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Winter Marist Mission Newsletter Vol.63, No.2, June, 2012
MARIST SM AUSTRALIA Australian Marist Mission Centre (MMC)
Marist Fathers International Mission Fund (MFIM)
Australian Marist Centre Overseas Aid Fund (AMCOA)
Giving Hope
Special points
of interest:
Christmas in Winter
Some possibilities
Balancing Act
Subsidiarity
Solidarity
Respect
Hope
Borders Bookshops
Reading the signs
of the times.
Education - the
future E-learning
knowledge access.
Marist Mission
Partners Solidarity
The future face of
front-line Mission.
Risk management
and sustainability
sides of same coin.
June 30 - deadline
for tax-deductible
donations
Dear Marist Mission Friends,
Recently, I was asked how do
I keep my balance, moving as
I often do in the space of a few
hours, from Sydney’s fabulous
climate, harbor and parks into the
squalid slums and refugee camps
where our program partners live.
There is an assumption in the
question of course. Truth is, my
‘balance’ issues arise more often
on the reverse journey — from
situations in Asia-Pacific which
are light-years from a fair-go but
ground me, to the comfortable
culture of affluent entitlement.
Visits to the poor remote corners
of Marist Asia-Pacific always keep
my feet very firmly on the ground.
Being with young folk with mental,
physical or social disabilities in
places like Bangladesh, Thai-
Burma, Solomons, Cambodia or
China is a perfect balancing check
for me and I need when I’m home.
Marist Missionaries and their
Volunteers cheerfully embrace
daily challenges to keep alive the
hopes of vulnerable folk. They all
have one thing in common. Their
two feet are firmly grounded.
Affluence is a two-edged sword.
It is so easy to take much in life for
granted. That is what can tip the
balance. But it is equally true we
do respond with compassion when
times are really tough. For that my
sincere thanks to you all.
Fr Kevin Stewart SM
Some times life is a balancing act !
Christmas in Winter
$10
$20
$50
Feed a Refugee child for a week at
Mae La Oon Camp
Help educate a Child with HIV/Aids in
Nongkhai for a month
Sponsor health care for children with special
needs in Dhaka
$250
$100
Support Marist Mission Ranong Learning Centre for Burmese children of poor Migrant workers
Purchase of an electrical Oxygen Converter and blood bank for children
Fr Kevin Medilo, Director of Marist Ranong and Fr Ben McKenna SM, Marist Leader for Oceania, share a passion for developing young people through education.
Fr Kevin is soliciting funds to construct 11 classrooms to replace the crowded rented facilities sponsored by MMC. (p.4) Fr Ben has organized series of ongoing leadership formation for young Oceanian Marists to take responsibility for their communities.
2011-2012 FINANCIAL YEAR
Donations to Australian Marist Centre Overseas Aid (AMCOA) are TAX DEDUCTIBLE.
Your entire AMCOA donation (100%) goes to those most vulnerable and in need to help them
to help themselves.
Please date cheques no later than June 30.
MMC ONLINE DONATIONS The online donation facility on the MMC Website
accords with best practice for security and privacy concerns.
Bequests Recommended wording is as follows:
The Director for the time-being of the Marist Mission Centre, a special work of the Trustees of the Marist Fathers for the Province of Australia,
3 Mary Street, Hunters Hill, NSW
MARIST SM AUSTRALIA
Australian Marist Mission Centre (MMC)
People you support through MMC who do not make headlines but make a difference
Sarnelli is near Nongkhai, Thailand, on the
Mekong river overlooking Laos. Basically
it is a cluster of family homes for children
orphaned when parents died from HIV/Aids.
Some children also have the disease.
MMC financed one of the hostels in memory
of Fr Pat Reynolds and our MMC benefactor
Catharine Mary Pianto. Through donor’s
generosity we are able to continue some
small support for this marvellous project
although the original needs are changing.
The thing immediately strikes a visitor to
Sarnelli is the awareness that every aspect is
shaped through Children’s eyes. The Chapel,
in every sense a Child’s Church, is home to
beautiful stain-glass windows which speak
gently to the hearts of these children of a
God who cares and loves them through the
care and compassion of the Redemptorist
Religious and dedicated Volunteers.
Besides the hostel with its commemorative
plaque honouring both Fr Pat Reynolds and
Catharine Mary Pianto, MMC’s spirit is
present in the person of Kate Introna, who
originally went to Sarnelli as a MMC lay
volunteer. Kate, a palliative-care nurse
from Newcastle, NSW was described by
a friend in a letter as a truly inspirational
Australian, compassionate and down to
earth, the type who makes you proud to be
an Aussie with her feet firmly on the ground.
