The young men behind Schoolies for Schooling walk to Byron Bay have started their own charity
LAST year Adam Hegedus and Alexi Piovano walked 750km for Schoolies to raise money for a school in Timor-Leste, now they have their own charity.
Wentworth Courier
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THE two Waverley College students who walked to Byron Bay for Schoolies to raise money for a school in Timor-Leste have started their own charity to build and fund a preschool.
One year on from Adam Hegedus and Alexi Piovano’s 21-day, 750km walk, their Educating the Future is well on its way to changing the lives of underprivileged children.
The duo have been nominated for Young Australian of the Year for their work, but Adam said they didn’t create Educating the Future for recognition.
“We enjoy it. It’s not a burden to us. It’s something we want to pursue long-term,” Adam said.
“The nomination will help the charity grow and it means we can create a bigger impact through that.”
In June, the duo travelled to Timor-Leste to assess how they could best help educate the country’s children and Adam said the locals in Railaco Motahare in the Ermera District welcomed them with open arms.
“They said kids weren’t going to school because they had to walk up to five kilometres,” he said.
“There’s a 20 per cent repeat rate for kids in year one, so that pushed us to build a preschool because with a strong preschool foundation kids can perform better in their lives.”
In addition to building the preschool, Alexi said Educating the Future was training the teachers to go with it.
“The kids can come to school, but if the quality of the education isn’t there then it’s almost redundant,” he said.
“We want to make sure the teachers are as well trained as possible and we’re working with the government to make that happen.”
In December the duo will be joined by Australian of the Year nominee and former child soldier turned criminal lawyer Deng Adut for a fundraising dinner to raise $30,000.
“I am always deeply impressed when I see young people taking action about injustices,” Mr Adut said.
“They deserve all of our support and recognition.”
That money, along with the majority of the $20,000 raised on their 2015 walk, will fund the preschool which is scheduled to open in February 2017.
Tickets for the dinner will go on sale soon.
On November 20, Educating the Future will host an awareness raising walk from Coogee to Bondi at midday.
The walk will encourage year 12 students to support other students around the world.
For more information visit the charity’s website at www.educatingthefuture.org
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