5371(III)_The ‘New’ Normal in the Australia Pacific Province

May 09, 2020

By Lauren Hichaaba,
PDMA for the AUL Province and
Director of the Cagliero Project

Melbourne, Australia, 8 May 2020 -- The Australia Pacific province encompasses Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa. It is indeed very geographically diverse and for that reason the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been very different across the province. Fortunately, for the most part, all of the countries in our Province have been able to slow the spread of the virus.

The Australian government have placed quite restrictive measures on the entire nation. This has resulted in a flattening of the curve that has enabled Australia to really keep on top of the virus. However, there have been huge implications for all of our Salesian works. Most notably schools across the country have been engaging in remote learning. Our incredible teachers have been working twice as hard to try and engage their students from behind a computer and their efforts are incredible. This mode of learning is particularly challenging with vulnerable students and there is so much concern for young people on the margins that in-person, face to face contact is so important. Thankfully, slowly, now different parts of Australia are returning to the classroom.

The Social Communications team for the Province have been inundated with work as there has been so much that has shifted online. They have been working really closely with the Youth Ministry team to ensure that we are still connecting with our precious young people. SYM has been coming up with brainstorming creative ways of ministering to our young people. They have initiated the ‘Church at Home’ series (as modelled by the UK Province) and that has been a really successful way of keeping our young people engaged.

In New Zealand, where the Salesians have parish apostolates, they were in lock down for four weeks. This obviously meant no parish mass, so our priests have been coming up with creative ways to continue to outreach to their parishioners. Our parish priests in all four countries of our Province have also experienced the challenges of how to reach parishioners in lockdown. Fortunately, the measures taken by the NZ government have also proved really successful in containing Covid-19.

Our young brothers at our house of formation in Fiji have continued to study hard online. Fiji has a low number of cases of Covid-19 but it is still present, so the government are taking every precaution to ensure that they are able to eradicate the virus. Like many other countries the health infrastructure in Fiji is not strong so if the pandemic spreads it could have disastrous consequences. Construction continues on the new youth and parish centre but at a very slow rate – mostly due to all the rain.

Finally, in the most positive news in our Province, Samoa has been able to remain coronavirus free. After the measles epidemic they experienced at the end of 2019 the government were quick to close their borders and put the country into lock down while they tested suspected cases. This was an incredibly challenging time for the small island nation – particularly where church is at the centre of life. It was so exciting to hear this past week that things are resuming, and the young people are back at school and everyone is able to attend Church.

We hope and pray for the entire world and hope that we can resume our face to face ministry and schooling with our young people. We love and miss you incredibly.