Community News The Great Bake for the FCJ Missions JULIE CHAMBERLIN COORDINATOR: FRIENDS OF ROMANIA & THE PHILIPPINES
Each year since 1998, a group of women has gathered together to make and sell Christmas Cakes with the proceeds going to support the FCJ Missions in Romania and the Philippines. Some of you know this and have supported this project in previous years. Our group, The Friends of Romania, began soon after Sr Margaret Mary Kennedy, fcJ arrived in Romania with two other Sisters. It was not long before we heard about the poverty and deprivation of the people from nearly fifty years of communism. We began by making small numbers of cakes of varying sizes and now we make around 4,000. Our profit in 2016 was $45,000 so we have turned in to a cottage industry! About ten years ago we were asked to support the Philippines as well. Both countries use their funds for tertiary scholarships for young people. At any one time we have about eleven scholarship holders in Romania and thirty-six in the Philippines. Romania is in the EU so university fees are very high but in The Philippines it costs $550 for a student to go to university for a year. At this stage we have 120 graduates and all are employed. Sr Ruth in Romania and Sr Paola in the Philippines both have rigorous selection procedures, as well as a Mentor Program to help the scholarship recipients stay on track with their course requirements. Last year, one of our graduates, a social worker, was invited to speak at a Caritas Australia luncheon in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. She told us her personal goal was to lift her family out of poverty. She has begun by paying the school fees for her younger brothers and sisters. This goes to show that every cake we sell helps others to gain an education!
Many people help with the packaging and gift wrapping, storage and delivery of the cakes. Each year, the women at the FCJ Learning and Development Centre in Manila make 1,000 bows for us to help with the gift wrapping. Just recently, Sr Paola sent us ten aprons beautifully made by the women – the funds we send for these goods help those women to improve life for their families.
We will be sending out our order form in early September, and the closing date for orders is 15 September each year. I look forward to hearing from you in support of The Great Bake for our tertiary scholarship program for the young people of Romania and the Philippines. You may contact me via: juliachamberlinmed@hotmail.com
As members of the Genazzano community, we are asking you to consider how you could support this project. Some suggestions include: • Buy our cakes for family and friends • Introduce our cakes to your colleagues • Suggest our cakes as suitable for corporate gifts • Conduct a cake stall in your local community e.g. kinder, parish, school, sports club.
Our small group of cooks has grown to about sixty and we are supported by students from Genazzano, MLC and Xavier who complete their Community Service requirements with us.
gennarr at i o n s
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