Jan 27, 2022
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) are a vital part of our Sacred Heart Family,
working all over the world, often in partnership with MSCs, under our shared motto:
“May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved.”
OLSH MINISTRY IN BRAZIL
There are currently 30 Sisters living in a house for aging members of the OLSH community in Vila Formosa, São Paulo. Several of these Sisters need special care, and Sisters in Vila Formosa are raising funds to purchase 3 bath chairs, 2 hospital beds, 2 hospital chairs, a digital pressure device, and 10 sets of linen for the hospital beds.
€2,600 will provide enormous comfort for aging OLSH Sisters who are in ill health.
OLSH Sisters in Alfenas run a second-hand clothing shop, where money raised from sales is used to buy food supplies for poor families in the area.
Every month, OLSH Sisters in Alfenas distribute 65 food parcels to families in real need. The Sisters are currently renovating the shop to make it more practical and attractive, for the dual purposes of encouraging donations, and also to make the shopping experience a more pleasant one for those in need, who go to this shop to cater for their own needs.
The Sisters need €2,000 to continue the necessary renovations,
and €400 for washing powder to launder the clothes for resale.
OLSH Sisters in Marahao are asking for your help in buying essential liturgical items for Mass, such as missals, chalices, and lectionaries, for several of the 18 mission stations they cover in remote locations across northern Brazil.
€2,300 will provide liturgical items for families in remote communities
to continue to celebrate Mass together.
The Daughters of the Lady of the Sacred Heart in São Paulo run a social centre which facilitates a number of workshops, including English lessons, yoga, and crafts for the aged. In addition, the elderly are taught how to comfortably use computers and smartphones.
The centre is currently using 15 old computers, 12 of which are in serious need of repair. The Sisters are working to raise funds to bring their computers back to working order, and continue to provide a comfortable, pleasant space for local people to learn valuable skills and share friendships.
€7,500 will repair the computers, allowing the Sisters to continue
to provide a space for people to meet, to learn, and to share.
HEALTH CARE IN MAKA KAHONE, SENEGAL
The OLSH Sisters in Maka Kahone, Senegal, run a health centre named for MSC founder Fr Jules Chevalier. Caring for the medical needs of families and vulnerable individuals who are living in conditions of severe poverty and hardship, the Sisters experience serious and concerning issues with security. The threat of violence and theft is an extremely worrying one, and the OLSH Sisters in Maka Kahone are appealing for funds to erect a security fence at the medical centre, along with metal grilles on the windows.
€9,200 will give the Sisters the opportunity to minister to their patients safely,
providing patients with peace of mind to recover.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR OLSH SISTERS IN THEIR GLOBAL OUTREACH
EMPOWERING YOUTHS IN INDONESIA
OLSH Sisters in Indonesia are appealing for help in running an Empowerment and Basic Leadership Training Youth Programme in Central Java.
The programme will provide leadership training for young people, giving the youths involved a wonderful skill set to use as they embark into the world of work, along with the confidence to implement it.
€4,000 will pay for four retreats, an LCD projector, a guitar, a keyboard,
20 floor mats, and a projector screen.
OLSH OUTREACH IN AFRICA
OLSH Sisters in Burkina Faso are responsible for the running of the Jules Chevalier School in the town of Zagtouli, where 198 students currently attend the pre-school, and 321 students are enrolled in the primary school.
Over 500 children are provided with one main meal and two nutritious snacks every day – a lifeline to children coming from backgrounds where poverty is rife and diet is poor, who are in real need of sustenance and good nutrition.
The OLSH community in Burkina Faso are working to raise
€19,465 to install a solar energy system in the school,
and to renovate a large area of the school to create a safe learning area for students.
The Bakhita Village Outreach Project is run by OLSH Sisters in Dwars River. This programme allows for OLSH Sisters to visit vulnerable girls in their villages twice weekly, ensuring their safety and healthy development, teaching basic life skills, and keeping up with their educational progress, including school attendance, homework, and general behaviour. The carers also deliver food parcels, toiletries, and clothing.
The Bakhita Village Sisters need €10,000 to cover daily costs,
allowing them to continue to support and encourage young girls.
The Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart has a long-standing friendship with the Holy Family Care Centre in Ofcolaco, a residential home that cares for children up to the age of 18, who suffer with life-threatening illnesses and have often been orphaned or abandoned.
