national hospitaller
HANDS ON
A report on the Australian Association’s hospitaller activities by John Murphy KMG reveals a busy year for the Order, reaffirming a commitment to increase our direct work with the poor and sick in our society. Council, in particular overseeing the Coats for the Homeless program, working with the Timor-Leste clinic as well as leading the pilgrimage to Lourdes. Thank you also to all of our new regional Hospitallers who have taken to their roles with much enthusiasm confrères Greg Coyle, Sean Parnell, Danny Higgins, Stephen Quain, David Blackwell and Noel Mifsud.
P
rayer is the foundation of all we do and the spiritual commitment of the Order is a major differentiator between ourselves and other charity based organisations. Then it is also true that faith and works go hand in hand and as the apostle James (James 2:14-26.) encourages the early Christians, we must have a living faith that produces fruit in the form of works. In this report, as well as the following reports from our regional hospitallers, you will see a diverse range of activities and programs that our members have taken part in during the last 12 months. As your national Hospitaller, my priority now is to help create more programs and open up opportunites for even greater numbers of members to be actively working hands on. Thank you to Dr Robert Costa who has worked tirelessly in his role as Hospitaller during the period of the Transitional
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Coats for Homeless Our coats program has had its biggest year to date with distribution of 6000 during the colder months of 2019. Specifically designed ‘coats for the homeless’ are distributed in capital cities in Australia and New Zealand during the colder months of the year providing warmth and protection from the rain. Members and volunteers are rostered to take these coats to those in need as well as partner entities who facilitate distribution in some areas we are not present in yet. Care packs As a new extension to our coats for the homeless we have created programs to distribute ‘care packs’ that contain articles such as water, sunscreen, toiletries and sanitary items. This enables us to engage with the homeless throughout the year and in the warmer months and these have been expanded to all regions in 2019. This was initiated in our Central Eastern region but has now been trialled and rolled out in North Central, North Eastern and South Eastern and will continue to expand to make it a national program. Aged and Palliative care Most of our regions have a variety of volunteer work in the area of aged and palliative care, in particular our South Eastern region who are involved in Eastern Palliative Care although there is a lot more we can be doing in this area of need in all
states. Currently, our work includes Lourdes Day Mass in each region, biography writing program and visits to aged people’s homes. Palliative care leaders have now been appointed in each region and there will be a renewed emphasis to make this a national focus. Indigenous peoples Our Northern Central region work closely with indigenous Australians with food, clothing, blankets and also a breakfast program that offers children nutritious breakfast at school to ensure they have at least one good meal a day. This is unusual in Australia as all children are fed breakfast at home. NEW ACTIVITIES Order of Malta National Day To coincide with the Feast day founder Blessed Fra’ Gerard, members across the country spoke at Churches to inform parishioners about the work of the Order both nationally and internationally. After Mass, members were available to answer questions about our activities and distributed information brochures, Lourdes Holy Water, Rosary beads and prayer material. The goals were to improve knowledge of the Order of Malta and its activities, attract new volunteers and supporters, and promote health and solidarity. National Day is a wonderful opportunity to not only improve the wider community’s knowledge about our activities, but to give them the opportunity to volunteer and support our projects. Third World Day of the Poor Several regions took part in the Third World Day of the Poor. This was the second time we have been involved and we have expanded the activities considerably since 2018. The activities ranged from breakfast with the homeless to the delivery of care packs and serving evening meals as a 2019 Australian Hospitaller
