In 2016 Balgo House started a partnership with the Mercy Works organisation. Mercy Works support long term development projects, where the needs of people who are denied access to basic resources like education and health care are urgent, in Australia and the South-East Asia Pacific. In their House Week 2016, students of Balgo House committed themselves to fundraising for the Mercy Works, where all donations went to a preschool on Bathurst Island. The students and staff of the preschool were so grateful for the efforts of Balgo House and on Wednesday 8 March, two Sisters of Mercy, Sr Frances and Sr Angela attended a Balgo Assembly where they presented the House with some thank you gifts from the preschool at Thursday Island. The fundraising efforts went towards their Tiwi Garden Project, which is the creation of a dream for the people of Wurrumiyanga, where there are two shelters for lessons. The preschool students had their photo taken and also drew some pictures and wrote some messages of thanks to the students of Balgo House. Of particular significance was some shells from Bathurst Island which were painted by the mother of one of the students. These shells with Indigenous paintings will be treasured at Merici College. We are reminded of an important message from Catherine McAuley, “The poor need our help today, not next week”, founder of the Sisters of Mercy.
