What a challenging year! Our hearts are with those suffering around the world from the effects and impacts of Coronavirus. We are nourished by the many ways people are practicing kindness and compassion in their communities — reaching out to others, regularly checking in, and staying connected.
In regard to our Highways and Byways Small Grants Program for 2020, we have adopted a flexible approach to supporting communities in such a tough time and have re-assessed all grant applications in the light of Covid 19 restrictions. Grant applicants have been adaptive and wonderfully creative in how they can support their communities through these socially restricted times. We will be announcing successful grant recipients within the next few weeks.
The work of communities goes on. Our grant stories in this edition are from pre-Coronoavirus days and once again show the wonderful impacts a small amount of funding can have in a community, such as the Thallon Primary School’s new Community Garden, (picture above). This was launched in November 2019 and featured in the Christmas edition of the Women’s Weekly in an article on rural women’s resilience.
The Missionary Sisters of Service Newsletter is brimming with news of the launch of the new book by Bernadette Wallis MSS, Dear Mother Dear Father: Letters Home from John Corcoran Wallis 1927-1949.