Kate’s story also illustrates how God often
writes straight with crooked lines. She had
applied to Medicin San Frontiers. A new
MSF staff member overlooked her experi-
ence in disaster areas and turned her down.
Kate then volunteered for Sarnelli and was
captured by the challenge of caring for these
children and also served as a resource person
assisting Thai medical folk take on the chal-
lenge of protecting kids with HIV/Aids.
Kate still plays a major role in the life of
Sarnelli mentoring the next generation with
founder Redemptorist Fr Mike Shea.
Information www.sarnelliorphanage.com
Sarnelli : Fr ‘Ole’, Kate Introna, Fr ‘Bird’
Kate Introna with some of her ‘family’.
SARNELLI NONGKAI
A haven for Children
MMC is a
signatory to the
Code of
Conduct of the
Australian
Council for
International
Development
regarding
values, ethics
and best
practice.
Our Beloved Dead
Marists remember with
gratitude in their Masses and
prayers, our deceased benefactors
and all who have died in Christ.
Giving Hope
MARIST MISSION CENTRE
An Australian Marist Fathers’
outreach addressing poverty
and social injustice by raising
awareness and resources within
Australia for Marist networks
engaged in poverty alleviation
and social development of
youth, children and women
facing social, physical and
mental challenges in the
Asia-Pacific Region.
She aint heavy..she’s my sister !
Marists on the move in Mission...
Sparkling smiles of MMC’s frontline Team.
(left to right) Nina who manages the IT,
Annie who keeps donor services running
smoothly and Jane who manages us all with
charm and elan. As lay-Marists, quietly
and cheerfully, they continue our Marist
outreach to those your generosity blesses
and sustains. Veronica, MMC’s accountant
and Fr Kevin escaped our photographer ! Team MMC
“Be an expression of that charity of deeds, so that the proclamation of the Gospel, which is the first charity,
does not run the risk of drowning in the sea of words to which present-day society exposes us daily,”
An Urgent Need - An Electrical Oxygen Converter and Blood Bank
Christmas in Winter - Children might like to chip in from their pocket money to help Childrennot as lucky as us Aussies.
Sr Abiola states the need: The Clinic is open to the poor people especially pregnant
mothers, irrespective of their belief, race and culture. It is situated in Iree but other
villages within Boripe do benefit from it. The villagers are petty traders and farmers
of a small scale because part of the landscape is covered with rock.
Last year we treated 3541 patients. We need an Electrical Oxygen Converter and
Blood bank to save the life of the vulnerable children who come at the point of death
due to Anaemia, Malaria parasite, respiratory distress etc.
The blood bank will cost $4,000 to establish and the Oxygen Converter $1,540
The goals are to reduce maternal and child mortality rate by putting an end to
untimely death that is preventable which brings sorrow to the heart of the families.
Fr John Bonato
veteran of Fiji
went home to
the Lord after
a life-time in
education. RIP
Fr Gil Casio
went to Burma
as a student
now returns to
Marist Ranong
this year.
Kiwi Sr Julienne SMSM, Filipino
Br George FMS and Sri Lankan
SMSM Aspirant Sunita are mem-
bers of the Marist Family serving
in Bangladesh among the poor in
education and health care.
Fr Denis and Fr Joselito are
young Marist Priests serving
in Vanuatu. They are stand-
ing on the edge of a very
active volcano which is in
the parish they were serving.
Sister Monica SM is a Marist Sister who is
pioneering with lay partners an outreach to
both Christian, Moslem and Badjao tribal
poor children in the slums of Davao in the
Southern Philippines.
In simple bamboo shacks over the seafront
pre-school aged children are gathered for a
few hours each day to give them skills and
nourishment that will help them cope with
formal schooling which is a world apart
from their experience.
MMC assisted Sister with a new ‘shack
classroom’ on the waterfront which can
house 25 children. Cost including a small
stipend for a non-formal education teacher
$8,000 for the year.
Fr Bob Barber pictured in
the slums of Bangkok has
taught in Australian Marist
Schools and is a veteran of
the Marist African Mission.
Fr Bob has been elected as
the new Australian Marist
Leader to succeed Fr Paul
Cooney. He takes up his
new responsibilities in
January 2013. Fr Paul will
go to Rome as the new
Bursar General of the
Marist Fathers.
Very few of us in our 60’s really understand
the communication revolutions exploding all
around us. Facebook, twitter, cloud, blogs are
the foreign languages of a new generation.
