St Anthony’s Walks the Talk

Each year, Lent offers each of us the opportunity to share what we have with those who have so much less. And this is exactly what you, the St Anthony’s Family, have done. Generous support of our ‘Walk to Make a Difference’ has helped raise much needed funds for the Caritas 2009 Project Compassion Appeal, and so for this we say a big THANK YOU!

While the money is still coming in it is hard to put a dollar amount on exactly how much has been raised. At this point we do know that it is over $13, 000. WOW! What an amazing effort from you all! A very big thank you must go to the 44 volunteers who helped out on the day despite the inclement weather, and to the committee of hard-working staff who organised posters, rosters, badges, etc as part of the event.

There will be a special assembly where we will hand over the cheque to the Caritas representative. It has been wonderful to be witness to the efforts of our students who have got behind this initiative to put compassion into Action! We have indeed Walked the Talk at St Anthony’s!

These funds will be used to help:
• Provide banana plantlets for the farmers of Uganda
• The people of tribal India with tree seedlings to reforest drought affected regions
• Provide a Bolivian child with chickens to increase family nutrition
• A young Indigenous Australian to learn skills in youth work
• Provide a bicycle for a farmer in Uganda
• Provide seeds for four family vegetable gardens for one year in Bolivia
• Provide training packs for ‘street boys’ to learn organic farming in P.N.G.
• Support an Indigenous Indonesian to advocate on behalf of their community
• Provide a cow to be bred and shared amongst subsistence farmers in Uganda
• Provide a marginalised community in India with skills and tools to build a village pond to retain rainwater during drought

This generous support will not only help achieve some of Caritas’ goals outlined above, but has also provided our students with the opportunity to experience real ‘Compassion in Action’ and for this alone we are truly grateful.