Just Leadership Day

Caritas Leadership Day 1

On Wednesday 25th February, eight members of the Year 11 Social Justice team and eight members of Year 10 Vinnie’s Group travelled to OLMC with Mr McBride and Miss Pett to discuss global issues with schools from all over Western Sydney.

The excursion was run by Caritas Australia, and provided awareness by discussing global issues that are occurring including injustice and unfair distribution of wealth and resources.

The day started with a representative of Caritas Australia welcoming us all and giving us a run-down of what was scheduled for the day. The first activity that we did was called ‘speed dating’. We were given a series of questions and told to find someone from a different school to discuss it and share the ideas that we had. Questions that we discussed included, “What do you think when you hear the word justice?” and “What are your thoughts on social injustice?”. After discussing the questions that were displayed on the board, we were asked by the Caritas representative to share our ideas with the audience. There were great ideas brought up by all schools about ways that we could improve social injustices and how we feel about the issues that occur globally.

Caritas Leadership Day 2

After a long discussion and collaboration of ideas, we made our way outside for morning tea and returned to the room after our 30-minute break. To our great surprise, it was announced that we had visitors who had come to tell us about their story. It was Eric and Ma from Fiji, who we know as the Project Compassion ambassador’s ‘Food for Life’ campaign. We were honoured to hear Eric and Ma’s story as they told us how they went through a life changing time, when they were given the support from Tutu. They told us of their ‘Married couple’ course they did over a period of 6 months… where they learnt: what sorts of food they needed to eat for a balanced and healthy diet; how to manage and schedule their resources and farming skills; and how to connect and develop more as a family.

It was a great opportunity to meet the people who we, as a community, along with many other Catholic schools, are raising money for so that their success can be repeated across all of Fiji. To hear their gratitude and see their happy faces was truly something special. Eric and Ma thanked all of us for our generosity in our constant support for Project Compassion and asked that we continue supporting the 'Food for Life' campaign so that we may continue to improve and potentially change forever, the lives of families who live in Fiji.

Caritas Leadership Day 3

After Eric and Ma left, we continued the meeting by discussing ways we could not only fundraise for Project Compassion within our school, but to raise the awareness of individuals as well. For this part of the meeting, each school formed into their own groups and brainstormed ways that we would raise money and awareness for Project Compassion. Many great ideas were brought up by all the student representatives about how we could raise money for charity, and increase the awareness of the injustice going on in our world.

When the day was over, we left with many great ideas about ways to improve the awareness and raise money within our College for Project Compassion. We thanked OLMC for hosting us and made our way back to school. I would like to thank Miss Pett and Mr McBride for taking us on the excursion and also to Mrs Becroft for providing us with this great opportunity - it wouldn't have been possible without them.

'People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.' – Maya Angelou

Bailey Gravina
Year 10

Written By

St Andrew's College Marayong
www.standrewscmarayong.catholic.edu.au

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