By Elena Sanvincenti, Year 12
Students Interact Club successfully builds a strong foundation for support to children’s charities
On 10 November, LGB’s Interact Club, a fundraising student-led club made up of over 20 students from the La Grande Boissière campus, attended a networking dinner organized by the Geneva International Rotary Club. 12 students attended this important event linking the school community with the wider donor community in Geneva. During the dinner, 4 club members were accorded the privilege of presenting the 2022 Interact Club projects: current Club President, Jessica Pereira; Vice President, Camille Firmenich; upcoming Club President, Teodora Lentu, and Club member, Makula Muwanga.
The local project is supported by the Club this school year is called « HUMA » (Hébergement d’Urgence pour Mineurs Accompagnés Sans Abri). This admirable charity, based in Geneva, helps identify and reintegrate refugee minors and adolescents back into society. The charity’s work orientates these vulnerable young people back into educational and social services, as well as assisting them with medical and educative care. This charity, which was launched by François Guisan and Dr Liengme in 2019, has been a recipient of continuous support from the Interact Club for a number of years now. The student team has provided not only financial contributions but also donated contributed books and toys to help support and advance the children’s education. Students have also successfully built bridges with the beneficiaries of HUMA support, paying in-person, weekly visits to the HUMA Centre to offer regular tutoring sessions to support selected students and spend some time playing with them. This support serves multiple purposes for the minors and adolescents receiving the services offered – bringing educational, societal, healthy individual and community benefits for those receiving and providing such services.
The Interact Club is also actively engaged in a non-local project this academic year, supporting the Sanyu Babies Home, an orphanage located in Uganda, East Africa. The Home locates and accepts abandoned children in poor conditions and supports them by providing them with a home and a basic education. Despite being the first time the Interact Clubs works with this charity, we have successfully established and maintained close contact with the Home. This is due in large part due to the small scale of the charity’s operations and close relations established between the Interact Club and the charity through Club member Makula, who was also one of the presenters at the networking dinner. This close relationship facilitates the transparency and sharing of full information about the charity’s operations.
The strong links established at the Rotary Club dinner provided the participating LGB Interact Club students with the opportunity to introduce members of the Roteract and Rotary Clubs to their activities. The committed efforts of all involved have made significant headway to ensuring a solid start for a successful kickoff to the LGB Interact Club activities for the school year, both in terms of teamwork and fundraising efforts.
