St Joseph’s Lochinvar promote global water injustices

Year 8 students at St Joseph’s College, Lochinvar held a World Water Day Exhibition to help raise awareness of the work of the United Nations – Water.

Melissa Blandford PUBLISHED April 03, 2019

Each year the UN World Water Day aims to highlight the importance of freshwater and advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

This year’s theme was Leaving no one behind' relates to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the aim is to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water for all by 2030.

Inspired by the day and as part of a cross-curricular assessment between Geography and Religious Studies, students at St Joseph’s created a small exhibition stall to highlight the work of the UN and non-government organisations such as Caritas Australia, WaterAid and UNICEF in this area.

This exhibition provided students with the opportunity to get involved in not just in researching global injustices but also in being active members of society and working to promote these global injustices for a better future.

The exhibition showcased the students’ research work and creativity which included producing a multitude of media. This to provide their audience with engaging information and presentations by creating posters, digital media, videos, quizzes, raffles, scientific research on water and speeches.

Exhibition attendees included representatives of the Sisters of St Joseph’s, St Paul’s Primary School, Rutherford, St Pius X Religious Studies Co-ordinator, Simone Kelly, St Joseph’s Primary School, Kilaben Bay, Ms Jenny Aitchison MP and Mayor Cr Loretta Baker.

The global communities focussed on in the Water for All Exhibition included:

Zimbabwe (Caritas Australia)
Solomon Islands (Caritas Australia)
Pakistan (UNICEF)
Australia (Drought Angels)
Indonesia (Caritas Australia)
Tanzania (Caritas Australia)
Cambodia (WaterAid Australia)

It was fantastic to see how well the students engaged in working for social justice and were able to create and share their passion with members of their community.

“Our World Water Day Exhibition highlighted the need to both manage water sustainably, while at the same time ensuring that everyone has access to water,” said Lisa Peel, HSIE Leader of Learning at Lochinvar.

“Our Year 8 students did a remarkable job working collaboratively together as a team and applying their knowledge and understanding from both Religious Studies and Geography to the task.

“Students prepared engaging and informative exhibition stalls that highlighted and promoted the need for action.

“We were all very proud of the student engagement in this day.

“Well done Year 8!”