Mac Olsen
Express Staff
smokyriverexpress.com
@SmokyRiverExprs
Will I wake up hungry and go to bed hungry? Will I get enough to eat during the day?
Such are the questions and dilemmas that students at Ecole Heritage pondered during their ‘Jeûne Solidaire’ or ‘Solidarity Fast’ on May 17 and 18.
Joel Lavoie, who teaches at the school, wanted to give them an appreciation for those in Third World countries who face malnourishment and starvation on daily basis.
“The idea is for the kids to live an experience out of their comfort zone,” says Lavoie. “I want them to take away, the sense of poverty in the world.”
Twenty students in Grades 7-11 and two adults participated in the ‘Jeûne Solidaire’, which included a game of ‘Jeopardy’ where they had to answer questions and find solutions to hunger.
They also watched a documentary about the seal hunt on Baffin Island and participated in yoga exercises.
Two students, who are members of the student council that organized the fasting, offered their thoughts about it.
“It opens your eyes, that not every gets to eat,” says Joel Beaudoin, a Grade 10 student.
“Your daily activities are affected by your hunger.”
Beaudoin was impressed with the number of students that participated.
“We’re really proud of all the students that participated,” he says.
Antoine Simon, a Grade 7 student, was surprised how hunger impacted him in that 24-hour period.
Nonetheless, he was able to adjust to it, and near the end, he acquired an appreciation for the starvation that occurs in other countries. He wants to participate in another fasting next year.