SHOUT Week, which stands for “students helping out,” is a week dedicated to supporting charitable organizations. All grade levels, along with the faculty, come together to raise money through bake sales, class parties, and craft sales. In past years, charities have included the American Cancer Society and the Angel Band Project. This year, student government has decided the funds raised during SHOUT week will benefit the Refugee Crisis. Nerinx will be donating the money raised to the International Institute, Catholic Relief Charities, and Doctors Without Borders.

The International Institute is located in St. Louis and has a huge impact on the local community. A number of Nerinx seniors have completed their service projects there in the past, helping individuals prepare for the citizenship test and working on their English skills with them.  Emma Patton completed her service project there and explained how she “worked with a table of students from Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Liberia, Bhutan and Haiti, many of whom are refugees,” she says. Emma explained the International Institute’s citizenship program “is unique because it is one of the only places in the country that provides tutoring for the US Citizenship Test at a ‘literacy level,’ meaning most of the students are English language learners.” The citizenship classes are just one of the many programs offered by the International Institute.

Catholic Relief Services responds to emergencies worldwide and often can be found helping when natural disasters occur. Faith inspires Catholic Relief Services to take action and see positive results in the lives of over eighty-five million individuals of all religious backgrounds from all over the world.

Doctors Without Borders is a humanitarian organization which, according to their website, strives to “help people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care.” Past places of work have included Haiti, the Philippines, and West Africa. Doctors Without Borders was chosen as a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1999, “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents.”

SHOUT week officially begins February 11th and lasts until February 15th, but much preparation has already gone into making this SHOUT week a successful one. Thousands of dollars are raised by each grade level, and this year will be no different. All of the organizations rely on donations to continue their good work, so Nerinx’s contribution to their cause will certainly make difference.