STORY - "Students create prayer flags for children in detention"
Year 2 students from St Mary’s Infants School at Greta recently participated in an activity to demonstrate their support for children currently detained with their families at South Australia’s Baxter Detention Centre.

According to Mrs Therese Douglas, a Year 2 teacher who led the students through the classroom activity, “After learning about the tradition of prayer flags from Tibet, Year Two decided to create their own prayer flags.

“Each child has written on a flag and painted a picture depicting activities that are special to them. This activity aimed to further each child’s understanding of the United Nations’ Rights of the Child.”

Mrs Douglas continued, “Usually these flags are made of light material and are tied somewhere outside to catch the wind so that the prayers float out into the world and then gradually disintegrate. But the class decided to make their flags more permanent so that they could be flown as a symbol of support and friendship for the children in Baxter Detention Centre.”

Sunday, 29 August is Refugee and Migrant Sunday. As Pope John Paul II has said, “Among those particularly affected are the most vulnerable of foreigners: undocumented migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and the vic-tims of the terrible crime of human trafficking. Even in the recent past we have witnessed tragic instances of forced movements of people for ethnic and nationalistic pretensions, which have added untold misery to the lives of targeted groups.”

Year 2 at St Mary’s are acting in solidarity with these people.

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