The care centre is home to 75 children, from newborns to teenagers. Sr Sally Duigan, OLSH Regional Leader and community leader at Holy Family, is currently raising funds to help with the daily costs of running the centre.
€10,000 will be allocated to vital health care for seriously ill children, essential educational supplies,
and outreach programmes for children who are being reunited with their families.
The OLSH South Africa Outreach Programme cares for 150 families in Nzhelele, including children living with HIV/AIDS, and families who have suffered bereavements or abandonments, and are run by grandmothers or older children.
The Nzehele Outreach Team are working to raise €10,000 to establish a vegetable garden project,
which will contribute to the nutritional needs of children living with HIV/AIDS,
while teaching valuable skills and promoting self-sufficiency.
RENOVATING A MATERNITY WARD IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
The Jules Chevalier Health Centre was established by the OLSH community in Mbandaka, in Democratic Republic of Congo, 10 years ago, and serves as a maternity clinic for local women in the extended area. Many of the women who use the health centre live across the Congo River, and even making the journey can in itself prove hugely difficult.
Currently, whenever it rains, a significant amount of water gets into the maternity ward at the centre, making conditions extremely uncomfortable and unsanitary for women in varying stages of pre- and post-natal care.
Renovations to stop the leaks will cost a total of €9,887.
Can you help?
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR OLSH SISTERS IN THEIR GLOBAL OUTREACH
Jan 27, 2022
EDUCATION AT THE CHEVALIER TRAINING CENTRE
Established by MSCs in 1992, the Chevalier Training Centre is located in Wainadoi, in Namosi, Fiji, and offers a practical education to up to 75 underprivileged boys and young men, who have no other opportunity to learn the skills needed for employment.
“Our mission is to help our students face life with confidence and dignity,” say the MSC Chevalier Training Centre community. “We meet needs in Fiji which are not met by most of our other educational institutions. The Centre has a special interest in male youths from broken homes, those caught in patterns of rejection, and those who have been in prison or in trouble with the police. Our priority is to assist those who have the least hope.”
The community at the Centre work to educate, train, and empower these young men in practical work skills, including farming and animal husbandry, while also encouraging emotional and social development in terms of personal responsibility, morals and ethics, self-help, and respect for religion. The curriculum includes trade certifications in cabinet making, carpentry, welding and fabrication, motor mechanics, and farm management and animal husbandry, as well as basic accounting skills, punctuality, and time management.
Each student is asked for a contribution of $150 Fijian dollars, approximately €63, per year; however, many cannot afford to pay even this small amount. The students themselves generate income for the centre, through local carpentry and construction jobs, selling their farm produce, and running an annual bazaar where goods created during school workshops are sold. However, MSCs in the Chevalier Training Centre are struggling to do more with less daily, and they need our help.
- A donation of €330 will pay for students’ food for one week.
- €830 will be dedicated to school fees for students who are not able to pay the fees themselves.
- €1,660 will cover the costs of medical expenses, wellbeing workshops, and counselling sessions.
- €4,150 is needed to replace old and unusable mattresses, bed sheets, and curtains, while students will make new bedframes in carpentry workshops.
CAN YOU PLEASE HELP THE CHEVALIER TRAINING CENTRE?
A SAFE HAVEN AT THE CHEVALIER HOSTEL
The Chevalier Hostel was established by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1981 in Suva, in the Fiji Islands, to provide accommodation for young men who wish to continue their education, but whose families face severe financial difficulties.
The hostel caters for 14 youths at any one time, aged between 13 and 22 years. The community here also help to rehabilitate young men who have committed previous offenses and have been in trouble with the police, and who now wish to make a fresh start.
Students contribute to the running of the hostel, with regular fundraising activities. The prizes included in these fundraising endeavours include homemade marmalade and eggplant jams, pies, and cakes, and root crops from farm produce.
Every year, the Chevalier Hostel receives more and more applications from families seeking a place for their child; however, resources are becoming even more limited, and MSCs at the hostel are appealing for your help so they can continue to journey with young men who wish to improve their lives and the lives of their families.
- A donation of €290 will pay for students’ food for one month.
- €500 will provide fuel for one year.
- €415 will pay for water and electricity for the hostel for one year.
