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 : director@maristmissions.com Jane : admin@maristmissions.com Annie: donations@maristmissions.com 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

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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