Social Justice News

As an Ignatian school, we are so fortunate to be in a position where there is much opportunity to uphold our school motto ‘to love and to serve’ as well as live out Ignatius’ values of helping one another and the disadvantaged in our local and wider community.

Last term, we kickstarted the Social Justice calendar with the launch of Project Compassion where we ran the ‘MacKillop hot cross bun drive,’ the junior Easter raffle, sausage sizzle, donut, Year 9 op shop and soft drink stall. Lent is a time of almsgiving in the Catholic church, so it was fantastic to see the whole college unite in support of this remarkable charity.

International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8 where we raised 100 dollars for the Alma nuns in Timor from the cupcake sale. IDAHOBIT Day was a success with many enjoying the friendship bracelet making workshop held in the art rooms.

We also introduced the fashion revolution week initiative which commemorates the collapse of the Rana Plaza sweatshop in 2013 which killed and injured thousands. Our goal is to build upon this event in coming years and raise awareness around the severity of fast fashion.

The Social Justice Team is also in the midst of hosting Refugee Week. All students are challenged to stay silent for the whole day in ‘the silent protest’ and/or encouraged to make a stand and eat refugee rations for 3 days. This Thursday, selected Year 11 and 12 students are also tackling the cage; they will be sleeping rough, eating typical refugee rations as well as making a stand in our community about Refugee rights.

Refugee week is a critical part of welcoming and celebrating refugees and people seeking asylum, so don’t miss out on being a part of this special event and promoting awareness for the 100 million people who are forcibly displaced each year.

During the last school holidays, 11 of our staff and students were super lucky to be able to spend a day at St Joseph's with some children from Cultura at the Refugee holiday program. This program is a partnership between Cultura and the Catholic schools in Geelong.

All participants raved on about how it was such a gratifying experience to be able to spend this quality time with these children and learn their stories. Next school holidays, our College has the incredible opportunity to be able to host this program, which we are currently seeking volunteers for, so I urge everyone to get involved!

Thank you all to everyone who gets involved and helps organise events and programs. Especially to the parents/carers for giving money for your kids to buy a sausage or a cupcake! It all makes such a difference.