Attachment
All eyes are on the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, as Richard and Wendy Tendys take up the impossible challenge. They are hosting a Guinness World Record challenge on 19th November, in Vanuatu, a tropical island nation in the South Pacific.
In order to increase awareness of the special education needs of the children of Vanuatu, the Tendys will bring together 820 senior high school children to challenge ‘How Many People to Write A Story in 24 Hours’.
The students can only write one sentence each in a continuous story that will describe how two children, riding on a magic giant tortoise, will fly the length of Vanuatu, hunting for pieces of a treasure map. Guy Deroin (a local Ni-Vanuatu artist) will be illustrated the story, and student teachers from VITE Teachers Training College will support. The story will be published as a hard copy book.
On November 19th, all the Tendys’ years of teaching experience will be put to the test, as the challenge is made more difficult by the fact that for the huge majority of the students will be writing in their third language (English). Vanuatu has about 156 separate languages, second only to the number in Papua New Guinea.
In 2004 the Tendys retired’ to Vanuatu, after teaching English as a second language in Hong Kong. The Tendys renovated a property and opened Seachange Lodge, a boutique 6 roomed holiday accommodation, instead of retiring. Quickly they became involved in a local community, forming YouMe Support Foundation, to help the local children gain a high school education.
Putting their ‘money where their mouth is’ they set about raffling Seachange Lodge on the Internet. Some lucky person will own the prime piece of water front real estate for just $Au49, Seachange Lodge, in December 2010.
They came up with the idea of creating a Guinness World Challenge that would highlight the needs of the local children as part of their ongoing programme. There is no free or vital education In Vanuatu. With no ‘social security system in place, many islanders are out of work and have no way of raising funds for educating their children. As Nelson Mandela claimed, ”The only way to make lasting change is through education.”
The Guinness World Record staff are delighted to see a small South Pacific country make a world name for itself and are hoping the challenge will succeed. A Guinness World Record adjudicator will be present on the day, to present a framed certificate, if the record is broken. The current record was created in 2007, by an Austrian group, with 797 people participating.
Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys and her husband are CEO's of YouMe Support Foundation provide high school education grants for children who are without hope. You can help in this really great project by taking a few minutes to check it the Tropical Island Treasure Chest at Win a Resort (http://winaresort.com) It really will change your life.
Feel free to contact Wendy on admin@youmesupport.org
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
