Mission director promotes children helping children

This month, Fr Michael Pui was at an intercontinental (Asia-Oceania) meeting of PMS national directors in Manila, representing both New Zealand and Oceania, and he took the opportunity to visit St Therese Learning School in Sagay City in San Carlos diocese.

The school is located on Negros Island, a place also known as the “Sugar Bowl of the Philippines”, as it produces more than half the country’s sugar.

Twenty per cent of children aged five to nine in the area belong to families with insufficient income to sustain their basic needs for food and education. A scholarship programme provides financial support for underprivileged children.

The aim of the scholarship is to give poor and talented children, irrespective of their religious background, a chance to have an education at the public elementary schools within the parish community. The long-term hope is that the children will grow up to make a positive change in their community.

When Fr Pui arrived at the school on a Friday afternoon after school hours, a group stayed back to welcome him, as did the teachers and members of the parish pastoral council. He was very touched by the warm welcome, but he saw the condition in which the children lived and studied and was moved by the fact that their classrooms were in the building of the old parish church that had been condemned after earthquake damage.

The school and parish have a plan to raise funds, and/or apply to the PMS for funds to build another school on the adjacent land. However, because of the immediate needs, their focus is getting the scholarships just to get the poor children to school.

In collaboration with the Parish of St James the Greater, Fr Pui made a pledge to run a special appeal to raise funds towards the programme. Although the aim is to support four schools, Fr Pui made a special commitment towards the St Therese Learning School in Old Sagay.

In the next few months, Fr Pui will be approaching schools and colleges in Aotearoa New Zealand and hopes to provide a tangible connection between them and those who are struggling.

“The hope is that it will help New Zealand students re-discover the missionary outlook that were once in all our schools, that is, the spirit of ‘Children helping Children’,” said Fr Pui, referring to a key characteristic of one the Pontifical Mission Societies – the Holy Childhood Association, or The Pontifical Mission Society (PMS) of the Holy Childhood/Infant.

FULL STORY

Children helping children – The Sower (MissioNZ)