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YOU know those rowdy, boozy schoolies trips to Surfers Paradise or Bali, where teens run amok? Well they’re so yesterday.
Some Australians are choosing to shun the typical end-of-school celebrations, opting for something dramatically different from their hard-partying peers.

Claudia Snell is one of them. Along with 19 of her peers at Sydney’s Mosman High School, she avoided the huge parties of a “traditional schoolies”, and decided to celebrate the end her school life by giving back.

The teens raised approximately $50,000 and headed to Cambodia to build 32 homes in Kampong Chhnang Province with the charity organisation Tabitha Cambodia.
Their work helped change the lives of 150 villagers forever.
Claudia, now 20, told news.com.au that she was inspired to do something positive after going to a women’s leadership course at Sydney University.

She said while they originally hoped to travel to Nepal, after a few months of research they found the Tabitha Foundation in Cambodia “which had a program that really suited us”.

“When we pitched it to our friends over going to somewhere like Surfers and got a lot of interest, we started planning an alternative ‘ethical’ schoolies trip.”

Ms Snell admits organising the trip was a huge effort, with 26 students (including some who weren’t travelling) pulling together to raise thousands of dollars for the trip.
The group held an art auction, set up a fundraising website, and were sponsored by Travel Insurance Direct.

“It was an eye-opening trip” said Ms Snell.
Before they started work building homes, the group visited Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.
“We were taken around the prison and told about its horrifying history, and the Pol Pot reign, to have a better understanding of the Cambodian history and what many of the locals we would soon meet had been through.
“We went to the killing fields for the same reason.”

They then moved out to the rural areas of Phnom Penh to farming communities, where they started work on building 32 houses.
Each student had to raise $1500 to help build the house, and Cambodians themselves had to save $25 for their own house (which would normally take them a year to save).
The group spent two days building the houses, getting to know that local farming community and playing games with the children.

Ms Snell said the experience was moving for everyone involved.
“We had a big ceremony on the last day where each family shifted into their new homes, and each student gave a family a blanket. It was pretty emotional as they are so grateful.”

She said the group finished the trip by going to an orphanage just outside Phnom Penh, where they gave the kids small gifts, such as colouring pencils or soccer balls.
“This was an amazing experience too, they are just so grateful for anything.

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