Castleknock College Summer Challenge 2020:

Steps 2 Ambo

Last Summer as a school, St. Vincent’s Castleknock College raised €17,600 by travelling the equivalent of the distance from St. Vincent’s Castleknock College to Ambo.

The distance from St. Vincent’s College to Ambo Town in Ethiopia is 8,800km which translates into about 11,548,556 (fit-bit steps2ambo).

We asked the whole school community to join us on this journey by walking, cycling, running, swimming or undertaking any form of exercise to help us reach our destination.

Each Euro donated brought us 1km closer to Ambo…

We tracked our progress by keeping a close eye on our map.

Your donations provided crucial support for the following needs:

As a consequence of the economic crisis caused by Covid-19 many of the local villagers in Ambo who were daily labourers had no work and no income. During this time the Vincentian Fathers provided over 250 families with basic food supplies such as rice, pasta, oil and flour. These are the people who have opened their lives and homes to the boys from St. Vincent’s during the school immersion programs. Many of the families live in the social housing project which the Vincentian Fathers have built for the poorest families in the area. Some of the money raised from ‘Steps2Ambo’ was used to support these families through this most difficult of times.
Due to Covid-19, the KG school and the Deaf school were both closed. However, the teachers still engaged in outreaching to the children. They prepared worksheets and distributed them to their homes and encouraged the children to continue their learning. It was vital that we retained the services of our teachers. All of the KG teachers are qualified in the Montessori method of teaching and those in the Deaf school are competent in Sign Language. Some of the money went towards assisting them in their outreach efforts, paying for materials such as paper and pencils, photocopying ink and helped to pay their salaries.
Many of the children that students from the St. Vincent’s College have so much fun teaching and interacting with come from the poorest families in the village. The environment where they live often results in them picking up nasty infections (mostly skin and eye). We offer support to families so their children can be treated at the local clinic. This helps alleviate the very painful effects of the infection, prevents it spreading to other children and ensures they don’t have to miss school. Some of the money from ‘Steps2Ambo’ went towards a fund we have in Ambo which is used to pay for clinic visits and medication. (Approx €6 per visit). Without access to conventional medicine, parents often take their child to a traditional healer. This rarely helps and mostly results in the child being permanently scarred and living in pain for long periods of time.

Thank you for your kind donations. Every Euro went a long way to helping those in needs.

Also, thank you to the PRA, the Union and the College who combined to match the total raised with another €8,800 to bring the total to €17,600 raised.

Thanks to those who sent pictures and completed distances for Steps2Ambo

Well done Everyone!