Good Shepherd Network Gathering

if you want peace, work for justice

We are delighted to be able to announce to you that two dynamic international speakers have agreed to attend the gathering and deliver the keynote addresses. Winifred Doherty rgs and Theresa Symons are leaders in Good Shepherd’s social justice programs. They promise to inspire and motivate us.

Sr Winifred Doherty rgs

Irish-born Winifred Doherty entered the Good Shepherd Sisters in 1968. She trained as a social worker and over the years ran many community development programs. She was a missionary in Ethiopia for 16 years,  many of these spent developing Good Shepherd’s education, family support and savings programs. In 2008 Winifred was appointed Congregational representative to the United Nations in New York. She now plays a pivotal role in using the data,  information and experiences of Good Shepherd people around the world to influence UN policy on issues such as human trafficking, violence against women and poverty eradication. .  Here she talks of how GS experiences in Australia can influence UN moves on poverty, trafficking and education.

Lay woman Theresa Symons is the Director of the Good Shepherd Welfare Centre or Pusat Kebajikan Good Shepherd (PKGS) which operates in three states of Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur, Perak and Sabah. Theresa joined the organization in 2004 and has been instrumental in the development of lay partnership in the management of PKGS. She manages a rapidly growing service which is coping with an influx of migrants from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. PKGS provides a range of services including crisis shelters for pregnant teenagers, domestic violence cases and survivors of human trafficking.  PKGS has sheltered more than 60 women of various nationalities who have been trafficked either for sex or forced labour.

Theresa tells of the growing  pressure on Malaysia’s services and how GS in Australia can support and develop global partnerships with GS in Asia and beyond.