6000 youth sign up to Caritas Challenge

Over 6,000 youth will be participating in Caritas Challenge events in New Zealand this week end.

The Caritas Challenge is an annual 24-hour event for schools and youth groups during Lent

At Garin College in Nelson, for example,  over 170 students are spending Saturday night in cardboard boxes on the school’s tennis courts and going without food for 20 hours to experience and understand what living in poverty is like.

The Caritas Challenge is an annual 24-hour event for schools and youth groups during Lent.

The aim is for participants to join together in solidarity with the poor and in doing so to connect with the principles of Catholic social teaching while raising money towards one of the many international partnerships that Caritas supports.

Youth are encouraged to undertake an activity that brings them closer to the living conditions of those less fortunate.

There are four themes to choose from:

  • ‘Move it’ – 24 hours of physical activity like running or cycling;
  • ‘Live it’ – build a temporary structure from cardboard and sleep in it overnight;
  • ‘Sweat it’ – work in shifts over 24 hours, making products in a ‘sweatshop’ environment;
  • ‘Stop it’ – give up something like technology or food for 24 hours.

Participants seek sponsorship for taking up and surviving the Challenge.

The 2014 Caritas Challenge focus is on the Solomon Islands which consists 992 islands spread across the southwest Pacific.

Ongoing recovery from conflict of a decade ago, presents daily challenges for its people to provide vital services like water, housing, health and education.

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