By Jenna Colaco - Year 10 Our Lady's Convent High School
The Justice and Peace Commission visited Our Lady's Convent in Hackney on October 20th. One student writes:
On Monday, the whole of Year 10 took part in various workshops ranging from issues connected to Climate Change, Human Trafficking, Homelessness and Asylum seekers, Pax Christ, Catholic workers and Fairtrade. These workshops challenged us as Christians to think of ways that we can help others who are in need. The Catholic Workers are an organisation that have houses of hospitality that can house 25 homeless people under one roof, many of these people are very lonely and have nowhere else to go and volunteers help these people without getting paid for it, all they get is the satisfaction of knowing that they have helped someone. We learnt about Asylum Seekers and how they do not have many rights in this country e.g. cannot work, buy/rent a home and even marry. We discovered that when it comes to all the foods we eat, many are imported from other countries where people are not paid a fair wage, for example: a banana costs 30p. The worker who works for 12-14 hours and works with pesticides that can cause cancer is only given 1p of that money. Overall, these workshops taught us that there is injustice and unrest all over the world and as fellow humans we have a call to help the people that are most vulnerable, like all the volunteers from all the various workshops; they spend their time dedicated to making a difference. As St Paul says – we are all part of the one Body of Christ so we must not ignore the needs of others who require our support. Maybe we should all aspire to be a generation that cares for those around us!
Justice and Peace organises these days as requested in schools. Contact justice@rcdow.org.uk
