Jul 4, 2018
Celebrations abounded at the Sacred Heart Church in Cork on Thursday, June 28th 2018, as eight MSCs from the Irish Province marked the great occasion of Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees. Friends, family, and fellow MSCs travelled from across Ireland, the UK, and beyond, gathering on the Western Road in Cork to celebrate in the glorious June sunshine on this very special day.
Irish Provincial Leader, Fr Carl Tranter MSC, opened the Jubilee Mass with a warm welcome to all present. Fr Carl was himself celebrating his 25-year Jubilee, and in his opening address, he spoke of God’s love, which “empowers, heals, and transforms”.
L-R: Fr Carl Tranter MSC, Br Donie Hallissey MSC, Fr Eugene Clarkson MSC, Bishop Emeritus Hugh Slattery MSC, Fr Patsy Kelly MSC, Fr Con O’Connell MSC, Fr Terry O’Brien MSC. Fr Eamonn Donohue unfortunately could not attend the Jubilee celebrations.
“As each of us look back over our lives today in gratitude, as we remember and recollect with members of our family, friends and fellow MSCs, we might allow ourselves to be amazed and astonished at what the Lord has been able to do in and through us, often in spite of us!” Fr Carl said. “We recall being given appointments or responsibilities we felt wholly ill-equipped to undertake; we remember times of great struggle and challenge, even seeming failure; and we delight in the memories of love, success, joy, wonder, gratitude, growth, communion, friendship and consolation. We recognise each as a gift and a grace. This is what gives us cause to celebrate today. Not anything we have ‘achieved’. A couple celebrating 50 years of marriage are not celebrating what they have achieved, but the gift of love which has endured through the years, which has sustained them despite the challenges, and which has borne fruit in so many different ways across the different seasons of their lives. As MSCs, we celebrate that same great gift of love today.”
The commemoration of this year’s Jubiliarians was a joyful celebration of community, fellowship, and thanksgiving, recalling the triumphs and the challenges of the years gone by and looking ahead with faith, hope, and love.
Congratulations to the Jubilarians!
Silver Jubilee (25 years)
Fr Con O’Connell MSC
Fr Carl Tranter MSC
Fr Terry O’Brien MSC
Golden Jubilee (50 years)
Fr Patsy Kelly MSC
Br Donie Hallissey MSC
Diamond Jubilee (60 years)
Fr Eugene Clarkson MSC
Fr Eamonn Donohue MSC
Bishop Emeritus Hugh Slattery MSC
Jun 26, 2018
Early in April, Loreto Rumbek were able to employ a drilling company to implement three new boreholes for the benefit of the local community. The Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been working with the Loreto community in Rumbek since the summer of 2017, and it is with great joy that we receive this positive update from Maker Kuei.
Two of the new boreholes were placed in communities where local residents did not have easy access to an improved water point. The third borehole was placed next to the new Loreto Primary Health Care Unit facility, which is scheduled for completion in August of this year.
“South Sudan has a six-month dry season that can be extremely brutal to families that are already borderline or severely food insecure,” explains a spokesperson for Loreto Rumbek. “These new water points become a centralised point for community gardening, water collection, and sanitation – a lifeline for a community during the harsh realities of the dry season.”
Local resident Mary Akol describes just how much of a lifeline these water points are. “This new borehole is a blessing to me,” she says. “Even if I am late, I can get water. The children can pump water too. I plan to plant kudra, okra, and pumpkin.”
For the past year, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been working in partnership with Loreto Rumbek to bring hope to the people of Maker Kuei. We are proud to be able to support the Loreto Rumbek community in their ongoing work in South Sudan, and we extend our sincere thanks to our mission friends in Ireland and around the world for continuing to care.
For more news and updates from Loreto Rumbek, please visit their website.
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Jun 13, 2018
With the help of the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, an MSC Beekeeping Livelihood Programme was launched in Antipolo in the Philippines early in 2017. Since then, the programme has been progressing at a great rate, and Jahms Morga of the MSC Missions Office in the Philippines has recently been in touch to update us on developments in Antipolo.
The MSC Beekeeping Livelihood Programme aims to support the local bee industry, advocating positive environmental awareness and promoting healthy living through a sustainable livelihood scheme. In providing local people with new and useful skills, this programme is opening up avenues of employment for many, while promoting and developing independent local business.
So far, the programme has conducted basic beekeeping seminars and workshops across five communities – Antipolo, Cavite, Bulacan, Pangasinan, and Quezon Province. More than 50 local people have been introduced to life in the apiary through the programme, and it is already providing the tools for future employment and self-sufficiency in an area where this is much needed.
“We hope to extend the programme to other communities,” says Jamhs Morga of the Philippines MSC Missions Office, “in order to further promote sustainable employment while raising awareness of environmental care and protection.”
For the latest updates from the MSC Missions in the Philippines, please visit their Facebook page.
