Twenty-two young people took part in the event and travelled from the across the country to Caritas’ Sydney headquarters. They included participants from universities in Sydney, the Archdioceses of Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart and the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese run pastoral placement program.
NSW Community Participation Leader, Greta Spies, said the 3-day workshop presented an “unprecedented opportunity for the like-minded youth to build their networks. They also gained a behind the scenes look into the workings of Caritas, and the work of aid and development.”
Kicking off with a traditional Aboriginal Welcome to Country ceremony, during the workshop all of the attendees spent time shadowing members of Caritas’s staff including those responsible for the delivery of responses to emergencies, campaigns and fundraising appeals such as landmark Project Compassion.
On the final day workshop participants took part in an “Amazing Race challenge” designed to give the students a real taste of campaigning on aid and development and increasing awareness about global issues in the community.
Splitting into two opposing groups of 11, team “Red” and team “Blue,” travelled to the North Sydney Campus of the Australian Catholic University and the University of Notre Dame, where they asked as many students as they could find, to join the call for a “Fairer World”.
Launched earlier this year, the Fairer World campaign asks that the Australian Prime Minister show solidarity with those experiencing poverty and injustice by rebuilding Australia’s foreign aid budget, strengthening climate change targets and upholding the rights of the First Australians.
The idea of a “Fairer World” is one that particularly resonates with Felicity Walter who travelled from Melbourne to attend the workshop. She teaches the principles of social justice to primary school students.
“I think that we could live in a fair world,” Felicity said. “When I talk about justice with primary school students, they say, of course yeah, why wouldn’t we live in a fair world?
“They learn from their parents that we all share things and we should do what’s right. Somewhere along the way people can lose that, because things like greed and corruption can manipulate the way that they think. I don’t think the world is fair, but it could be if we all had a global, outward understanding.”
Find out more about Caritas Australia’s Fairer World campaign at www.caritas.org.au/act/fairer-world