Each year Genazzano FCJ College marks Social Justice Week to create awareness and to raise funds to support the work of the FCJ sisters in Asia. This year activities happened online. This piece first appeared in Genazzano College website and it is published here with permission.
This year, the Genazzano community celebrated Social Justice Week quite differently – completely online. During the last week of August, students and staff came together remotely to celebrate our school spirit, engage in fun activities together and most importantly, raise funds to support the mission work of the Sisters FCJ in the Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia.
Led by Social Justice Prefect, Ruby Curtis, an array of activities were arranged across the school for everyone to participate in, including a GoFundMe page for people to donate to this worthy cause. Activities included a virtual mission stall, House move-a-thon, putting sustainability ideas into practice like making your own paper, sharing acts of kindness and helping prepare dinner for our families.
Each year, the College generously contributes to the mission work of the sisters through various fundraising activities but these have been hampered with learning at a distance for most of the school year. The Faith and Mission Department, along with Ruby, recognised that our support is needed more than ever, so worked out a plan and set a target—to raise $5,000 over the week.
We are delighted to share that we exceeded that target, raising $8,203 for the missions so far and have since doubled our target to $10,000. This is an amazing achievement and will make a significant difference to the lives of those who need it. To help us reach our new goal, we have extended fundraising for another three weeks until the end of term. We would love your support and invite you to contribute if you haven’t already via our GoFundMe page.
All contributions, big or small, go a long way to supporting the activities of Sisters FCJ, especially in this time of COVID crisis management. All donations go directly to the missions to support elementary and secondary education for children, College and trade scholarships for young people, women and baby health centres and nutrition programs, renovation and rebuilding of homes, women’s skills workshops and small business enterprises, food banks and other urgent needs.
In this bicentennial year for the Sisters FCJ and what is a very different year for all of us, we take comfort in knowing that our community remains committed to supporting those less fortunate than us.
These amazing efforts to date are truly inspiring and demonstrate our 2020 College theme—Ignited by beauty, truth & goodness, in action.
Principal, Ms Karen Jebb was involved in the week’s activities and was sincerely grateful for everyone’s involvement. “I am so proud of our Gen community and what we have achieved”, she said. “It’s been great being able to connect with each other remotely and still do our bit to contribute”. “I am extremely grateful to Ruby for her extraordinary leadership of Social Justice and to everyone who has contributed. The work of the FCJ Missions is incredibly important and it is wonderful to be able to support it in some small way”.
The Faithful Companions of Jesus is an International Congregation of Catholic Sisters founded by Marie Madeleine d’Houët in France in 1820. Since 1993, a group of women and men, scattered across the globe, have chosen to make a formal commitment to live their charism of faithful companionship with Jesus. These people are called FCJ Companions in Mission.
Genazzano FCJ College is a Catholic Day and Boarding School in Kew offering a co-educational Early Learning Centre and all-girls environment from Prep to Year 12. It offers students a rounded education that prepares them to become resilient, adaptable and confident women.
Read more news about Genazzano College on the FCJ website. Watch this video on the life of the FCJ sisters in Manila.
