On Friday, these four Year 7 students represented the year group as we delivered everything to the Red Cross that the Year 7s had collected for Former Refugee families.

During term three, Year 7 looked at the Refugee Crisis as part of their Social Studies Inquiry unit. Near the end of the unit, we were lucky enough to have Belinda Le Lievre (Red Cross Dunedin Refugee Volunteer Coordinator) come and share with us her knowledge and experiences working with Former Refugee families. We found out so much more information from Belinda but what the Year 7 students couldn't believe was that the Former Refugee families come to New Zealand with very little in the way of resources. 

As a group, we decided to collect small items with may help them feel better equipped for their new life in New Zealand and welcome them to our community in Dunedin. Each group of 3-4 students decided who they wanted to target eg. a family, children, a mother and baby etc and in the group gathered new items which could be helpful. Some groups wrote letters and cards to the families and others created information guides with key places in Dunedin such as Urgent Doctors, great cafes etc. 

On Friday, we dropped all of our gathered items in their beautifully decorated boxes to Belinda and the team at The Red Cross. They were so grateful and the students loved being able to tell them about what they had been doing. 

A special mention to Oliver Lodge who decided to go above and beyond this project and wanted to also raise some money for The Red Cross. He busked and played music for his family and raised $200 doing this which he was able to hand over on Friday. An amazing effort from Oliver, as well as contributing to the gift boxes project!