Students of International School Seychelles have donated breakfast items to the Red Cross Society of Seychelles to commemorate World Food Day.
The small handover ceremony was held late last week and the items were accepted by the secretary general of the Red Cross Society of Seychelles (RCSS), Marie-May Esparon.
More than 600 items were collected for this event.
Aiden Grandcourt, a student in year 12, noted that “this activity is to give a chance for the school to give back to the less fortunate and we compiled some less perishable goods to give back to the community and help them to live a better life. The generosity of the students can be seen by the amount of items collected and that is a very good initiative from the school. All classes contributed to this activity.”
For Somah, a primary student, he said they are happy to have donated the food items to the less fortunate. “Not everybody has a shelter and they need food. Whenever I see people begging, I feel sad and I always give them something,” said Somah.
Principal and head of secondary of ISS, Elodie Vallantine, explained that “for ISS, one of the school’s values is community and to celebrate World Food Day, for us it was very important to contribute to our local community and the national community of Seychelles. This is raising an awareness within our students’ population and school community that other people are not so fortunate and they are in need of food. This type of activity fits in our values and also helps with the understanding of the world. We are delighted to have so many items to donate to RCSS and we hope it will make a big difference in the lives of some of the people struggling. Our school motto is ‘You are not born for yourself but for others’ and for us, students and staff, we need to look after the community and not ourselves.”
Red Cross Society of Seychelles secretary general Esparon acknowledged this gesture and noted that “coming from kids, it’s very touching. I know that these items will be very beneficial for the children especially as we have families who are still in need. With the items, the families will be able to have proper lunch and dinner and I hope this initiative will not stop there and we hope that with special thoughts and prayers we will be able to help in the recovery of some families.”
Ms Esparon once again clarified that there are no people queueing at the RCSS and they have a list of families they work with. To date they have provided assistance to 300 families and per family there are approximately four or five adults with four or five children. RCSS is working closely with the Agency for Social Protection.
In order to help more families, Ms Esparon noted that the RCSS needs items such as fish, meat and vegetables to complement whatever they are already giving.
Source: Seychelles Nation