Worthwhile partnership
11.12.2009
Vinnies and the Columbans work together in Pakistan.
They partner together in supporting 60 young women who are studying at St Elizabeth School of Midwifery in Hyderabad. These young women receive qualifications which ensure they will obtain good professional employment and help other women. Only 23% of Pakistani women have a trained attendant during childbirth. By joining together, St Vincent de Paul Society and Columbans are making a difference in the health needs of Pakistani women.
The St Vincent de Paul Society also actively supports the Catholic Centre of Academic Excellence and the Catholic Youth Development Centre in Hyderabad.
The Overseas Partnership and Development Advisory Committee of the Victorian State Council of the St Vincent de Paul Society supports these projects as ways of assisting young people in developing countries. John O'Brien, Chairman of the Committee, says that the emphasis on professional skills and educational growth in the three centres ensures the personal self- development of the young people. He says that this Vincentian partnership with Columbans actively and concretely addresses the plight of Christians in Pakistan and at the same time helps to break down barriers of inequality and discrimination.
The motivation for beginning the Centre for Academic Excellence came from discussions in 2006 among members of St Vincent de Paul Conference. This is the first Vincentian Conference in the diocese of Hyderabad and it began in 2005.
The membership of the conference is made up of Catholic professionals in Hyderabad and has care of prisoners in the two city jails as its special work.
The success with which they have been able to obtain official approval for visiting the jails, their zeal in carrying out sustained jail visitation, and the sense of mutual support and Christian fellowship they have personally experienced as members of the conference has encouraged them to "lift up their eyes" to other possible areas of action.
The local St Vincent de Paul Conference in Hyderabad believes that through the Centre of Academic Excellence they can make a real difference in the lives of Catholic young men who are economically, socially, and occupationally disadvantaged and discriminated against solely on the basis of their Christian faith.
Catholic boys have not been able to get admission to universities to obtain the necessary educational qualifications due to family poverty, the inability to pay tertiary admission fees (plus huge bribes), a lack of vocational guidance, the perception of "why study and get good results since I can't go any further," and a sense of personal insecurity.
The goal of the Centre is to provide educational, spiritual, moral, and personal formation for Catholic boys and young men of proven academic ability from the diocese of Hyderabad to enable them to obtain university entrance on merit basis and to confidently and successfully pursue university studies with a view to their becoming an influential Catholic voice in the Islamic environment of Pakistan.
Sixty Catholic boys are enrolled in the centre for the last two years of high school and the two years of pre-university college. It runs on a non-residential basis and operates Monday to Friday from 4:00-9:00pm. The boys attend their own schools in the morning and then come to the Centre in the late afternoon. They receive afternoon tea and also their evening meal.
St Vincent de Paul Conferences throughout Gippsland in Victoria generously support the morning programme, the Catholic Youth Development Centre. This focuses on the needs of young men who have dropped out of school due to family poverty, being the sole wage earner, broken families, or family disinterest in education. Currently 29 young men are enrolled whose average age is 17.
Most work as street sweepers before attending, others go to work in the afternoon, evening, or night. Our aim is to get them successfully through matriculation by an accelerated programme of learning spread over three years, covering primary to secondary. After getting their matriculation certificate they will be encouraged to move into technical education which will enable them to obtain secure and good employment.
The enthusiasm of conferences and regions of the St Vincent de Paul Society is making all the difference in the lives of these young people in Pakistan. It is a good partnership between the St Vincent de Paul Society and Columbans.
For more information see: http://www.vinnies.org.au/home-vic
Fr Robert McCulloch has been a missionary in Pakistan since 1978.
