Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, retired Bishop of Chiapas, the poorest Diocese in Mexico, once famously said:

‘The only question we will have to answer at the end of time is how we have treated the marginalised.’

St Paul’s Catholic College regularly runs immersion experiences to Cambodia for students from Years 10 -12. This forms a part of our social justice obligations and fits in with the Edmund Rice charism of developing positive relationships with peoples and communities in impoverished parts of the world. These types of immersions and the forming of partnerships provide excellent opportunities for our school community to develop relationships of solidarity across borders and learn about global justice issues. The boys in Year 11 and 12 are given first preference in attending but each year there are often places available for boys from Year 10.

These experiences are typically 14 days duration. There is typically one major experience with an organisation whereby we are involved in working as teachers aides and or doing some house construction work. The last 2 immersions however have seen a much greater involvement in teaching English and maths in school settings

In 2018 we worked in an orphanage for children who are HIV positive. The orphanage is called New Hope for Cambodian Children http://newhopeforcambodianchildren.org. The orphanage and school are located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Whilst there, St Paul’s boys will be mainly worked as Teachers aides and helping with basic Mathematics and English. There was aslo some labouring involved in gardens and or small construction projects within the village. The emphasis of the trip was on community service with limited tourism.

As well as spending time working at the orphanage we will also visit the Killing fields of Choeung EK and S21 (Tuol Sleng genocide museum) whilst in Phnom Penh. We generally also spend a half day with the Sisters of Charity in Phnom Penh doing volunteer work. There will be some time to relax and visit the central markets of Phnom Penh and hopefully visit the head office of Tabitha https://tabitha-cambodia.org/ to buy some bricks for the Nkor Tep woman’s hospital which St Paul’s has been contributing to, through our Cambodia immersions, for over a decade. https://www.nokor-tep.net/ . We also spend a day teaching English to rescued trafficked girls with Project Futures while in Phnom Penh. https://projectfutures.com/.

The latter part of previous trips have seen us travel to Siem Reap by bus where we may spend a day at Happy days Village school where we have done community service previously and or Opening Doors Cambodia.. http://www.happydayscambodianvillageschoolinc.org.au/home . This school is located on the outskirts of Siem Reap at Sre Vibol ke and is for children from the surrounding villages and gains much assistance from Mike Pawley OAM through his Happy Days Village charity. We also visit the world renowned Angkor Wat temples and aim to do a half day river cruise on the Tonle Sap.

The type of student who is invited to go on this immersion typically displays the following characteristics:

· A very high rate of attendance at school up to and including the last day of each term

· Attends all major school events such as swimming carnival / Athletics carnival, St Paul’s day, opening mass and end of year mass

· Has an excellent behaviour record backed up by a positive attitude indicated in his reports and in consultation with his teachers and Leader of Wellbeing