By Emilie Ng
HUGE grins plastered on the faces of Cambodian children living with physical disabilities sparked an eight-year dream that recently came true for Abbey Feutrill.
Since the age of 10, Abbey, now 18, has dreamt of visiting La Valla school, Cambodia’s only government-approved institution offering full primary education to children with physical disabilities.
Abbey’s Noosa-based primary school had supported La Valla school through Catholic charity organisations, and it was posters of the children’s smiles that touched her the most.
“All I can remember is the kids’ faces, seeing them with volunteers who obviously had put those smiles on the children,” Abbey said.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to do that one day and put a smile on their faces’.”
The teenager’s dream came true when Marist Youth Ministry regional co-ordinator Sally McEniry paid a visit to her school, St Teresa’s Catholic College, last year, and mentioned a volunteering opportunity in Cambodia with Marist Volunteers Australia.
Abbey left for a two-month voluntary placement at La Valla school on April 30.
She will be tutoring students and assisting in their daily schedules at the school, which accommodates almost 100 children with disabilities from across Cambodia.
The school offers classes in traditional Cambodian music, English, elementary computing, physical and hydro-therapy, sewing, and guitar.
It is Abbey’s second time in some of Asia’s poorest villages, following a school immersion trip to Sri Lankan village, Kalpitiya, last year.
The trip to Cambodia will be a stepping-stone for Abbey’s aspiring teaching career.
All Marist Volunteers Australia programs are self-funded by their volunteers, and many, including Abbey, choose to fundraise independently.
But knowing the Marist Brothers have limited resources and are always in need of donations, Abbey started an online funding account to raise money not for her trip but for the school.
“I make enough money with my job, so I thought I would start a Go Fund Me campaign and raise money for the school,” she said.
People can continue making donations while Abbey is in Cambodia, as funds will be transferred to her international debit card and given to the school’s director Marist Brother Terry Heinrich.
Abbey has received $750 already but hopes to raise $2500.
Donations can be made at www.gofundme.com/AbbeysMission.
Former schoolmate Madi Nitschke has also signed up to volunteer in La Valla school and will make her trip to Cambodia in August.
Madi also visited Sri Lanka with St Teresa’s College’s immersion program last year and was moved by the love she received from some of the country’s struggling Tamils.
After meeting a 16-year-old Tamil girl who had “been through lots of adversity”, Madi was invited into the girl’s home to meet her family, including her father over the phone and brother on Skype.
“I couldn’t believe that someone I’d known for so little could have so much love,” Madi said.
“I was struck by the fact that someone who had so little wanted me to be part of her world.”
The 17-year-old said many Sri Lankans would be “walking down the street only with the clothes on their backs but the biggest smile”.
“They just wanted to hold your hand and be with you,” she said.
Madi said the Marist Brothers, who walked “in the way of Mary”, had an ability to change people’s lives by their incredible work in South-East Asia.
Madi will spend two months in La Valla school in August before heading to Cambodia’s north-west for another two-month volunteer program.
For more information on volunteer programs with Marist Volunteers Australia, contact Ashley Bulgarelli on (07) 3354 0600.
