Three young Austrians have volunteered to work to with Caritas Diocese of Salford. Sarah Mitteregger, Sandra Raith and Manuel Boschiter are all students attending a Caritas managed secondary school in Graz, Austria that specialises in social care. The school is an academy for those who want to consider social welfare and charity work as a career and their placement with Caritas Diocese of Salford is a work experience opportunity. The three volunteer students are fortunate to have the staff of Cornerstones Day Centre for homeless people and Tony Murray looking after them. Tony has a long acquaintance with Austria and an interest in Caritas Austria. At Cornerstones they are all involved in the life of the centre. Tasks range from organising the shower rotas to serving food and working in the cloths department. They are supervised by Angela Shannon, manager at Cornerstones, who has involved them in the every day life of the centre. Besides these practical roles they all engage and enjoy meeting and spending time with people. A chat over a cup of tea for some clients is as important as assisting in meeting their more practical everyday needs.
In addition to doing voluntary work at Cornerstones Day Centre for homeless people they will spend some time at Marillac a project supporting young mothers and their babies run by Caritas in Manchester.
But it’s not all work and no play. There is plenty of opportunity to get around our beautiful diocese, do a little souvenir hunting and of course they have to do the ordinary things of life like visiting the local supermarket and preparing their own tea!
The visit we hope will strengthen the already growing ties between Caritas Austria and Caritas Salford. A fact finding visit by Mark Wiggin (CEO) and Tony Murray to Caritas Austria last year led to the report Better Together and was followed by a visit to Salford Diocese by Franz Kuberl , President of Caritas Austria. A formal link between the two Caritas charities would be a wonderful development to strengthen our links.