Hannah Ryan, an Emmanuel College student from the Class of 2012 has been fundraising for a school in Saraswati, Nepal after volunteering there.

Saraswati is located in the south of Nepal, just above the border with India and on the edge of Chitwan National Park. Hannah reported that the school has very little. There was no library, no computers, no whiteboards and no sport or art equipment. The classrooms resemble stables and there is hardly any electricity for the majority of the day. Despite the hardships, the students value education and realise that to have the privilege of an education is life-changing.

In June Hannah was presented with a certificate of appreciation recognising her outstanding volunteering performance and for the fundraising that provided new computers to the school’s new computer lab. We caught up with Hannah and asked her a few questions about her life after school.

What did you do after leaving school and how has your career developed so far?
During my gap year I was the office trainee at St Pius X Primary School. I’m about to start my second year of an Arts degree at La Trobe University in Melbourne. My majors are international relations and journalism and I think chose those two because I like to know what’s going on in the world and also finding out why the world is the way it is.

I’m not too sure what I want to do after my degree yet - I just work it out as I go. I am also going on exchange second semester this year to the United States.

What lead you to become involved in this project?
After returning from my first trip overseas in 2013, I was dying to go on a trip again but this time somewhere with a completely different culture and as a volunteer. So I booked with the organisation IVHQ to go to Nepal by myself for four weeks at the end of last year.

I went over to do orphanage work but changed over to the teaching program when I was there. I was placed, along with Sam (a friend), at the Saraswati School in the south of Nepal. When we changed to teaching we thought that we would be just assisting teachers and just helping out around the classroom. But no, we were thrown in the deep end! We were teaching by ourselves and sometimes without each other. We taught from Grade 2 up to Year 9 and we did not know which grade or what subject we had to teach until we had to walk into the classroom. But we loved each day despite the challenges of having no resources and of course having a language barrier.

We both really loved the students and teachers, and we could obviously see that they were struggling financially. We knew that we could continue to help them once we returned back to Australia, so we thought why not at least try to raise as much money as we could for them to put towards building a new school!

Do you think your education at Emmanuel College had an influence on your values and your perspective on social justice issues?
I think it definitely has. The main thing was being encouraged to be globally aware and being taught that you can make a difference overseas and this was reflected in things like Project Compassion and World Challenge.

I remember doing a subject in Year 10 with James Laidler - I think it was called Global Village - and I really enjoyed it. I think that’s where the interest started and which has then lead on to do international relations and to volunteer abroad. However, during school I was always too shy to be involved or help out in anything. I remember one time when Daryl Mahoney offered students the opportunity to go Geelong for something with World Vision. I was really interested in it but I knew that the students involved would have to talk at assembly about it, so I decided no to go. I regret that now.

Hannah was presented with $500 raised by Year 10 Business students and was also given with a substantial cheque from the Emmanuel College World Challenge Team. You can read more about Hannah’s project (and donate) here: http://www.gofundme.com/sarasw...

Emmanuel College students can help Hannah towards achieving her fundraising goal. Even the smallest donation will be a very welcome contribution towards the target amount. When you have nothing, $5 makes a big difference.