News of the Australian fires took over social media in the first weeks of the new decade. It was everywhere: the hashtag #saveaustralia was trending on twitter, celebrities were pledging millions in support on Instagram; links, links and thousands of links directed you to Australian charities begging for help.

And rightly so. 

To put it bluntly, this story is very, very bleak. Seven million hectares of land has been lost to the fires, that includes thousands of homes burnt to the ground. This includes the habitat loss of animals and plants species. Over 500 million Australian animals have been affected -including ⅓ of the nation’s Koalas have died. These are species already in critical near-extinction conditions. 

This does not even begin to look at the additional effects the fires will bring to the Australian public. Major Australian cities, including Canberra, are experiencing a severe deterioration in air quality. The Australian government is also about to face some severe economic problems, trying to rebuild infrastructure, roads and perhaps even agriculture. 

The Student Council decided to raise money for this cause and shared the initiative on Friday 17th January. They promoted the “St. Louis Save Australia Day” by encouraging students to wear green and gold clothes, the colors of Australia’s Rugby Team. To raise awareness on what was happening in Australia, the school representatives showed to all students a video about the terrible conditions the fires caused. A koala drinking water poured by an Australian fireman from a flask was one of the most upsetting videos many students declared to have seen. At the end of the day, the Student Council, through small donations, raised more than 250 euros. 

The actions on Friday could be summed up by a quote of Mother Teresa: “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”.