austraLasia #2344



Young Volunteers helping to improve the world

Brisbane: 30th January 2009 -- After reporting on a well-designed media and image approach in SUE, we now move to a similar one in AUL!  Well done!

Young Australian Catholics are stepping out in faith to live and work among children in some of the poorest parts of the world and are finding the rewards are priceless. AMY SIMMONS reports (Catholic Leader, Brisbane, Australia)

STEPHANIE Wood and David Prior spent their Christmas and New Year touching the lives of children in need.

The two young adults from Melbourne were volunteering in Salesians of Don Bosco homes in Bangsak and Chiang Mai, Thailand, as part of the order’s recently established Cagliero project.

Stephanie was helping a group of orphans, aged between six and 18, who suffer trauma since losing parents and siblings in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

In the country’s north, David was running a home built to educate disadvantaged young men from the hill tribes, teaching them English and farming.

But Stephanie and David are just two of the many volunteers, which Cagliero project director Lauren Bicknell hopes to recruit for Don Bosco homes around the world in 2009 and years to come.

Having spent months missioning in Guatemala and teaching HIV/AIDS-infected orphans in Zambia, Lauren is passionate about working for the poor and believes it is a responsibility all people share.

“As a human being it’s important to have a good understanding of the greater world and what we have here in Australia,” she said.

“And it’s absolutely part of what a Catholic is called to do, to mission in every moment of their life, whether in distant communities or in their family homes.”

Lauren boarded the Cagliero project in February, 2007.

She spent the year doing research, interviews, booking flights and organising visas, and eventually farewelled her first two volunteers – Stephanie and David – in mid-2008.

She remembers feeling “nervous as a parent”, concerned the workload would be either too little or too much.
“I would also worry whether we were really helping the Thai communities, because sometimes in the West we have this mentality of ‘let’s go in and fix the developing countries’,” she said.

But after visiting her volunteers in October, and travelling to Cambodia, Lauren realised she needn’t be concerned.

“The trip reminded me about how much help really is needed in these countries, and I think we can make a difference as long as we are mindful and humble and careful about what is being done.”

Lauren said one of the biggest benefits to having a Cagliero project volunteer in these poor communities was the ability for locals to further their English skills.

“The entire world is desperate for English speakers, so even if they’re not specifically teaching English, the volunteers are helping just by the fact they’re interacting with the local people,” she said.

“In Thailand, for example, the ability to get a job in tourism doubles if you know English.”

But volunteers also benefit from the experience.

Emails exchanged between Lauren, Stephanie and David are evidence of this.

“I love Thailand, I am enjoying working with the boys,” David wrote not long after arriving in Chiang Mai.

“It is the most amazing thing I have experienced … words cannot describe it, all I can say is God is definitely here.”

An email from Stephanie the following month told of her “lovely but sad” Mother’s Day with the orphans and how she was enjoying herself – despite 40-degree heat.

“The volunteers get a great cross-cultural education and are able to learn the local language too,” Lauren said.

“David’s ability to barter successfully at the markets just blows me away.

“The work is not easy but it will promise to be an experience of a lifetime.”

Two more volunteers are ready to take over in Bangsak when Stephanie returns from her mission this year, and another is heading to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

“There is so much poverty in Cambodia, so over there it is mainly about encouraging kids to go to school and providing them with the basic life necessities,” Lauren said.
“Cambodia is one of our big focuses right now because there is just so much need there.”

People aged between 20 and 30 can also volunteer on Cagliero projects in Poipet – one of Cambodia’s poorest towns – Samoa, South Africa, Mongolia and Australia.

Lauren hopes to fill these places with up to 10 volunteers each year.
“We place a real focus on the journey of our volunteers starting from preparations here, to keeping in touch while they are away and having a proper debrief when they get back,” she said.

“We’re really committed to making sure they are financially, emotionally and spiritually taken care of in order for them to give their best.”
But applicants must meet certain criteria.

“First we assess their skill set to see whether there is a place for them and then, most importantly, candidates must have a willingness to work with young people,” Lauren said.

“They should also be prepared to work within the Don Bosco philosophies and a Catholic environment.”

For more information on the Cagliero project visit www.cagliero.org.au or email Lauren at LBicknell@salesians.org.au.

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Title: australasia 2343
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces AUL Cagliero Project
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2343