Our Story Matters

To commemorate Refugee Week, the Social Justice team ran a lunchtime session with an invitation to students to share stories of displacement.

The following is an excerpt from our Social Justice Captains.

Welcome everybody who has decided to come to this special event today. Last week on the 20th of June was the beginning of Refugee Week. This program which is taking place at lunchtime today, was organised in the hope of spreading awareness of the hardship and the strength required when immigrating or being a refugee. In this presentation today, we have several family stories to listen to. The Dar family share their journey from Sudan, then we will hear from the Abba and the Attallah family's journeys from Iraq and finally, we have the Nguyen story and the family's journey from Vietnam to Australia to seek a better life. Through sharing our different yet somewhat similar stories, we as a community can develop a culture of welcome. - Samantha Smith

We would like to thank Mary Dar, Yousif Abba, Azeez Attallah and Ms Nguyen for sharing your incredible stories. Refugee week is about holding events which enable us to commemorate our stories and encourage a better understanding between communities. Today, as the community of CRC St Albans, we have had the privilege to hear about the journey of others migrating and the challenges they faced in order to reach a better life in Australia. Together, we have built a house where love can dwell within our school community. Thank you. - Hannah Nguyen

Being People of Peace

Year 7 Peace Assembly and Monument

On Year 7 Reflection Day the year 7 students discussed what it means to be people of peace. The students created symbols of what peace means to us. These symbols have been put together in a display in the Year 7 area. The display will be a continual reminder of the students' creativity and what it takes to be a peacemaker. The following was taken from the Year 7 Community Prayer morning, where students gathered around the tree where their artwork was displayed to pray for peace.

As this second semester commences we will walk past this tree everyday, with our peace badge on our blazer. The challenge will be promote peace, to treat people respectfully, to not speak harshly, and to be positive towards each other. We are then taking these symbols and making peace real in our daily lives. - Tommy Pham