Kind-hearted students from Garden International School (GIS) have raised more than 100,000 baht for a disaster fund.
The students organised a series of fundraising events to help those hit by a devastating typhoon in the Philippines on November 8, 2013. The 300-mile wide typhoon was one of the strongest tropical storms to ever make landfall anywhere in the world. It affected millions of people as 195mph winds and a storm surge of 30ft hit coastal areas.
As a result, students from GIS decided they wanted to help. IB student Sofia Tan was one of those who helped organise several fundraising events.
Sofia, 18, said: “Last year a lot of disasters hit and destroyed many places in many countries and one of them was the large typhoon that hit the Philippines. As a Filipino citizen, it is terrible to hear that many people died and famous places and houses are broken down.
Students bought hot dogs to help raise funds for the Philippines.
“Typhoon Haiyan took place in November and as Christmas was coming I was sure it would be a difficult time for people there. The charity team at GIS and I decided to work on raising funds for the Philippines. The British International School of Manila (BIS) gave us an insight about how much we should raise and how to send it to them once the targets were reached.”
The first target was 75,000 baht, which would be enough to build two houses. Activities included hot dog day, where GIS raised 11,459 baht and then the Student Council helped by raising 17,420 baht. There was also a mufti day where students didn’t have to wear school uniform, but made a donation to our disaster fund.
After several other events, the student-led team has now raised an incredible 114,506 baht. Sofia said, “This is a great success and will be a great help to those people in the Philippines who have lost their houses.”
Sofia is one of several students at GIS studying the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.
IB student Sofia gets help preparing the hot dogs.
