Caritas Challenge

On the 18th - 19th of May the Kaupeka hub joined in a worldwide challenge that is run by Caritas. We have been learning about a country that was in need of our help, to help them my hub and I decided to sleep over at school in cardboard boxes. This was very tricky because we were doing it in winter and we had to organise everything.

The start of the day was really interesting, so we all had a big breakfast and we were unable to have morning tea and afternoon tea. This was really cool because I got to feel what it was like for Timor-Leste as they don't have much food to eat in their day. After we went to mass, the teachers brought in a city missioner to talk to us about the people of Christchurch, who don't have homes and who live in their cars. I was really surprised by the amount of people who were living in their cars and who were homeless. I really felt for the people who didn't have homes because they were living in freezing temperatures in winter and they didn't have half the stuff we had for the night. Then we had a mini move it challenge for three hours, we had asked if another school wanted to join us when we did this challenge. They came to our school and joined in for three hours of exercise. This was really cool because we got to have some fun with another school. I really enjoyed this day so far because it had made me realise what it is like in different countries in the day.

What has been challenging for me during the day is the food because I usually have morning tea and afternoon tea in my day. But today we had breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was really hungry in between but I knew that this was for a good cause and I kept telling myself that I shouldn't have any food and finish the challenge properly. Since I was hungry now I was getting really anxious because I was scared about the stomach cramps that night.

The connections I have made from this experience is that Timor-Leste doesn't have very much food and water. This was a struggle for me with food but I always had to remember that they don't have very much and I was doing this for them.

From today, it made me think about them and how I could help them in long term. I thought that I could give them some money to help them and give them some cans of food. I think that this will help their families and those who need help.

At the start of this challenge I had no idea what other people in the world were going through. But as this challenge went on I learnt what people lived in and how they cooked and ate food. This challenge really spoke to me through out the day and night, it really made me think about the world and what people lived like.

Have you ever had this feeling about people in the world?