By Marie Mulvenna

A trio of programs dealing with the oppressed, non-violence and volunteer social action has materialized for students at Our Lady of Lourdes School and their counterparts at St. John the Evangelist in Hapeville. In three unique projects, the young people have learned through experience, witnessed through involvement and acted through care.

The first of the programs was a joint one for students at both schools who joined forces for a firsthand visit to the Cabbagetown section of Atlanta. In the second program, eight- and nine-year-olds from Lourdes were actually involved in non-violent response to conflict and the third of the programs found Lourdes seventh-graders taking action through volunteer efforts at a neighboring nursing home.

"I learned that we are the people who have to help or help is not going to appear." An eighth grader penned these simple words following the visit to the economically depressed section of the city, best known as Cabbagetown.

For the combined group, it was a learning process and the children later wrote of their reactions - to shock, sorrow, understanding and, in many instances, determination. They saw poverty in the raw, people living in destitute conditions and they saw too the dedication of several who truly care about their less fortunate brothers.

Sister Kitty Mueslein of Our Lady of Lourdes School said the trip was part of a joint workshop on poverty and oppression shared with St. John's students. "The program was designed," Sister said, "to provide opportunities of sharing with those who are oppressed by poverty, race, culture or other circumstances."

Sister Kitty explained that the cooperative effort was intended to teach the students how society is helping the oppressed person and how they are helping themselves as well as society. "We wanted the students to know that we, as Christians, have a responsibility to help others in need and to educate ourselves to recognize needs and what to do to assist others."

The unusual program began at St. John's school where students listened attentively to persons involved in work with the poor. The second session took the children to the Savannah Mission in Cabbagetown and a close view of the section's poverty conditions.

"We hoped to show the pupils how we can make a difference in our city, beginning with ourselves in blotting out prejudices within our homes, community, school and church," Sister said, adding that becoming better educated to the real needs of the poverty-oppressed would bring about a larger role of helping the needy.

One student summed up the impact of the Cabbagetown trip: "Many times we stereotype the poor as being lazy, dirty, evil and out to get everything and everybody they can. And they aren't. We have to learn to accept people for what they are as a person, not from their appearance or possessions. Poverty isn't always a lack of possessions."

A novel approach to conflict and violence was presented to eight- and nine-year-olds at Lourdes via a children's workshop in "Creative Response to Conflict." Sister Kitty said the rather unusual program was designed in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change and involved children experimenting with new and creative alternatives to conflict.

An offshoot of the Quaker Project Community Conflict, the Lourdes workshops were designed to break through the old patterns of responding negatively to human relation problems, Sister Kitty said, "that are passed down from generation to generation and which now threaten the very existence of life on this planet. We are increasingly aware that seeds of conflict become ingrained in children at a very early age."

In the workshops, the youngsters were involved with exciting classroom adventures, finding positive relationships with one another as well as with their social environment.

In the third project, entitled Volunteer Services, Lourdes seventh graders spent several hours a week going to the nearby Martin Luther King Sr. Nursing Home where hey helped with arts and crafts, singing, dancing, assisting at parties, reading to the patients and a myriad of other volunteer activities.

On special occasions such as Halloween and Easter, younger pupils at the school also visit the home, sharing with the elderly residents their bubbly enthusiasm and smiles. Sister Kitty said the helping program had been beneficial to the patients but extremely meaningful to the children who have come to realize the plight of others and how they can respond effectively.