Kildare Ministries Senior Students Social Justice Seminar
Each of the Senior Leaders were asked to write a reflection on the Kildare Ministries Senior Students Social Justice Seminar held at the Edmund Rice Centre in Lower Plenty on Thursday Feb 28 and Friday March 1.
All schools within Kildare Ministries were represented (Clonard College Geelong, Killester College Springvale, Kilbreda College Mentone, Star of the Sea Brighton, Marian College Ararat, Marian College Sunshine West, Kildare College Adelaide, Brigidine College Sydney, Brigidine College Indooroopilly).
Guest speakers were Megan Bourke from Caritas Australia who organised a game of ‘It's Not Fair Monopoly’ where players experienced numerous inequalities (some were unspeakably rich, some were dirt poor, some were stateless refugees) that affected the starting point of their game, ability to make meaningful choices throughout their life, and ability to independently rise out of poverty. The game highlighted for students how poverty is the result of structural injustice and global inequalities (in areas such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, education and ability/disability) that exist in our world. It was a real eye-opener and frustrated many!
Sr Brigid Arthur spent the evening with us on Thursday, and introduced students to BASP – (Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project). Many were appalled to hear of the difficulties faced by people fleeing war-torn countries and how they are treated once they arrive in Australia, but heartened by Brigid’s message that even small actions make a big difference when you put them all together.
On the last day, students developed a Justice Tree, on which they pinned works of Charity and Justice that are organised at their schools, that they then used as a wonderful resource to plan activities of Charity and Justice Awareness in their own Schools.
St. Joe's students also spent their free time in a wonderful way. After hearing from Megan about the Project Compassion Give Lent 100% campaign, our 12 Leaders put their thoughts and words into action and produced this video:
Our Student Leaders have come away energised to lead in Social Justice at St Joseph’s and have a plan for activities for each term of 2019.
Here is what they each had to say about this fabulous experience:
Olivia Fraser (Patrick)
The Social Justice Seminar allocated to the schools within the Kildare Ministries, gave the group of Senior Leaders an opportunity to explore the theme of justice within our school community. The two-day camp featured a variety of lectures and activities where we had the chance to blend with other Kildare Ministry schools. During this period the 12 Senior School Leaders were able to brainstorm a range of grand plans to assist in fundraising and raising awareness for equality, charity and justice within our school. Personally this was one of the best seminars I have attended and I have definitely taken a lot from this experience. It is a must for future leaders to attend to assure our school can grow in the best possible way.
Jess Gould (Brigid)
Going to the SJ seminar was a really good experience, helping me to understand the difference between justice and charity. Neither one is more important than the other, they go hand in hand for the greater good: charity focusing on the present and justice focusing on the issue itself. There are many charities and organisations that fight for justice such as BASP (Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project) and Caritas but it’s one thing for us to hand over a dollar and another to contribute and help overall to the goal for the future. The experience really made me think what more could I be doing to understand and contribute to such causes. It was a great opportunity to get together with like-minded and strong-willed people to create and share ideas to bring back and implement within our own school.
Kieran Hogan (Patrick)
The seminar was something different to what I have experienced before, but it was a good learning experience. We did a lot of talking about the different things we do in our schools to raise money for charities and there were some great ideas for us all to use (in particular the Dare to Donate fundraiser - keep an eye out for info on that!). I developed a deeper understanding about the difference between charity and justice which really made me think about the things we do at school that are acts of justice and acts of charity. I would definitely recommend this to future Year 12 leaders because it gives them a chance to learn more about leadership, justice and charity and also time to plan different fundraising and awareness events for throughout the year.
Johanna Ritchie (Chisholm)
As House Captains we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend the Kildare Ministries Social Justice Seminar in Melbourne. Together with the other Kildare schools we learnt the importance of charity vs justice, the immediate short-term response vs addressing the root cause of the issue and making a long-term change. This was important to then plan initiatives that we hope to implement at St Joseph’s and share with the school community. We made a video promoting Caritas’ Project Compassion which runs through Lent, immediately we had a great response with our video reaching a large platform, including Caritas Australia. It was great to see that something so simple was reaching such a broad audience, raising awareness and promoting justice. I would recommend this to all future students, it was a great experience and it helped kickstart our year, working towards making a positive change.
Bridget Byrne (Chisholm)
The Kildare Ministries Social Justice Seminar was a great opportunity for us, as Student Leaders to meet with like-minded students and explore the social justice issues Australia is faced with. We covered topics on local, national and international levels. Together with the nine other Kildare Ministries schools, we learnt about the horrific treatment of the refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island, we discussed poverty and human dignity in great depth and we reflected on and explored what we can do as a school community to work for justice as well as charity.
This was an eye-opening experience and I am looking forward to putting into action the charity work and justice promotion we have put together for the 2019 school year.
Meg McLoughlan (Delaney)
Attending the Social Justice seminar last week gave us the opportunity to learn about how important raising awareness and taking action against social justice issues is. We were able to meet with many other Kildare ministries schools and share how our own schools take action. By sharing our ideas we were also able learn many more ways we are able to raise awareness and get everyone involved.
Senan McNulty (Brigid)
All of our group of Senior Captains, spent Thursday and Friday last week at an important Social Justice Seminar that was hosted by Kildare Ministries. To begin, we were taught the difference between charity and social justice and the importance of having both; we discovered that charity asks the question "What can I do?" and aims to provide aid and care, whereas social justice questions "What is the cause?" in an attempt to stop the injustice occurring at its roots. Our learning continued as we were taught about Catholic Social Teachings, specifically the prominence of human dignity and living in solidarity. We also had the chance to listen to a couple of inspirational speakers from both the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project and Caritas. Their knowledge surrounding the prevalent issues in our society such as the lack of clean water and the mistreatment of the refugees on Manus Island truly inspired me to create change even if it is only by teaching our small community the truth of the matter. It was an eye-opening couple of days and we have all come back inspired and prepared to work for change in our school. I could not recommend this experience any higher: it was an incredible opportunity for our group.
