Harrogate school children prepare for life-changing trip

A group of year six pupils and their parents are getting ready for a life changing trip to meet a community - worlds apart - in Uganda.
Students from Highfield get ready with their trip leader and teacher Mr Andrew HartStudents from Highfield get ready with their trip leader and teacher Mr Andrew Hart
Students from Highfield get ready with their trip leader and teacher Mr Andrew Hart

The 12-night trip is part of a project between Highfield Primary and Bombo School in Uganda which has been running for two years.

But this will be the first time the school has taken students to Uganda to meet the children who live and study there.

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Parent Rebecca Bletcher, is going with her 11-year-old daughter, Holly, when the group leaves for Uganda on February 5.

She said: “I think they’re aware it’s probably not going to be straight forward.

“They’re probably a little bit apprehensive about what they are going to eat, where they are going to sleep what the loos might be like.

“But for me I just think it will be such a life experience for them because you can talk about it and see pictures all day long but to actually go and experience it and meet the people is something else.”

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For Rebecca, the trip will hopefully teach her daughter and the five other children on the trip a lesson in perspective.

She said: “Especially as you get into teenage years you can get very selfish and I think it’s a chance for them to recognise the wider world.

“Hopefully it will just make them pause a little bit before they moan about something.

“They come away knowing it’s not the be and end all to have a phone and to have all these things you can easily get carried away with.”

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As part of the trip the students will also visit the families of children that they sponsor through the project.

Over the last two years, the children have been writing and sending drawings to each other all the way from Harrogate to Uganda.

But now they will also have the chance to take part in a number of activities with the Bombo students.

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