On Wednesday 13 March, a group of year 12 students traveled to Christchurch for the Caritas Leadership day at St Gregory’s Church.

We started the day with an activity that made us get to know those from other schools who were attending the event. We did this by working together in teams to do challenges related to Caritas and South Sudan. 

After this we did an activity rotation in which we heard stories from a former worker at a refugee camp, learnt about different Human Development Index statistics from different countries and got to see some photos of the people living in refugee camps in South Sudan.  After morning tea we moved on to a simulation activity. In this activity we got into “families” of 4-5 and did different challenges such as; walking while carrying water, 2 minutes of push ups and trading for food in order to keep our families healthy. This simulation game gave us an insight into what life is like in South Sudan and how hardships faced by those in South Sudan. 

We then ate a South Sudanese lunch of Ugali (a simple meal that tastes somewhat like porridge). After lunch we had a brainstorming session in our school groups to think about how we could take action to help those in South Sudan and then ended with a prayer.

I strongly recommend applying to attend this event next year, as it was an eye-opening and interesting experience and a chance to meet some great people.