These Just Leadership Days with the theme “Food For Life” were designed to encourage the value of justice in leadership and to raise awareness of poverty and hunger in the world.
Year 5 and 6 students at Our Lady of the Rosary at the Entrance, Mackillop College in Warnervale, St John Fisher in Tumbi Umbi, and St Cecilia’s in Wyong joined together to learn more about just leadership and to each develop a Project Compassion plan for their school.
This year’s theme of “Food for Life” engaged the students by looking at hunger, poverty, and wealth distribution across the world.
“They spoke to us about social justice and how we all have a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate than us,” Annelise from St John Fisher said. With forty per cent of the world’s wealth concentrated in one per cent of its population. “It made us realise how much we all actually have and how lucky we are to live in Australia.”
Students from St Cecilia’s said that the Just Leadership day had made them reflect on what kind of leaders they wanted to be in their school. “We learnt about how we have to be fair and treat others with dignity,” said one student.
The students from St Cecilia’s are now planning to raise money for Caritas through Project Compassion.
The students from Our Lady of the Rosary felt that the main messages of the day were the importance of working together as a team and listening to each other’s opinions to solve challenges.
“We learned that justice isn’t just about everyone being equal but it is about being fair and that by working as a team you can achieve great things,” one student observed.
The students were given Project Compassion resources and learned about poverty through the story of Eric and Ma from Fiji.
“Every dollar we can raise at MacKillop will go toward helping Eric and Ma, their family and other families to build a better life,” said one of the students from Our Lady of the Rosary. “We certainly learnt a lot about how leadership and justice go together.”