Walking Together
The Marist Solidarity Campaign 2005 is an Australia wide educational, sensitising to justice and fundraising event or process that is usually conducted during Lent in 50 Australian Marist associated schools.
Br Chris Wills and Br Allen Sherry plan and produce a set of resource materials for all the schools: posters, postcards, lesson notes, prayer services, web links, Solidarity Sound Bites, a DVD with a story about one of our schools or projects in Asia or the Pacific.
Various methods are used for launching these materials including visits to the schools, mail-outs and official launches at gatherings in Sydney and Brisbane.
Funds raised from this campaign form the financial backbone for the work. The campaign keeps the agencies linked with our schools, provides connections of solidarity between Australian schools and the schools and projects in our Pacific and Asian region.
About 10 Australian schools initiated Immersion Experiences in 2004 whereby selected students travelled and lived with fellow Marist students in village or bush situations for about two weeks. These experiences were then brought home to animate the Australian school communities.
The campaign theme Walking Together – Sharing the Journey encapsulates our wish to be connected as Marists across the whole of our region of Oceania.