CSG-UMS organises charity work in solidarity with nature

KOTA KINABALU – The Catholic Student Group in UMS stood in solidarity with nature as they carried out their first charity work for this year, that is, cleaning up Tanjung Lipat beach area on 8-10 Apr 2016.

The programme was to serve three purposes; first, to give exposure to the 75 participants on current environmental issues; second, to build a sense of responsibility towards taking care of the environment; and third, to make visible Christ’s love towards nature through concrete actions.

Besides the clean-up activities, the participants received valuable inputs on environmental and spiritual aspects of stewardship of nature through video clips – Crying Earth, nature meditation, heart expression, Eucharistic celebration and talks by Dewan Bandaraya KK, delivered by David. All these took place at their CSG Centre in Kota Kinabalu.

Michelle Patrick shared her thoughts, “I feel that our habits are like the plastics buried beneath the sands, we try to pull it out but there are obstacles. Therefore we need other people to help us.” Several religious sisters from the FSIC congregation also joined in the works.

The participants were given some time to reflect on their own image which echoes nature.

Emmanuel Sidney said he is like the ‘water’ because he is always flexible.  Excyvera Kuyun said she is a tree who is looking for water and that the water itself is Jesus.

Reachel Shearer shared, “it is our responsibility to guard and protect our environment from irresponsible actions, and this is for our own good. Let us learn to love God’s creation just as He loves us all.”

A soon-to-be alumnus, Prisca Veralyn Junidih commended the CSG on this new programme, “CSG has done charity works at welfare houses and now they are engaging with nature. I have been following the charity works for four years and this year is unique especially in the inputs given.”

The programme closed with deliberation on the list of actions the CSG plans to take. They agreed to include the rubbish collecting programme ‘1 Rubbish 1 Sin (1 Sampah 1 Dosa)’ as one of their yearly activities. – Clara