Support to the St Aloysius' College in Glasgow for the Lourdes Pilgrimage 2018

Project location: United Kingdom, Glasgow
Project start date: May 2018 - Project end date: August 2018
Project number: 2018-014
Beneficiary: Nep Oas Staff

St Aloysius' College is a selective fee-paying, independent, Jesuit school in Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1859, and named after the Jesuit Aloysius Gonzaga. The school was established at Charlotte Street, near Glasgow Green, in the East End of Glasgow. Here lived the city's largely migrant Catholic community from Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, both of which groups the school was intended to serve. Since 1866 the College's main campus has been situated in Garnethill on the north side of Glasgow city centre, adjacent to the Glasgow School of Art. 
Originally, the school was for boys only. In 1979 the admission policy was changed by the Governors during the tenure of Headmaster Fr. Henry Anthony Richmond SJ and girls were admitted. Girls now make up half of the school population.
Today, St Aloysius' College is a co-educational school with a total of 1,630 students within kindergarten, junior school, and senior school. There are four houses: Aloysius Gonzaga, Ignatius of Loyola, John Ogilvie and Francis Xavier, named after Jesuit saints.
Its strong Jesuit ethos emphasises practice of the Roman Catholic faith both in the church and in the community, with many charitable and community-based groups in the school. There is a Jesuit priest chaplain. The nearby Jesuit St. Aloysius Church accommodates a regular school Mass schedule and special Masses on feast days.
The College motto is Ad majora natus sum, which means "I am born for greater things." As in many Jesuit schools, pupils are instructed to inscribe AMDG (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – "To the greater glory of God") on all work. The school emblem is an eagle, and the College hymn is ‘Carmen Aloisianum’.

Among other social activities, the College supports also the activities of the St. Aloysius’ College Lourdes Pilgrimage Group. Each year, a group of thirty pupils, accompanied by members of staff and a medical team, take thirteen children with additional support needs to Lourdes. The trip takes place in July and lasts for one week.
The primary reason for the excursion is pilgrimage, but secondly the College hopes to offer the children a holiday which they may never have experienced before, foreign or otherwise – this due to the severity of their condition or family circumstance. For many of the families, this week-long trip is their only form of respite.
The health issues of children participating to the pilgrimage are autism, global development delay, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome, ADHD, blindness/impaired vision.
The Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation awarded a grant to support the year 2018 pilgrimage.

Nep Oas Staff
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