www.mwia.org.au DECEMBER 2018 BVA The MISSION in the year of JUSTICE MWIA FEDERATION Loreto Family Be the Change International Become One! 2 Contents Welcome to Sustain 3 Provide something 4 6 CONTENTS more than ordinary… Belonging to the global Loreto IBVM This year, as a guest speaker at Message from the Executive Officer 3 network ensures that the friends of Loreto Normanhurst, I witnessed the Mary Ward International Australia overwhelming commitment not only Inspirational Unity 4 are part of 400 years of faith filled to the value of Justice, but to each of tradition. Each day we walk in the the five General Congregation Calls Loreto Family International & MWIA Become One footsteps of those who have gone of the IBVM. before us, on the same journey… The MISSION 6 a journey seeking change. All these young students around Australia are change makers of In the Year of Justice This December edition of Sustain the future. bears witness to the many ways Loreto The Loreto network connections are Project Update: Vietnam 16 women and men walk in the footsteps long standing, beginning with our Responding to needs… of Mary Ward and Saint Ignatius, school connections and continuing in a making a difference of their own. variety of relationships. In this edition Loreto Federation 2018 18 The Mission and Feast Days of our we recognise the efforts of former “Be the change” Australian Loreto schools are featured pupils who are loyal supporters of the in an acknowledgement of the work of our Loreto Sisters. We are 16 Project Update: NSW, Australia 22 extraordinary efforts of all the students. forever thankful for the friends of the House of Welcome Being the Year of Justice, activities Loreto Family International group and were created to raise awareness of and all the women and men who attended IBVM Global News support for MWIA projects enabling the 2018 Loreto Federation Gathering 18 23 women and children in marginalised at Loreto Normanhurst in May. Spain, Peru, India, South Africa regions to transform their lives through As the year comes to a close, we take education and opportunity. Donate Today 24 this opportunity to extend our sincere You will smile as you read and see the thanks for the generous support from Join us in promoting justice and development many interpretations of felicity, sincerity, our friends which has enabled us to verity, freedom and justice. Follow us increase our global and domestic through the streets of Ballarat with the support for the projects that are truly Loreto students’ walkathon, the reverent changing lives. procession of young girls carrying Our hopes are best said on page 13 floral tributes to the statue of our Lady in the prayer written by the Loreto at Loreto Kirribilli and onto Loreto Nedlands 2018 Mary Ward Captains. Marryatville, where the students were We wish everyone a safe and joyful encouraged to follow their dreams of Christmas and pray for a new year filled creating a better world by Dreaming for with kindness and generosity of spirit. Justice. See the tangible joy at Loreto Coorparoo and Loreto Nedlands as they Warmly, gathered to celebrate the blessings of 23 their community life, the students of John XXIII taking the students of Majella Catholic Primary School to the beach Kim Nass for the first time and the strength of ABOUT US the foundations of the Loreto values Mary Ward International Australia (MWIA) is a underpinning Loreto Toorak. registered charity and is the Australian and international development organisation of the Loreto Sisters. COVER Our Mission is to support the development works Loreto Ballarat associated with the Loreto Sisters and their colleagues Walkathon 2018 raises as they empower women to transform structures and well needed funds for Partnership for systems that keep them oppressed and marginalised. Loreto Rumbek justice and development SUSTAIN Mary Ward International Australia www.mwia.org.au 4 MWIA & Loreto Family International 5 INSPIRATIONAL 2 UNITY Loreto Family International & MWIA Become One 1 Think Loreto, think Federation, Loreto Family International (LFI), In the beginning, the funds were • Ethical Enterprises Initiative – MWIA supports these goals in think Ballarat, think 1987…these was formed, an LFI Committee was channelled directly into education providing training to young girls very practical ways, by assessing four elements aligned and sparked established, and Past Pupils from for girls and later, into programs in skills relating to jute and paper project applications, seeking the start of a revolutionary change all over Australia were invited to providing support for women and products so that they would be funding for projects, organising maker, Loreto Family International. donate to provide funds to support families. LFI members began by employable and able to earn a wage. the international transfer of funds the international development work sponsoring a child at Loreto Sealdah and reviewing every project. MWIA We have recently experienced the of the Loreto Sisters, specifically in and Elliott Road for $175 per annum. • Two hundred teachers have been also creates ways for