Pitching in: Students, Lucienne 13, Ruby 14, and Molly 13 doing their part to raise awareness for humanitarian issues overseas.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
Along with St Mary’s School Echuca and St Joseph’s College Echuca, St Mary’s Parish Echuca held their community day for Project Compassion on Tuesday.
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Drizzly weather couldn’t stop the enthusiastic students and community members from participating in the event, a fundraiser and awareness initiative supporting Caritas Australia, an Australian Catholic Church aid agency recognised for working to eradicate injustice and poverty.
Project Compassion runs over six weeks for schools, parishes, and individuals to raise money and awareness for those doing it tough in foreign countries.
St Mary’s and St Joseph’s students spent the day doing laps around the parish carrying buckets, backpacks, and sticks to represent the people who must walk large distances daily to survive.
North-northeastern regional co-ordinator for Caritas, Kerry Stone, emphasised the importance of involving students and community members in events like this.
“It is a time to reflect on where you’re at with your neighbours in the world, so it’s getting the kids to reflect on their lives and their brothers and sisters around the globe,” she said.
“I think it’s important to take the focus off ourselves in society. We have a lot of self-focus, and it’s all about me, but I think to be well-rounded individuals, we need to see the bigger picture and ourselves as global citizens.
“Our small-town matters, but our country matters, and our world matters because we live in an interconnected globalised world, and how we live affects other people.”
Home base: All the day’s events were centred around St Mary’s Parish Echuca.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
St Mary’s Justice Group co-leader Christine Sebire echoed Ms Stone’s remarks and was satisfied with how students and the public engaged with the activities.
“They’ve certainly embraced it,” she said.
“It’s a great support and response from St Joseph’s, and we’ve got really good support there and lots of participation, and then, of course, they sent St Mary’s kids all ducking in and out with great enthusiasm.
“Lots of people have come in and made a donation, but it’s not really about the donation, It’s about the awareness.”
St Joseph’s Justice Team member and student Zoe Campbell found the event sobering, particularly when it came to considering how prevalent these humanitarian issues are around the world.
“It’s quite shocking and a reality check to do something like this, and I don’t think we will fully realise the extent of these things happening until we witness it,” she said.
“I think it’s important because sometimes we don’t realise what we’ve got and become very unaware of the world around us; people don’t realise how well off we have it here.”
Fellow St Joseph’s Justice Team member Meaghan Gould took it upon herself to educate younger students as best she could when they inquired about the event’s purpose.
“There’s been a lot of little kids that have been asking a lot of questions, which is good,” she said.
Father Des also walked around the church throughout the day, helping to raise funds for Caritas Australia. He completed his laps with a smile and was pleased with the turnout and the support the parish received for participating in this important cause.
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