Last week we were introduced to our new Year 12 Charity, Year 10 Charity and Year 9 Humanitarian Reps who led an informative assembly.

Our Year 12 Charity Reps: Maja, Maia, Lollie, Catrin, Estella, Ishikaa, Uma
Our Year 10 Charity Reps: Yara, Esha, Raneem
Our Year 9 Humanitarian Leaders: Esha K, Hannah, Joanna, Lilia, Ella

They focused on charity and volunteering opportunities at school this term, where we have been helping a wide range of organisations including Umunandi, Action Breaks Silence, Deutsches Rotes Kreuz, Macmillan Cancer Support, Ealing Foodbank, Amnesty, Unicef and Ealing Wildlife Group.

The Reps spoke in particular about our volunteering, fundraising and collecting for Care 4 Calais. Students and staff have visited a Care 4 Calais supported hotel in Hayes on several occasions where they have run some craft, games and music activities for the children. Iva R and Teya C both spoke about their own volunteering/charity opportunities.

In addition, our Sixth Form charity activities have so far raised over £900 this term for their chosen Year 12/13 charity, Umunandi. This charity promotes the advancement of education, the preservation and protection of good health and the relief of poverty for the benefit of orphans and vulnerable children and their families, particularly but not exclusively in Lusaka, Zambia. Meanwhile our Cultural Fair also raised over £300 for Unicef.

On the volunteering front, a small group of Year 10s have been helping out at Ealing Riding School in Ealing Common. Students learned how to maintain a clean stable and how to lead a horse. They also learned how to groom horses, which was a complex procedure, as they had to use many different brushes and combs.  Another group visited Ealing Foodbank where they had to work out a budget on Universal Credit. They had to prioritise what would be needed each week and make decisions like paying the bus fare to travel to a cheaper supermarket or walk to the local corner shop where the food is more expensive. Meanwhile our choirs travel on a regular basis to local care homes to sing to them and do crafting with them.

Esha, one of the Year 9 Humanitarian Leaders then explained the importance of raising awareness about Fairtrade. Fairtrade is an organisation which aims to pay fairly all people involved in the the production, import and export of certain food products in 71 countries. Over recent years our Humanitarian Leaders have helped achieve two of the Fairtrade awards for the school – the Fairaware and Fairactive awards, through promoting and raising awareness of Fairtrade both within NHEHS and also with our partnership school Note Dame de Namur in Pennsylvania. This year’s Humanitarian Leaders will begin to work towards the final Fairtrade award – the Fair Achiever.

Fairtrade Fortnight is usually held at the end of February. However, this year Fairtrade is celebrating its 30th birthday, so they are aiming to hold a year of events to engage people and raise awareness, with 30 ways to celebrate 30 years of Fairtrade. Our Humanitarian Leads will be running various activities and challenges to support this. Swapping to Fairtrade is both good for communities and the environment, so the  first challenge will be to address a simple swap at home to any fair trade product (for example bananas, chocolate, coffee and flowers).

Finally, the Reps announced the date for Volunteering Day – which will take place on Wednesday 12th June. This will be a day when the whole school will have the chance to get involved in volunteering. More details coming soon!