Their progress through the education system in Aotearoa-New Zealand, reminds me of two significant projects that the Columbans help to administer and fund. These are projects for which we are seeking your financial and prayerful support.

One is the Higher Education College (HEC) in Mandalay, Myanmar. This is a collaborative project between the Archdiocese of Mandalay and the Columban Missionaries in Myanmar. The vision behind this project is to empower young people to become mature and responsible parents and citizens, leaders on the local and national level, teachers, activists, and development workers who work for the common good of the country and the local church. A memorandum of understanding between the Columban Myanmar Mission Unit and the Archdiocese of Mandalay calls the local Columban Mission Unit coordinator or his delegate to be a delegate on the board of governors. It so ensures that Columban donations, your donations, are “properly used in the running of the HEC, for salaries of teachers, food and medicine for HEC students.”

Myanmar Group photo with Early Childhood Care and Development students at Shangaw

The other is St Bernadette’s Children’s Centre in Peru. This incorporates three centres – the Residential Home for children who have been sexually abused, the Remedial School for children who have learning difficulties, and the Day Centre, where many hundreds of children participate before and after school.

The Day Centre enables children to identify and develop their talents while advancing their schoolwork. This Centre also provides music, dance, arts, and craft workshops. It has proven to be very popular.

Children who attend the Remedial school stay for a maximum of two years. This is generally enough time to overcome the difficulties, allowing them to return to mainstream education.

Children enjoying a music and dance workshop at St Bernadette Children Centre – Peru

In the Home, the residents are permanent. Here, children celebrate Christmas and other significant events throughout the year in the family atmosphere that the Home provides. This allows children who have suffered abuse and neglect to acquire a memory of happy times and events that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.

So, the education in these places of learning and care provide in Myanmar and Peru doesn’t just simply expand a child’s knowledge. These are also places of healing and creativity. There are indeed young people here in Aotearoa-New Zealand, who need the same support and protective care. But I think that the effort we undertake to ensure the best upbringing for our own children helps us to have a sense of how important it is to share that vision and compassion with parents, teachers, and community workers in other countries that may not be as economically developed as ourselves.

Students at a Higher Education College class in Mandalay, Myanmar