Caritas (Catholic Agency for Justice, Peace and Development) promotes the Caritas Challenge.  The purpose of the Caritas Challenge is to fundraise, educate and raise awareness for people and places that they work with.  This year the focus is Cambodia and Challenge 2000 kick started the Wellington area campaign over the weekend of 1st-2nd April 2016 in Johnsonville.  Schools were invited, and they responded with enthusiasm and passion.

We organised to sleep in boxes overnight, workshops, activities and games, presentations, set up a room to look like a Cambodian home, reflections and prayer.  We had guest speakers – Nick from Caritas, Kitty McKinley and Geoff Rahari – as well as visits from Cardinal John, Peter Dunne, Deputy Mayor Justin Lester, local Dominican Sisters, parents, a youth worker from BGI, Emily from Young Church Ministries, teachers and supporters.  Thank you to everyone who came together to support the cause – the overnight security team, the cooking team and the background missions team.

Thank you to the Colleges who took part – St Bernard’s College, St Patrick’s College Wellington, St Catherine’s College, St Mary’s College, St Patrick’s College, Silverstream – your students’ input was valuable and we enjoyed being with them.

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