Immaculate Heart of Mary School - Atlanta, GA

As part of our holistic approach to education, Immaculate Heart of Mary School emphasizes the need for serving one another and the community. In addition to our many service projects including food and clothing drives, feeding the homeless, and working with marginalized individuals, we focus on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals initiative, commonly known as the Global Goals.

These goals, based on a 2015 meeting of the United Nations to discuss world problems, have been embraced by our school community. The three aims of the Global Goals are fighting inequality and injustice, ending extreme poverty, and tackling climate change. Each month during the school year, we focus on one Global Goal along with a Virtue of the Month and a related service project. For instance, during our focus on Goal #7, Clean Water & Sanitation, our students went on a two-mile walk, each carrying two gallons of water, to represent the hardships people who live without running water must endure just to have a basic need. After the walk, we donated the water to a local shelter. As Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Caritas International said, "While we applaud the goals, it is imperative that they are translated into meaningful action. As Christians we are led by the light of hope; we know, however, that hope only becomes reality when followed up with deeds." Our hope with this initiative is that our students will continue to live their lives following the Gospel values of social justice, human dignity, and peace.