Even purchasing paper books, as Borders
stores found to their regret, was no longer the
vehicle of choice. All leaderships, civic and
religious, struggle with such rapid change and
make decisions on models soon to be obsolete.
The well-intentioned stimulus package building
traditional school libraries. Some now empty.
The need now is for sunrise eyes/ears (rather
than sunset mouths) to read signs of the times.
Education no longer presumes that students go
to class. Less than 50% of students at one top
Australian University physically attend lectures.
Students access knowledge clicking on a keyboard
anywhere in the world. In Ranong and Mai Sot
their lecturers are in Australia and the USA. Where
you physically are is irrelevant. ACU, Harvard,
MIT Cambridge, Oxford make lectures freely avail-
able on-line. The result: education is now universal-
ly available and no longer a prerogative or exclusive
right of affluent societies.
Today’s challenge is to use the technology to bring
knowledge to the poorest in affordable packages in
the reality of their lives, guided by wise mentors.
MMC supports this revolution in Ranong
and Mai Sot for students disadvantaged by
their isolation and poor circumstances.
THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION IS ALREADY HERE: MARIST MISSION RANONG MARIST KAREN MISSION
Australian Catholic University facilitates E - LEARNING for Karen Refugees and Burmese Migrant Youth
Marist Australia Newsletter is published quarterly by Marist Mission Centre. Postal: Locked Bag 5002, Gladesville, NSW, 1675 Office: 3 Mary St, Hunters Hill NSW 2110. Tel: +61 2 9844 2275 Fax: 02 9816 1737 (www.maristmissions.com) (www.maristfathers.org.au) Fr Kevin Stewart : [email protected] Jane : [email protected] Annie: [email protected] Giving Hope
MARIST SM AUSTRALIA
Dear Father Kevin,
For the past six years MMC rented
small back rooms for Marist Ranong to
educate children of Burmese migrant
workers to prevent them being fed into
child-labour markets, often in factories
processing fish for Australian markets.
For that we are so very grateful.
Sadly very few Burmese children are
welcome in Thai schools and most don't
speak Thai. They are not even included in
a census and suffer many restrictions.
MMR helps these Kids receive a basic
literacy in English, Thai and maths in our
learning centres. We believe now is the
time to create a permanent safe haven for
the most vulnerable of these children. We
cannot open a school but have approval
for a learning centre - viva la difference!! Centralising Marist education, training
and health programs and making them
available for both Burmese and Thai will
have both social and financial benefits.
Despite their economic nightmare,
Ireland has committed to supplying us
with eleven “class-rooms”. Could MMC
possibly assist us with the furnishings and
equipment? Our hope springs eternal.
Fr Kevin Medilo SM
(with the circle or is it a halo ?)
This electronic revolution means
vulnerable MMC Karen refugees in
Thai-Burma and Burmese children of
migrant workers in Marist Ranong
can access courses on-line, from ACU
and USA in the realities of their lives,
assisted by volunteer mentors and
others who tutor from distant lands
such as our own Fr Ron Nissen SM.
They don't have to be in Australia,
USA or Europe for quality education..
Thanks for helping us to help
ourselves!
Education
Our Future
YES I would like to donate to
MARIST SM AUSTRALIA Marist Fathers International Mission (MFIM)
Australian Marist Centre Overseas Aid (AMCOA)
Australian Marist Centre Overseas Aid (AMCOA)
(donations are tax-deductible - 100% goes to the project )
Marist Fathers International Mission (MFIM) (non tax-deductible - Religious purposes)
Please send me information on Estate Planning
My donation:
$25 $50 $100 $250 $500 Other _______
I enclose cheque money order cash
I would like to make a direct debit from my credit card:
Monthly Quarterly Half-yearly Once only
Visa Card Master Card
Card No. _____________________________________
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Signature _____________________________________
Date _____________________________________
My details are: (please print clearly)
Title: ______ First name _____________________________
Preferred greeting e.g., Bill / Peggy______________________
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Giving Hope
WWW.MARISTMISSIONS.COM
Post: Marist Missions, Locked Bag 5002, Gladesville, NSW 1675
Or Fax to (02) 9816 1737 or donate on line.
“Giving Hope”
Marist Missionary Sisters - Dhaka, BANGLADESH
KAREN MARIST REFUGEES - THAI-BURMA BORDER
CAMBODIA: The education revolution gives us hope
“Christmas in July” With thanks from the MMC Team and our
Marist Family Network