These two students knew that by bringing something shocking in front of their whole assembly, people would sit up and take notice of a cause.
Aurelia King and Gemma Scheinberg, senior students at St Catherine’s Anglican School, located in Sydney, wanted to raise awareness of the 40 Hour Famine, which ran from the 19-21 August.
And their message was heard – and seen – loud and clear.
As King and Scheinberg stood in front of 700 other students giving their presentation, two other students approached them from behind and began hacking off their hair using scissors.
“The point was that it had to be shocking so if people knew beforehand it wasn’t going to have the impact that we wanted,” King told The Daily Telegraph.
To Scheinberg, the challenge was about how to get students to relate to a problem that affects nations far from our own borders.
“We thought that talking about something that is so far away can sometimes be hard to relate to, so we thought that by bringing something shocking in front of the whole assembly people can relate to it more,” she explained.
The girls said giving up food “too easy” a challenge, and instead targeted something that teenage girls hold most dear – their hair.
“Hair is something that a teenage girl living in a privileged country is something that we value immensely and to give that up is a big deal for us,” King said, adding that hair doesn’t hold the same value to those living in poor countries.
“They want food and water and to be able to survive.”