Free to walk for others

With ALWS Walk My Way community events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of staff and Year 11 students from Concordia College in suburban Adelaide thought creatively about raising funds to support the education of children in refugee camps.

Students Emma Jenke, Eva Kemp, Asha Tamms and Shae Tamms worked with Concordia staff members Jane Graham and Judy Harris to create a multi-faceted fundraiser. Year 11s and Year 5s gained sponsors and walked laps of the college oval, collectively tallying more than 450 kilometres.

The student quartet instigated the event after teacher Jane Graham shared with them about her meeting last year at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya with a girl named Harian Emuronti. Despite being deaf, Harian is receiving an education through ALWS support and doing beadwork to support her family.

The Concordia group also sold handmade beaded bracelets and printed bags made by the Lutheran Community Sewing Group. Thanks to their efforts $3725 was raised – enough to support 143 refugee children to go to school for a year.

Asha Tamms says God’s love is her inspiration to serve others: ‘(It’s) the reason why I am inspired and empowered to serve.’

‘I may not be able to … erase the trauma of these people, but I can help give them an education and that’s a very powerful thing’, Emma Jenke says.

Eva Kemp says, ‘I wanted to … help out my brothers and sisters across the globe who are not given the opportunities that I have.’

‘As Christians, we need to love and serve others whenever we can, just as Jesus inspires us to’, Shae Tamms says.

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