It’s the first year that all 13 Northeastern Catholic District School Board schools are raising funds for projects in Mozambique run by the Consolata Missionaries.

So far, Sacred Heart students have raised $3,600 from donations collected from events like a contest in building recycled toys.

Collectively, board schools have raised more than $16,000 of the $30,000 goal.

The project began on Sept. 15 and wraps up this month.

Fr. Marco Bagnarol, Consolata Missions’ animator, said the money raised will go to support missionaries in Mozambique who translate the Bible and missals into the local language and are helping to build a church and a community centre as well as train catechists and provide sports equipment for  youth in their parish community.

Paul Toffanello, the board’s director of education, said the Mozambique project has brought the board together as a Catholic community “in a way in which we recognize our Christian responsibility to others.”

The fund-raiser is also echoing the board’s theme of “You are the light of the world,” he added.

“Fr. Marco has inspired us to reach out to our brothers and sisters in Mozambique to help them in their spiritual needs,” Toffanello said.

For Brumwell and her school, it’s also about extending the fund-raising spirit to the classroom.

Three teachers and a principal with the board will be going with the Consolata Missionaries to do missionary work in Mozambique, said Lynn Fecteau, community relations officer at the board.