By Tate Papworth
Cairnlea Park Primary School pupils are illuminating new opportunities for children living along the Kokoda Track.
In a first for the school, grade 6 pupils have built solar-powered lights that will be sent to Papua New Guinea so children are able to read and study when the sun goes down.
Cairnlea Park Primary School principal Mark Mills said the lights would make a lasting impact.
“We are all fortunate in that we can just turn the lights on at night time when we want to do our homework or read a book,” he said.
“Our students learnt about the 1.4 billion people around the world who don’t have access to modern electricity.”
The pupils built 50 lights under the guidance of Origin Foundation volunteers.
Origin Foundation volunteering program manager Ruth Lee said such efforts were always rewarding.
“Origin volunteers find it incredibly rewarding to see the impact STEM education has on these school students as they become global citizens for a day, discovering how simple renewable energy technologies can make a real difference to energy poverty,”
Ms Lee said.
Since August last year, nearly 2000 Australian students across 30 schools have built more than 1000 solar lights.
Pupils at the school also wrote letters to students from villages along the Kokoda Track to accompany their lights.
