About 23 pupils and a dozen parents from the school underwent the experience last night as part of the Caritas Challenge, which encouraged Catholic school pupils to participate in activities that gave them a better understanding of the living conditions of those less fortunate.
There were four challenges to choose from: Move It, Sweat It, Stop It and Live It.
The Move It challenge highlighted the plight of people who have to travel long distances to access basic needs such as water, food, health care and education. In this challenge, pupils were encouraged to continuously carry buckets of water or backpacks of valued possessions for 24 hours.
The Sweat It challenge invited pupils to stand in solidarity with the millions of workers, including children, who are forced into sweatshops around the world, by organising participants into shifts to cover the 24 hours of the challenge.The Stop It challenge encouraged pupils to stop something that was harmful to the environment or humanity.
St Peter Chanel School pupils took up the Live It challenge by sleeping overnight in a cardboard box structure on school grounds.
Religious studies director Pesamino Tili said it was an opportunity to personally experience something millions of families in the world did every day: living without a home and the comforts we took for granted.
"It’s to get a sense of solidarity with those less fortunate than we are — to align ourselves with the marginalised, especially those that are poor and don’t have any homes."
He was not worried about a little rain overnight because it would just make the experience a little more realistic, he said.
The other purpose of the challenge was to raise awareness of climate change in the Pacific, he said.
This year, about 7500 pupils around the country took part in a challenge to raise funds to go towards helping solve the problem of rising sea levels in Kiribati.
Last year, New Zealand schools raised about $70,000 for Caritas projects in Cambodia.
