OG NEWS 1

Official Publication of Open Gathering 2015

Issue 1

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YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES To celebrate the Christmas season, you can make a difference in people’s lives, if you really want to. OG: Open Gathering allows you to open the door of your heart to new migrants, brethren who come to a new place with a few acquaintances, without family, and maybe without a job for the moment.

Here are guidelines: Identify a new migrant. The person sitting next to you may have arrived of late in New Zealand. Get to know a bit of the individual, and tell him/her about what he/she will be doing during Christmas.

Invite the migrant. If you can’t invite him/her to your home, there is a venue where you can make him/her at home as well in OG: Open Gathering. Send his/her name to librelaw@yahoo.com and we will send an invitation.

Fetch the invitee. The migrant may want to go, but he/she doesn’t have a vehicle nor is he/she familiar with the roads. Tell him/her that you will fetch him/her on that day.

Bring dessert. Wouldn’t it be great if you brought dessert and share this with your brethren during OG? In addition to filling the hearts of invitees, you will fill their stomachs as well.

Tell your friends about OG. You can tell your friends about the Open Gathering; and ask them to do the tasks listed above as well. They’ll be thankful that you did.

OG is about doing a good deed to those in need in this season of love, peace and goodwill. OG is about you giving, sharing and caring for strangers.

Come to OG.

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THE ORGANISATIONS BEHIND OPEN GATHERING IN 2015 Migrant Action Trust helps migrants and refugees to settle in New Zealand.

It offers support from the moment migrants arrive, and continues to help them become fully integrated into New Zealand society. The facilities and services are run by migrants for migrants.

Tahanang Pilipino Aotearoa Trust is a registered trust in New Zealand dedicated to serve Filipinos living in New Zealand through community-oriented programs that will strengthen relationships among Filipinos and with the bigger Kiwi society; and preserve and promote Philippine culture, values and heritage for the betterment of New Zealand TawagAwit is a Catholic Ministry spreading God's Word through music and other acts of love.

It is based in Auckland, New Zealand. Each chapter is parish-based. It aims to establish chapters in as many parishes as there are in the world.

The Life Centre Trust operates the Christmas Box project for families in need at Christmas time. The Christmas box is a food hamper that will cater to a family of 4-6 people, with the idea to cover a day’s worth of meals breakfast, lunch and dinner, understanding a family’s need of the basics such as sugar, rice, pasta etc. Each year the Christmas Box project works alongside over 100 community organisations including Migrant Action Trust to help identify and locate families who are in need of a Christmas box.

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Making Christmas merry for new migrants

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