Keane Harrington (Year 13) and Daniel Kofoed (year 11) were part of a mission group from St Joseph's, Papanui...

Touching down in the Philippines capital, Manila, two of our students were part of a team that went over to help poor youth.

From the St Joseph’s Parish, Papanui, the 13 strong team included doctors, teachers, and engineer, a tradesman, a hairdresser and the Parish Priest, Fr John Adams as well as our students, Keane Harrington (Year ) and Daniel Kofoed (Year .

Keane and Daniel reported that the trip opened their eyes to how privileged life in New Zealand can be.  But the real highlight were the children they spent time with, including boys as young as eight years old in prison.

“There was a group in a tiny, hot cell that all had chickenpox. That was particularly heart breaking,” Daniel said.

After a week in Manila, the group ventured to the tiny fishing village of Santa Cruz, Tacloban, which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. The team helped build a water treatment plant and shelter, and visited schools where they helped run a sports tournament.

Two videos of their time spent in the Philippines are also worth viewing via the following links: https://www.facebook.com/stjopap/videos/1802525989764571/ and https://www.facebook.com/stjopap/videos/1724397710910733/