Gerard Keating has been a welcome and valued guest and member of the New Zealand ERN. Gerard came onto the New Zealand scene from Brisbane in his role as Province Mission Directorate Regional Coordinator for Queensland and subsequently for NZ. Sadly for us and lucky for others, Gerard has been appointed Principal of EREA’s Central and West Flexible Learning Centres working across three sites in Adelaide, Alice Springs and Geraldton. Flexible Learning Centres educate young people that have for one reason or another not succeeded in the mainstream schooling system.  Gerard has his last day working for the Oceania Province on Friday Nov 20th  and heads off on an Immersion Trip to India with Br Rob Callan.  Find an article below, shared by Br Rob Callan in the lead up to their departure.

Gerard Keating is pictured centre in the back row.

INDIA IMMERSION 2015 – Volunteering in India

Three Kingsmen and five Leonians will spend a month in India in November/December 2015 serving the poor. This is the inaugural joint India Immersion for both colleges.

The three Kingsmen are Sean Dauner, Andrew Lynch and Braden Tonakie, and the five Leonians are Blake Alexander, Clint Caldicott, Jackson Hersee, Lachlan Stocks and Hugh Winten. The students will be accompanied by Br Rob Callen & Mr Gerard Keating.

These young men will spend two weeks in Calcutta working with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in centres like Prem Dan, Kalighat, and Nabor Jibon. In Chennai, they will work at MITHRA and Prema Vasam with severely disabled children from the slums of Madras. This is St Leo’s fifth India Immersion trip, but are delighted to make this a combined colleges initiative. Each student has paid his own fare with some assistance from a UQ Advantage grant.

The trip organiser, Br Rob Callen, Christian Brothers Oceania, says that this four-week experience always has a profound impact on every participant. Spending four weeks in a strange culture, being deprived of home comforts and familiar food, surrounded by a frenzy of colour, noise and smells, tests everyone and is a challenge for everyone. But this journey of self-discovery; this test of one’s patience and generosity, teaches every volunteer real truths about himself. And the whole experience offers the possibility for personal transformation. In their willingness to give of themselves so generously, these volunteers demonstrate their desire to build a better world.