22 February 2021

For the United Nations World Day of Social Justice, a collaborative effort by a number of schools has filled a shipping container with educational materials for students in Papua New Guinea. The schools involved are De La Salle College, Malvern, St Bede’s College, Mentone, St James College, Bentleigh East, St John’s Regional College, Dandenong, and St Mary’s College for the Deaf, Wantirna South.

PNG Container Project

Principal Tim Hogan wrote to the St John’s school community in Friday’s newsletter:

The first of our containers headed off to PNG on Monday of this week. Filled with a range of items from school furniture to uniforms and books, the Container Project has the potential to make a wonderful contribution to support Lasallian staff and students in our needy schools in PNG, with even the container being converted to teacher housing once emptied.

The Container Project was developed as part of the tercentenary celebrations in 2019, which saw the four schools in Melbourne that share a Lasallian heritage – St Bede’s College, De La Salle College, St John’s Regional College and St James College – coming together in pursuit of shared Lasallian ideals and mission. With the assistance of the Lasallian Mission Council and Br Denis Loft, the shipping container which has been based at St John’s has been filled by the four Melbourne schools with educational supplies and equipment, and is now headed to PNG. The next container to be filled will arrive at St John’s in the coming months.

Congratulations to the Lasallian schools for showing what social justice looks like.