WORDS Sarah Baker

While most 17 and 18 year old high school graduate students will be looking forward to a week of partying and relaxing after completing their final exams, 16 students from Melbourne’s De La Salle College will instead brave the heat, the language barrier and the lack of McDonald’s venues to embark on a schoolies experience of a different kind.

As part of De La Salle’s ‘Coolies’ program, the year 12 volunteer students will travel to India on a four week expedition where they will work as ‘coolies’ (unskilled labourers) in rural villages and try to improve the lives of those living with the effects of poverty.

Accompanied by four staff members, this year the students will be divided into two groups working at different community areas. One group will work on a project to build a new primary school classroom in an Indian village in Andhra Pradesh, while the remaining students will be involved in building a toilet block in Tamil Nadu in southern India.

Program co-ordinator Brother Dennis Loft, says the trip is an invaluable experience not only for the students, but for the teachers as well.

‘It’s about doing something a little more rewarding then schoolies’, he says. ‘Being with the kids and seeing them grow and develop a cultural awareness, there is a sense of pride. It’s rewarding for anyone who accompanies the students.’

Established by Br Loft in 2006, the Coolies program is a way for the volunteer students to display their passion for social justice issues and promote the idea of community service.

The De La Salle Brothers have been working in Andhra Pradesh since 1990 to give lower caste Dalits greater educational opportunities through La Salle Keesera School. Last year, Coolie’s students built houses as well as two new school buildings.

In its fourth consecutive year, the Coolies program has become a well established project that many students are keen to be a part of, despite missing their own Australian schoolies celebrations.

‘We have to tell them about the project at the end of year 11, so they don’t book for schoolies week in advance’, Br Loft says. ‘There is definitely growing interest in the program, India is great place; no great health risks, it’s not too dangerous and there are friendly communities.’

De La Salle student and Coolies participant, Michael James, 17, says the trip will be a far more valuable experience than a week of schoolies.

‘I’ve got my whole life to party and spent it with friends, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, from hearing of boys that have been before, the experience for some of them, has been life changing’, he says.

‘I wanted to join this trip to enrich the lives of the less fortunate, to give something back and help them out. With the pressure of VCE, the trip will hopefully give me perspective on just how insignificant my problems may be in comparison to the problems they face over there. It will open my eyes to all other misfortunes that occur outside my own small community.’

With the stress of completing year 12 exams, the trip is a welcome distraction for the students who have been heavily involved in fundraising for the project. As well as selling chocolates at lunch time, the school held a fundraising night, with a panel of celebrity guests, including Hawthorn Football Club’s three Kennedy brothers, raising in excess of $25,000.

As well as working hard to serve the underprivileged communities, the students will also get the chance to spend two weeks touring southern India, absorbing the foreign lifestyle and engaging in cultural activities.

Br Loft says that although his language skills are yet to improve over his last four trips to India, it is more than just the language barrier students will have to endure.

‘The food, environment and physical work, they are all challenges the kids will have to face. They are not used to manual labour, the bulk of students are more academic, so have done nothing like this before’, he says.

Michael, who has ambitions to study engineering at Monash University next year, says the trip will definitely be a challenge, but is one he is ready to take.

‘Unless you go over there, there is no way of being prepared for the culture shock’, he says. ‘I am most looking forward to being able to help out all the less fortunate citizens and learning more about my fellow De La Salle peers who I’ve gone to school with all these years and really bonding with them.’

But in terms of the dietary changes, this might just happen to be the biggest hurdle of all.

‘I hear all we really eat is rice and vegetables, so that might take a little bit of adjusting to.’

Melbourne’s De La Salle’s Coolies students will leave for India on 20 November.

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