If you were walking down the street in Vejle in Denmark Friday afternoon you would have met a group of living strange gold and silver coloured man sized figures wearing hats and holding umbrellas. Although the figures on normal days are drama students at Rødkilde high school the performance was not just for entertainment but a way of collecting money for the organization Stairway which helps street children in the Philippines.
Other students collected money by selling coffee, having a bicycle race, flea markets and in various other ways.
“It started when one of my old students Lars Jørgensen told me about a project he had started in the Philippines. I was immediately inspired by his enthusiasms and we then organized a collection for all the students at the school”, says Lector of the school Hand Tolstrup.
Today the Stairway-day has become a tradition at Rødkilde High school. “We use it as a practical way of learning about the interaction between rich and poor countries”.
During the last couple of years the students have collected DKK 150.000 for Stairway. “Rødkilde High school was the first place which systematically supported us. This means a lot to the organization economically as well as morally”, says the leader of the project Lars Jørgensen.
Stairway Foundation Inc. is a Danish development project in the Philippines working with street children, children’s rights and campaigns against child sexual abuse. The organisation was founded by the American Monica Ray and the Dane Lars Jørgensen and has a children home on the island Mindoro.
