January 2, 2017 marked the Marist Brothers bicentenary.
Two hundred years ago Marcellin Champagnat started the Marist movement for young people without access to education. In 1817 in the small French village of LaValla he opened the first of thousands of schools to follow this tradition. Now in 81 countries, Marist educational projects continue to reach out to less advantaged young people on the margins of life.
The AMS team in Brisbane continues to support new initiatives following this dream of two centuries ago with projects in 18 Asia and Pacific Island countries. The latest was the opening of the first Marist school in Bangladesh this week (Marist Moulovibazar opens its doors in Bangladesh). It is hoped to turn the first sod of the land for the first Marist school in Timor Leste this year also.
As a team we join with Marists, lay and Brothers, in gratitude for the courage of Marcellin to make the first move and we are all beneficiaries of his vision of education access being a path out of poverty.