DANUSIA
DOES IT
Kate Molony
It’s Christmas morning in 1992. A chaotic scene unfolds in a suburban home as the final preparations are made for the Christmas delivery Santa couldn’t make.
Presents are wrapped and stacked, tinsel garlands taped down. Festive reindeer antlers are slipped on. There may not be a sleigh, but there’s a big red truck, and scores of underprivileged children—naughty and nice—will still get their Christmas presents.
This is one of the proudest memories for Danusia Kaska, one of two newly-appointed national Vice Presidents of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia. Her fellow Vice President is former WA Police Chief, Brian Bull. In taking office, she becomes the first woman and the youngest person, at 28, to be elected to a senior position.
One might say that the wheels were set in motion for this achievement a long time ago. The daughter of Polish migrants, Danusia saw her parents assist others who were struggling, even sending parcels to people in need back in Europe.
‘My toys and clothes were always being given away ... so I had the understanding from a small child that people in need need to be helped.’
While attending high school Danusia began to help others, embarking on a personal ministry of volunteer work that continues to this day.
From Year Seven, under the supervision of a nun, she fed the hungry, visited nursing homes, and was touched by the courage of children with mental illnesses. She experienced her first visit to Ozanam House, a shelter run by the St Vincent de Paul Society in Melbourne, where she helped feed the homeless and listened to their stories.
As Danusia continued through high school she became involved with youth Masses and liturgy, was a special minister of the Eucharist Mass every week and began volunteering at schools for disabled children.
‘I was just looking for something positive to do ... and if there was something there, I would be doing it’, she explains, denying that it was too much for a young person to take on.
Her involvement with the St Vincent de Paul Society began as she was finishing Year 12. With more time on her hands, Danusia decided she wanted to find an organisation that would nurture her calling to help those in need.
The answer appeared on a parish notice board, and she began attending regular meetings with ‘St Vinnies’. She describes the first meeting as daunting: an assembly of around twenty people with a forty-year age gap between herself and the next youngest person!
‘But they were so welcoming’, she reflects .‘And from that point on, every Thursday night, one of the other volunteers would pick me up and take me to the soup van, and every Saturday to Ozanam House.’
Wondering why there weren’t more opportunities for young people to be involved in the society, Danusia gathered a troupe of friends together and began her own group. It would be a few years before the Victorian State Council established it formally, but Danusia can still be recognised for helping to initiate what would become the Young Vincentians, or ‘Young Vinnies’.
Danusia continued running the Young Vincentians in her area until she felt herself called to a mission in the remote village of Nongkhai, Thailand, in 2002. She lived and worked in a hospice for children suffering from or affected by AIDS.
Conditions were poor and primitive, communication with the outside world was limited, and the children were sick and dying. Danusia describes it as one of the most moving experiences of her life.
‘I felt such a strong, stirring calling within me and I really knew that God was talking to me. I was really being a witness to my faith.’
Danusia’s enterprise in the community has also led to her involvement with other organisations, notably the Marists. She currently lives in MYAC house, a Marist community which places young people together to develop their ministry and faith.
‘I admire how Marist brothers work closely with young people’, she says.
She is an avid supporter of youth ministry, which she insists is vibrant
and busy, contrary to criticism from some quarters.
‘It is sometimes implied that young people aren’t very active
in the church today, that they aren’t very interested in following
their faith. That’s rubbish! If you go to a Catholic youth ministry
event, you’ll see how many young people are involved—try 28
million people at a world youth day (in Rome, 2000). No rock concert,
no celebrity, no sporting person in the world has ever brought so many
young people together like the Holy Father did.’
Danusia points out that many young people attend Adoration at the cathedral, Young Vinnies groups, youth Masses and prayer groups. She sees them work with charities such as MacKillop Family Services, Interchange North-West, and Exodus, an outreach community in West Heidelberg.
‘I meet more and more young people who are involved in these areas. It’s very inspiring.’
At the age of 28, Danusia has developed an impressive portfolio with her personal ministry. She was still stunned, however, by her appointment to the position of national co-Vice President.
Ironically, the gap that Danusia saw in her first St Vincent de Paul meeting ten years ago will be her main focal point as Vice President.
‘I’m 28. I’m not a Young Vinnie anymore—a lot of
Young Vinnies are in college, or their early twenties. It would be nice
if we could find more ways for people who have less time available, such
as those in their late twenties, or thirties and forties, to participate.’
Aside from bridging the gap, Danusia feels it’s very important to
unify what are, at the moment, two very separate ends of the spectrum:
the young and the senior. This is crucial, for Danusia believes young
people have a vital role to play as full participants in the Society and
older people have a lot of wisdom to share.
When she met the International Society President and the International
Society Youth Representative in Seoul in 2001, Danusia admired the respect
and support they gave to each other.
‘That’s something I want to see emulated here’, she explains.
‘Young Vinnies should be more than the Vinnies of tomorrow. They
are the Vinnies of today.’
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