Last year twelve sixth form students and two teachers from Newstead Wood School went on a three-week expedition to Borneo. We had the opportunity to experience night walks in the jungle, see orangutans in the wild and go white water rafting. Though all of these experiences were extremely valuable, the portion of the trip that left the biggest impression on us was the visit we made to Mailo, a small and very poor village in the Tenom area of Sabah.

While in Mailo we were really able to get a sense of what life was like for the people who lived there. We ate with them, played football against their village team, helped them renovate their church and painted a mural. It was a very rewarding time for the whole group. It was an extremely emotional time when we had to leave after our four days there.

It was very humbling to see how much joy the people of Mailo took in their daily lives even though they had so much less than us materialistically. The students on the trip were upset to find out that the girls in the village were only provided free education until the age of 12 after which they were expected to begin planning their own family as further education was prohibitively expensive.

The students who attended the trip would like to maintain Newstead’s connection with the village and we would like to raise some money to be able to send a package to Mailo containing educational supplies as well as other gifts. We have estimated this would cost around £300, any extra money raised would go into other projects to provide help for Mailo and the surrounding area.