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.

Prayer 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

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.

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

group to the homeless. It was an opportunity to raise awareness of the homeless and mark this day dedicated to their care. We were able to utilise social media very effectively and share our activities with our members and followers.

NATIONAL PILGRIMAGE AND REGIONAL ACTIVITIES Timor-Leste Medical Clinic

The Australian Association is involved in funding and oversight of the medical clinic that is functioning at a level of 600 local patients treated monthly. The current staff consists of 1.5 doctors, two nurses, a receptionist, a driver and a part-time accountant.

Lourdes 2019

Australia took part in the 2019 yearly pilgrimage. The plan required a synchronisation of three programs – international, Irish and Asia Pacific. The delegation was comprised of: Hong Kong – 31, Korea – 10, Australia – 11. The Australian Association had planned to take malades from our country to Lourdes for the first time in 2020. This will now occur in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bushfire appeal and response

Like all Australians, and indeed the rest of the world, it was with great sadness that many parts of Australia where besieged by bushfires with heartbreaking footage of families losing everything as bushfires raged.

The Order of Malta Australia launched a Disaster Relief Fund that has so far raised approximately $100,000 thanks to the generous support of our members and friends Malteser International and associations around the globe. In particular, the three United States and Canadian associations have been very generous with large financial donations.

The initial response was aimed at having an immediate impact on those affected and offer our members an opportunity for direct involvement and, if possible, ‘hands on’ assistance. The first level of response incorporated cash and food vouchers delivered directly to those affected through their local Parishes to give immediate relief. Members have visited the affected areas and joined victims in prayer and made introductions with locals someone to talk to.

Confrère Frank Testa is the coordinator for our bush fire relief program leading the initiatives that will aid the victims of this disaster for the months and years to come.

Needs are changing constantly. The next phase in the bushfire crisis is recovery and rebuilding of communities which will be ongoing for months and years. We have commenced programs of visitations and assistance at a very local level and these will continue to develop and be rolled out in 2020. Supporting outreach programs financially and having our members actively involved in the bushfire-stricken areas in East Gippsland and Southern New South Wales is the priority.

Towns like Conjola on the New South Wales South Coast were flattened after a bushfire tore through on New Years’ Eve. The Order of Malta Australia will continue to support locals directly affected via outreach programs.