people to extraordinary Loreto Spirit first-hand India, where in 1987 the IBVM Sisters As further needs were identified, trained in primary education and collaborate with this mission for at the 2018 Loreto Federation, “Be believed, ‘the need was greatest’. support for many programs followed: education manuals in Bengali, Hindi, justice and development by providing the Change” – Celebrating the 30th Many generous and loyal donors and Urdu have been developed. opportunities for volunteers. Gathering of the Australia-wide Loreto signed up, and over 80 percent of • Darjeeling Collective Voices – set Community. All who have attended these donors, together with some up to empower tea plantation The dedicated LFI Committee and Loreto Family International is now 3 a Loreto Federation will understand who have joined their ranks in communities in Darjeeling to their generous sponsors have sent a part of the MWIA family and, the energy it generates and its more recent years, have continued know, promote, and enact their more than $1.5M directly to India and through donations made to MWIA, its inspirational spark! to give over the thirty years that rights in education, protection, the only costs to the organisation members will continue to support the health, and nutrition. As a result have been postage stamps for development work of the IBVM Sisters. Be compassionate and merciful of families’ participation in this correspondence. What an outstanding The Annual Mass will celebrate the program, enrolment in schools has record of philanthropy! wonderful collaboration between LFI towards the poor and generous also increased to 100% and trafficking and MWIA this November at Loreto has dramatically reduced because All good things must come to end, Toorak and a Loreto International parents are sending their children or must they? Family Grant will be awarded annually if you have the means. - MARY WARD to school rather than the plantation to a project in India focusing on The desired outcome of all Federations have followed. Most of the current fields to work. This wonderful initiative has come full women’s education. The legacy of is that this spark is harnessed in committee members have served circle from its inception at the same Loreto Family International will live on very practical terms, becoming the for all or almost all of those years • Kolkata Capacity Building – offering event over thirty years ago. After much in the lives of those empowered by foundation, ‘to provide something and they have been extraordinarily micro-credit programs, drop-in consultation, the LFI Committee and opportunities created as a result of more than ordinary’ where ‘the need is grateful to the dedicated donors for centres for victims of child labour, their donors decided it was time to love, generosity and compassion. greatest.’ Colette Burnes, Loreto Toorak their ongoing commitment to LFI. programs for identifying children formally join with MWIA. At the 2018 Past Pupils Association President, 1985 who, unaided, would not be able to Federation, LFI’s current President, Heather Kitson Images – 1986, was present at the 1987 Ballarat What a unique and special idea, one attend school. Kate Russell, handed archival material MWIA Communications Officer 1: Brick Field Project – Kolkata, India. Federation and this is exactly what she that pre-dates today’s organisations and database details over to MWIA’s 2: Loreto Family International President, Kate Russell & MWIA Executive Officer, Kim Nass. did! Colette saw that the Sisters, who like Mary Ward International and • Kolkata Female Correctional Home Executive Officer, Kim Nass, on behalf 3: Ethical Enterprises Initiative - Darjeeling, India. were working with “the poorest of the MWIA and really, is the bones of what – equipping female inmates with a of the committee and donors, as a Should you wish to learn poor” in India, needed support and these organisations have evolved vocational skill to assist them, when symbolic gesture to indicate that more about MWIA, donate believed Past Pupils across Australia, into - the fundraising arm that released, to live a life of dignity. future support would be given through or contribute please go to could give this support. Simple, supports the IBVM Sisters’ projects direct donations to MWIA. www.mwia.org.au though revolutionary was the idea of internationally. Colette Burnes and • Kolkata (Satarda and Shillong connecting like-minded Past Pupils this small committee of Ex-Loreto Regions) – establishing income The Loreto IBVM Constitution states: directly to the Sisters in India. students, were certainly well before generation projects e.g. masala “in a world of inequality and injustice their time! grinding, canteen, micro-savings we stand with the oppressed, the schemes, vocational training and disadvantaged and those exploited health programs. in any way by unjust systems.” Partnership for justice and development SUSTAIN Mary Ward International Australia www.mwia.org.au 6 The Mission in the Year of Justice 7 THE MISSION Each school celebrates Mission Day with distinctive flair, creativity, joy and sheer hard work.