Clip description
Mary Gregory is a Good Samaritan Sister who came to Claymore over a decade ago and has stayed ever since. She got people together in her large backyard as a first step towards encouraging them to get to know each other as a community.
Curator’s notes
This is an idea that originated with Caritas, the Catholic aid agency, it was originally developed to deal with literacy programs in Brazil and is now applied to problems in the developed world. It’s called Animation, and it’s all about the community deciding on its priorities and then finding solutions to them. It looks deceptively easy although there must have been some heartbreaking moments along the way.
This program is typical of the broad remit of Compass, the weekly program of the ABC’s Religious department. The program may have been inspired by the work of the Catholic Church but the documentary takes us into the heart of one of Sydney’s poorest suburbs where we see people who society had forgotten, making a go of it and turning their lives around.