Students stand up to make a difference
Tue 01 July 2008
Emma Taylor, Journalism
Two Sunshine Coast university students are helping in the fight against the exploitation of Asian elephants, refuting the myth of the ‘lazy student’.
Carmen Barsby and Emma Hunter have joined thousands of students who have taken part in conservation and community projects run by International Student Volunteers (ISV).
Ms Barsby and Ms Hunter say they initially decided to join the ISV program as a way to fulfill their dream of travelling overseas.
“We’d been planning to go abroad together ever since we were 15, so when we discovered ISV we figured we may as well combine that trip with volunteer work,” Ms Hunter says.
“Being able to donate your time to a cause definitely makes you fell less extravagant about spending so much money on what could have just been a holiday.”
ISV has been running volunteer programs for the past 25 years, taking students from Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK into disadvantaged communities to help educate locals, build infrastructure and housing and conserve wildlife habitats.
“Neither of us had heard about ISV before we applied, so we didn’t know what they did,” Ms Barsby says.
“After we’d researched them a bit we found out about all the volunteer programs they offer and we got really excited about getting involved.”
The pair will be volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai, in the northern jungles of Thailand, maintaining enclosures, feeding elephants and educating locals about conservation.
The park’s population of Asian elephants has been rescued from exploitation in industries all over south-east Asia.
The park relies completely on donations and the work of volunteers to keep it running.
An estimated 16,000 elephants are held in captivity and made to work in abusive industries in Asia.
Asia’s elephant population is currently estimated to be between 25,000 and 32,000, a number ten times smaller than the African elephant population.
But there are now only an estimated 500 wild elephants left in Thailand.
ISV also enables students to gain academic credit towards their university course during the program.
“While we might be spending more on this than an average holiday, we figure with the academic credit we’re getting and the unique experience that volunteering offers, it’s worth the extra expense,” Ms Hunter says.
“To take part in an ISV project you don’t have to be studying any particular subject, you just have to be willing to take on the unknown.”
Ms Barsby is currently studying design at the University of Southern Queensland and Ms Hunter is studying photojournalism at the Queensland College of Art. Both graduated from a Nambour high school in 2005.
Information about programs run by International Student Volunteers can be found at www.isvonline.com.
Information about volunteering and donating to the Elephant Nature Park can be found at www.elephantnaturefoundation.org
Image(s) designed by sxc.hu 1037399