Singapore students host first ever ‘Amala Week’
From 22nd - 26th August 2022, students at St Joseph’s Institution International (SJII) in Singapore hosted the first ever “Amala Week”, raising an impressive SGD $5,749.91 (approximately £3450) for Amala.
Students Amelia and Megen and teacher Shivanthi Kandiah-Evans conceptualised and organised a week of exciting events to fundraise for Amala. SJII’s Amala Week began during the school assembly, where a teacher told a deeply personal migration story of their grandmother who was incarcerated in a concentration camp during the Holocaust and how she started a new life as a refugee in Australia.
Ms Kandiah-Evans with students Amelia and Megen, the organisers of Amala Week at SJII
Ms Kandiah-Evans explained that Amala Week “was planned to raise awareness of the important work that Amala seeks to do and to find practical ways to support it.” During the week, students organised two bake sales and a staff and student netball tournament, sold flowers, and created morning meeting boxes filled with baked goods for teachers.
In addition to raising valuable funds for Amala, the week also raised awareness within the school about the work that Amala does and why it exists. Students put up posters around their school, and set up an exhibition in the school canteen with information about access to education for refugees and displaced people and stories of Amala alumni and students. To support this awareness raising work, Louie Barnett, Education Lead at Amala, gave a talk to students about Amala’s work.
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Amala Education has made a direct impact on my peers and teachers alike, having created the opportunity for countless discussions surrounding the power of quality education, and its ability to reshape a refugee learner’s and displaced person’s life.”
Amelia shared how she found the week:
“The whole experience of the planning and execution of Amala Week has only fuelled my desire to do more with the privilege and opportunities I have and to further extend my help to those that aren't as fortunate as me. My motivation to continue utilising all the resources and support I have at my disposal to improve the lives of others, has increased tenfold.”
SJII is a Lassalian School, and the school is planning to further fundraise for Amala by linking the T-shirt sales on International Lasallian Days for Peace (ILDP) (from September 21 - October 21) to supporting Amala’s programmes.
SJII hopes to hold another Amala Week in June 2023, to tie in with World Refugee Day. Ms Kandiah-Evans expressed that the organising group were “thrilled by the interest in and support from our community”, and she hopes that the school will “build on this to continue to support Amala’s work.” The organisers of Amala Week at SJII are also looking into ways that they can support initiatives working with refugees throughout the school year, beyond Amala Week.
The school’s engagement with Amala Week has been truly inspiring and a huge thank you must go towards all the students and teachers for making this happen. An important part of Amala’s approach is to work with mission-aligned partners, including refugee and community-led organisations to run our programmes. With the raised funds from SJII, we will be able to expand the number of Changemaker Courses we run with partners to reach over 100 displaced young people in Kakuma Camp, Kenya. Changemaker Courses address specific areas such as “Peacebuilding”, “Social Entrepreneurship” and “Ethical Leadership”, where displaced and host community youth can make change. Amala’s distinctive educational approach enables youth to develop their sense of agency and skills such as communication, collaboration and critical thinking, as well as developing projects to improve their communities.
If you’d like to involve your school or college in fundraising for Amala, or are interested in starting a similar initiative, you can find out more about how to get involved here.