2 Nov 2019

Calling us to create a ‘culture of encounter,’ Pope Francis asks us to reach out with open arms to migrants and refugees around the world and in our communities. In 2017, the Pope launched Caritas’ Share the Journey (STJ) international campaign from St Peter’s Square in Rome.

Sunday 29 September marked the launch of a milestone in the campaign called the Global Week of Action (GWA19) ‒ 29 September to 6 October. GWA this year has been themed around creativity, recognising art as the great connector in its universal ability to impact on people’s minds and hearts.

During GWA19, Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand enlarged the iconic 2019 Share the Journey collage and invited schools, individuals and communities to add their own photos and stories. The collage was displayed in the Caritas Office in Wellington throughout the Global Action week. People were invited to bring photos from their families and communities to create a cosmopolitan collage including faces and stories from the region.

The thousands of faces in Caritas’ original STJ collage are those of migrants, refugees, Caritas staff and supporters, of ordinary people from all over the world. Together as a real-life giant collage, the faces form the image of a woman named Nasrin. She works with Caritas Bangladesh, caring for Rohingya children in the refugee camps they call home.

Caritas Director, Julianne Hickey said, ‘Throughout history, humans have been on the move. And they’ve always been creative. We have drawn on art this year to inspire and challenge us to consider our encounters with others in our communities. We are reminded we are all connected as one human family.’

Published in WelCom November 2019