girls access education in the developing world, through scholarships, providing sanitary pads and rehabilitating schools.
For more information, visit www.onegirl.org.au.
