Tauranga students to climb Mount for 8 hrs

Photo/George Novak

Two keen local students will be trekking up and down the Mount continuously this weekend to raise money for this year's 40 Hour Famine.

Caitlin Knox and Makayla Torrey, both Year 9 students from Otumoetai College, will climb the Mount tomorrow and Sunday for 8 hours in attempts to hit the fundraising goal of $1600.

This year's 40 Hour Famine funds are going to help children and their families in Bangladesh where more than 8 million children are malnourished.

The idea behind the Mount run is to experience some of the exhaustion and fatigue that the children of Bangladesh feel in their day-to-day lives because of a lack of food and having to walk for basic necessities like water, said Makayla Torrey in a statement.

Caitlin Knox said as well as the fundraising goal, the focus is on raising awareness.

"Raising awareness is a big part of what we want to achieve. We hope to, at the very least, leave people thinking about what life is like for someone else in that situation. We want them to remember the people of Bangladesh."

As well climbing the Mount, students from the Social Studies class have organised a committee, publicised the event through speaking at assemblies and to form classes, used posters to raise awareness, organised lunchtime collections and sought sponsorship.

Other 40 Hour Famine challenges include going without food, technology free weekends, electricity free weekends, and attempting to go sightless.

Otumoetai College teacher Margaret Keam said Year 9 Social Studies students have been examining inequalities and looking at what people can do to reduce them and the 40 Hour Famine is a chance to do that in real life.