Students at Greenpark School have raised $1400 for children in Cambodia after hearing about disadvantages experienced by those in remote villages in the Southeast Asian country.

Greenpark School's senior teacher Ben Brock says the children have been working really hard to raise money to help Denise Arnold from The Cambodia Charitable Trust make a difference in the lives of children who are not as well off as they are.

Presenting a cheque to Cambodia Charitable Trust's Denise Arnold, are Greenpark School students Tom Hughes (Room 10), Ani Little (Room 11) and Aishar Hill (Room 9).

'On Monday, we handed over the first cheque from our fundraising for $1400,” says Ben.

At the beginning of term three, the Taranaki syndicate of Year 4 students began exploring ways to make a difference to the lives of others.

The children had a visit from Denise, representing the Cambodian Charitable Trust, who shared with them the many challenges and disadvantages children have in remote villages.

Ben says the students were immediately touched by Denise's stories of poverty, sickness and lack of education.

When asked the question 'What can we do to help these children?”, the students brainstormed a variety of initiatives.

'Understanding that money, rather than things, would be more useful the students settled on selling a Cambodian toy called a ‘feather flyer', together with raising money through the annual Taranaki Syndicate garage sale,” says Ben.

'With the support of the wider school community, the students successfully sold over 250 feather flyers, and a mountain of second-hand toys, books, home-baking and puzzles.”

This week Denise Arnold has presented with a cheque for $1400 from Greenpark School.

The Year 4 students specifically asked for the money to be used to supply water tanks, says Ben.

'Understanding that many children fall ill, and some even die from diseases and parasites that reside in contaminated water, the students wanted to give the Cambodian children and their community fresh drinking water to enhance their lives for years to come.

'Later this month, Denise will travel to Cambodia and oversee the installation of these tanks.”

Further initiatives to support Cambodian children are planned by the school for 2014.