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Young Order of Malta

The ACU nursing students and the whole YOOM group at the pyramids

Bachelor of Nursing student, Kurtis Bellemore recently travelled to the Holy Land and to World Youth Day in Madrid as a carer on The Young Order Of Malta trip.

He was responsible for the care of a young 22 year old man who had significant disabilities. Kurtis found it a challenging experience on many levels and one which he said he would never forget:  "The experience taught me so many things but perhaps most importantly all aspects of what it might be like to have a disabled child of my own.  There was no respite.  It was a 24/7 job caring for the disabled young people which at times pushed us to the point of exhaustion but the rewards were immense.

I will never forget the look of pure joy on this young man's face when we caught him a fish following Mass in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.  It was incredible for me too! How many people can say they participated in Mass on boats in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, said by Cardinal Pell? 

It was a great experience also to come together with the other ACU nursing student carers and other volunteers. It was one of the best exercises in team work I've been involved in. We really needed to work as a team for it to work and we developed close bonds which we would otherwise never had the opportunity to do."

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