Faith and Mission

St Vinnie's Donations

St Vincent De Paul food and toiletries drive.  For Killester College the Term 2 focus is on solidarity. Solidarity means to have support for one another or for members of a group. The group we are supporting this term is St Vincent De Paul. Students in all year levels are invited to donate a non-perishable food item or toiletry which is used by St Vincent De Paul in the running of their food vans as well as being distributed directly to people in need. As part of our preparation, the Year 9s have been discussing how organising this collection and donating items to a charity that supports people in need, reflects our school theme for 2022; “Compassion: Moving to Action”. The final day for donations is Thursday the 2nd of June. The Homeroom with the largest number of donated items will be able to have a “comfy casual clothes day” later in the term. Killester College will then celebrate our annual solidarity mass on Friday 3rd June where we pray and reflect on our school theme and our donations will be offered to St Vincent De Paul. Please see the image attached for a list of the most useful items. Thanks in advance to you, our families, for supporting the Term 2 St Vincent De Paul Collection. Year 9 St Helen

Kildare Ministries Student Justice Seminar

By Camryn Jessica Ogilvie, Year 10 St Michael

On Friday the 13th of May, 5 other Year 10 students and I were selected to participate in a seminar held at Kilbreda College. The seminar aimed to help us gain insight and greater knowledge about the hardships and realities of the treatment of The First Nations people in Australia. 

We participated in a number of group activities which helped us better understand others’ viewpoint on this issue, we even had a special guest speaker named Adam who shared his personal experiences as a First Nations Person and the discrimination he faced as a child. This experience was to aid us in our journey as we get closer and closer to Reconciliation Week. We hope to use our new found knowledge to aid us to give the Indigenous members of our Killester College Community a voice and to raise awareness. We hope that through our contribution in Reconciliation Week we can help encourage the others in our community to step out and make a difference for the sake of the future generations - both Indigenous and non- indigenous - to come.

It was a really insightful and interesting day to be a part of. As Year 10 students, we really gained a better understanding of what we can do as Australians to help those First Nations people to gain the confidence and to feel that they have a voice that needs to be heard. Now that we have learnt and gained more knowledge about the disadvantages that First Nations people may face, we now have to work as a team and to try our absolute hardest to find solutions. Even the smallest solutions can really make a difference to a person's life. We hope that even the littlest contributions can show the Indigenous people in our local community that we can change for the better. 

Now that we have gone through life experiencing the wonders that Australia has to offer, it’s time for us to give back to the First Nations people, recognising that it is their traditional land that we are standing on today.  

Speaking on behalf of all of us who went to the seminar, I can proudly say that now, we are determined to stand up and make a difference.