PLEASE HELP US TO CHANGE LIVES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Jun 12, 2018
Over the past six months, the Loreto Rumbek community has been working in tandem with Misean Cara and the local community of Maker Kuei on their new Seeds of Knowledge project.
This project focused on helping 100 participants who have come from families that have been affected by local and national conflict. These families were struggling with severe poverty, and those participating in the project would have had very few resources to survive the upcoming lean season.
The Seeds of Knowledge project combined agricultural training and health education, with a “food for work” aspect which meant that each participant’s household received very welcome food and income.
The project finished at the end of April, just in time for the beginning of the rainy season. Each participant left the programme with two watering cans, one jembe (hoe), a small stock of seeds (including sorghum, groundnuts, kudra, and other vegetables), and a number of fruit-tree seedlings.
Many food security initiatives in South Sudan focus on increasing access and intake; the Seeds of Knowledge project, however, was the first to introduce early recovery and resiliency techniques in this area. In the face of the ongoing food crisis, this has given the households involved the tools for increased self-sufficiency, and vital resources in the face of hunger and poverty.
For the past year, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been working in partnership with Loreto Rumbek to bring hope to the people of Maker Kuei. We are proud to be able to support the Loreto Rumbek community in their ongoing work in South Sudan, and we extend our sincere thanks to our mission friends in Ireland and around the world for continuing to care.
For more news and updates from Loreto Rumbek, please visit their website.
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Jun 5, 2018
Having graduated from the Loreto Secondary School in Rumbek, South Sudan, Salome Piath Gum began work in the Loreto Primary School as part of the Loreto Graduate Programme. In this role, she is gaining invaluable skills and taking the next steps towards a positive future as a successful, independent woman. Here, Salome tells us how the Loreto Graduate Programme has changed her life for the better.
“I love my job.”
“I am the office secretary at the Loreto Primary School. My daily tasks include typing, printing, photocopying, recording results, filing, and answering the office phone. I facilitate the students as they attend the clinic, I issue school uniforms, and I make sure that the offices and classrooms are locked securely after the school day. I also act as a translator at meetings with the local staff and teachers, and take minutes during these meetings. Sr Orla is my mentor.
I really enjoy working with the students, especially when I’m giving uniforms to small children. They are very funny – they always make me laugh when we talk, asking me different questions about what I’m doing and what different things in the office are used for.
My job can be quite pressurised at times, especially during examinations. At these times, I am kept very busy typing, photocopying, and recording results on the computer. Some teachers also pass work on to me. However, I love my job, and I try to complete my tasks as quickly as possible so that everything gets done.”
“At home, I face a bigger challenge… but I persevere.”
“At home, I face a bigger challenge. I am the eldest girl in the family, and I am an orphan. I want to continue with my education, but I face a lot of difficulties. My siblings are suffering, because they are in school and they don’t have enough food. My cousin paid my school fees during my secondary school education, but is unable to pay for my university studies.
I accept the situation and I persevere, hoping that I will get the chance to study further. My ambition is to go to university. I have already learned computer skills, communication skills, and administration skills. I was not expecting to have the opportunities to develop my translation skills, but I can now easily translate Dinka into English and vice versa.
In the future, I would like to be able to train others in clerical and administration skills. I can also use these skills to work anywhere in the community. I would like it if this programme could be expanded further in order to help more of our graduates who are looking for similar opportunities.”
We at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are proud to be able to support the Loreto community in their graduate programme, and we extend our sincere thanks to our mission friends in Ireland and around the world for continuing to care.
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
May 29, 2018
Since February, the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines have been working to bring aid to families affected by the eruption of Mount Mayon. Between January 13th and February 1st 2018, the volcano of Mount Mayon erupted more than 35 times, and over 85,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes by the middle of February.
The volcano continued to spew lava and ash for some time following these eruptions, causing thousands of cases of respiratory diseases and severe overcrowding and lack of supplies in evacuation centres. In some cases, over 20 families were crowded together in one classroom, just so that they had somewhere safe to stay in the aftermath of the eruptions. The MSC Missions Office in the Philippines were on the scene to provide evacuees with immediate essentials such as food and clean water, and they are now continuing to support displaced families by providing vital aid.
In May, the MSC Missions in the Philippines ran a School Supplies Distribution Project in Buhatan Elementary School in Sto. Domingo, Albay as part of the second phase of the Mayon Mission Outreach Programme. A total of 224 students were given a school supplies kit, containing notebooks, paper, crayons, pens, pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, a ruler, scissors, sticky tape, and a tumbler.
“The teachers and parents were very grateful for the help that was extended to their children,” says the MSC Missions Office in the Philippines. “We would like to thank the donors and benefactors who shared their resources for the procurement of school supplies. We would also like to thank the Mayon Mission Outreach team in Albay for helping us to prepare the school supplies kit and organise the outreach activity.”
For the latest updates from the MSC Missions in the Philippines, please visit their Facebook page.
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