7 March 2016

By Harry Ryan, Nicholas Dingle and Louise Tamer on behalf of all the Senior Students at St Paul’s School, Coburg 

On Tuesday 16 February 2016, the St Paul’s Primary School Coburg’s School and House Captains attended the Asylum Seekers Prayer Service at St Patrick’s Cathedral. We made our way by tram and train into the city.

At this Service, which used the theme, ‘Pray to Let Them Stay’, we reflected on the asylum seekers that were to be sent back to Nauru. This Service consisted of praying about anonymous people that were suffering physical, mental and physiological trauma after being kept in detention centres in the middle of nowhere.

At the end of the Service we lit our candles and put them in front of photos of young children seeking asylum. This made us think about the women, children and men being kept from having a safe life without the fear of being hurt.

We felt special knowing that our prayers could do something to change their lives and give them better opportunities. The following quote was taken from one of the prayers we prayed:

‘And with deep humility and a heart hungry for justice, I pray that Australians, citizens and leaders, open our eyes, our minds and our hearts that we may see, understand and welcome our brothers and sisters.’ 

We would like the politicians to remember what they have and compare it to what others may or may not have and raise awareness to this. We want to raise as much awareness as we can to help those asylum seekers because who knows how many people we could help.

All humans deserve to be treated equally, no matter what county they’re from or their religion; we’re all the same.

‘Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.’
Universal Declaration of Human Rights