LONDON - 11 January 2007 - 280 words
XVP volunteers set off around the world
Seven young adults on the Xavier Volunteer Programme (XVP) left Heathrow Airport this week to begin six months voluntary mission service in Africa and India.
Four are heading for Jesuit-run projects in Karnataka State, India, where they will be supporting the ministries that the Indian Jesuits carry out for some of the world's poorest and most despised people, the Dalits ("Untouchables").
Three are going to Africa; two to Ghana
to teach English, ICT and sports at a Catholic school in the remote
northwest and one to Mwanza in Tanzania, to pioneer a new placement
working in a Jesuit-run parish and primary school.
All but one of the volunteers is a former student of a Jesuit
school in Britain; the exception is Simon Darvill, who attended
The Campion School in Hornchurch, Essex, which was originally
a Jesuit college. He has gone to Loyola Vikas Kendra social centre
in Mundgod, India with Charles Graffius, who is an alumnus of
Stonyhurst College, the Jesuit school in Lancashire. Also from
Stonyhurst College are Nick Crouch and Tom Leonard who have gone
to St Francis Xavier's secondary in Ghana. Dan Crowley, an Old
Ignatian from Enfield, is travelling with Phil Simmons, formerly
of Wimbledon College, to Loyola School in Manvi, India; a school
that Wimbledon has worked with for several years (see www.wcsip.co.uk).
The group is completed by Martin Pickup, who studied at Donhead,
going to another St Francis Xavier's, this time in Mwanza on the
shores of Lake Victoria, Tanzania.
All the volunteers worked hard to raise the funding for their
fares and expenses. They attended a summer training and orientation
programme, run in conjunction with other Catholic agencies working
together as the Lay Missionary and Volunteer Network. For more
information and reports - visit www.xvp.org.uk
© Independent Catholic
News 2007
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