BACK in 2019, our 25th anniversary year, our charity celebrated the milestone with new-look branding, which included a revamp of our original logo.
That meant our staff t-shirts with the older logo became out-of-date. But, in keeping with our environmental ethos, they were either kept as spares by staff or in storage until we could repurpose them.
And that’s where the daughter of our Senior Project Finance Officer Kerensa L’Arbalestier stepped in.
Ugandan school visit
Neva pictured at the school in Uganda
Neva L’Arbalestier, a Launceston College student, offered to take the clothing on the college’s annual visit to Bunjakko Island Vocational High School in Uganda.
The college has supported the Ugandan school for more than 20 years and each autumn students in years 10-13 can apply to visit.
Once accepted, they are responsible for organising and supporting fundraising activities and collecting donations of clothing and toiletries for the school until their visit the following summer.
Neva said:
“It has been lovely to pass on these t-shirts to the school as part of our ongoing support and is an excellent way to give the clothing a new life.”
Students from Bunjakko Island Vocational School in their WRT t-shirts
In addition to donations such as the t-shirts, Launceston College students spend time teaching and sharing skills such as dance, agriculture and crafts with Bunjakko Island students, with Neva teaching some pupils to crochet and which led to one boy making a hat.
As each college student needed to secure £1,800 to go on the trip, Neva had also used her crochet skills to make crochet toys to sell to raise funds.
Scholarships
Launceston College students and their parents are encouraged to be, or find, sponsors for scholarships for the pupils at the school too – it costs £100 for a year’s study.
This year has seen more than 50 scholarships secured, including one from a fundraising quiz organised by Neva in Stoke Climsland.
For our charity, finding ways to repurpose the t-shirts is in keeping with our environmental purpose.
Our Communications Manager Josie Purcell said:
“With the fast fashion industry being water intensive and a cause of worrying waste, this has been a wonderful opportunity for us to take our t-shirts with our old logo out of storage and give them new purpose.
“We hope they can be made use of for many more years to come.”
The college group is usually made up of 20 students who focus on volunteering activities such as painting and building classrooms and dormitories, joining lessons with the pupils, and exchanging cultural experiences such as singing and dancing.
They also visit and take care packages to the local community, visit an orphanage to share donations and this year decided to use some of the money raised to build additional toilets for the students.
The Ugandan school’s location
The school is in a beautiful location next to Lake Victoria, but work is ongoing to develop the school buildings and provide essential resources for the students.
Launceston College has been raising funds to support the building and development of the school, including the construction of Mutima Cottage which is where students stay while visiting and where teachers live during the rest of the school year.
The visit, which is led by humanities teacher Emma Thompson, ran from 29 June to 14 July.