- €830 will cover the costs of medical expenses, wellbeing workshops, and counselling sessions.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE MSC COMMUNITY AT THE CHEVALIER HOSTEL
Jan 27, 2022
MSCs in Coimbatore, India, are raising funds to set up the Chevalier Centre for Change, a day-care centre for the elderly that aims to “change the lives of those who have little hope”.
MSCs in Coimbatore are responding to the needs to the local community by setting up the Chevalier Centre for Change with the aim of caring for senior citizens from disadvantaged backgrounds, who may be alone or struggling financially. The centre will allow those in need to benefit from a life with dignity, with health care, good nutrition, and access to recreational and other facilities that will ensure an enjoyable and enriched life experience in their later years.
“We wish to create a world where human dignity and equality prevail”, writes Fr Darwin Thatheus MSC, Indian Union Superior, “upholding the dignity of abandoned elders in society by creating a platform for their progress and growth.”
The Chevalier Centre for Change aims to welcome between 20 and 25 elderly people four days a week, from 9.00am to 4.00pm. Senior citizens will be able to avail of a range of facilities, including a nutritious lunch and evening meal, health and medical workshops, yoga and meditation sessions, recreational facilities including movies, games, embroidery, and gardening, a worship space for prayer and peaceful reflection, a creative space with facilities for drawing, painting, and sculpture, and a reading space, with plenty of books and a peaceful environment.
MSCs in Coimbatore are raising funds to run the Chevalier Centre for Change for one year, at a total of 31,20,000 Indian Rupees – approximately €36,705, or just €7.65 per person, per day.
A donation of €125 will fund one month’s costs for an elderly person
at the Chevalier Centre for Change,
bringing warmth, light, food, health care, and company
to someone who would otherwise be hungry and alone.
PLEASE HELP US TO CARE FOR THE ELDERLY AND ALONE IN INDIA
Jan 27, 2022
Founded by MSCs in 1984, Centro Faustino Villanueva is a vocational centre dedicated to helping disadvantaged youths, located in the rural region of San Agustin, Alta Verapaz, in Guatemala.
With the motto “Open doors to education”, the centre currently works with 215 students from impoverished villages and vulnerable family groups, with a waiting list for places. Youths at the centre can study a range of three career skill sets: business administration, science, and teaching.
The remote setting of the school means that daily travel is extremely difficult for students of severely limited means, and so half of the students board at the school. However, the COVID pandemic has generated several social and financial crises in the region, and the centre has suffered greatly in terms of funding and resources.
The newest undertaking at the centre aims to provide students with invaluable life skills – an agricultural programme, involving tending to livestock and growing produce, which will supplement the food supply at the school, while also enabling students to take these skills back to their own localities to improve living conditions there. With suitable space and land for this agricultural endeavour, and basic equipment such as sheds and feeders for pigs and chickens, the centre is currently raising funds to set up and launch these farms as soon as possible, so the school can continue to provide opportunities for young people who otherwise have very little hope.
A total of €21,300 will provide the Centro Faustino Villanueva
with the livestock, vegetable seeds, and equipment they need to produce food for their community,
while bringing vital skills back to the students’ villages.
“With God’s wisdom and your support, we will continue to help our young people who yearn for a dignified and better life.”
~ Fr Jairo Uriel Sevilla Mendoza MSC,
Director of the Faustino Villanueva Centre
PLEASE HELP US TO SOW SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE IN GUATEMALA
Jan 27, 2022
OLSH Sisters in Mirinzal, in northern Brazil, minister to local communities across the region in a variety of roles. The parish here is responsible for 18 small chapels, where people can meet, worship, and pray together. These chapels are located in extremely remote rural areas; the state of the roads and a lack of funds for safe transport means that transport is difficult, and attending Mass at these small local chapels is one of very few ways in which these communities are brought together in person.
This opportunity to pray and worship together offers a valuable sense of unity and community in regions where many families and individuals find themselves sadly isolated due to a combination of their rural location and poverty. Keeping this sense of togetherness alive is vital and brings a lifeblood to these regions, where it would be very easy for struggling families to fall off the radar entirely.
Last year, as part of our 2021 MSC World Projects Appeal, the OLSH Sisters in Mirinzal appealed to our mission friends here in the Irish Province to help to buy essential liturgical items for Mass, such as missals, chalices, and lectionaries, for three of the 18 mission stations in the region. The funds raised as a result of the generosity of our mission friends here facilitated the purchase of the liturgical items needed for families and individuals across these mission stations to continue to join together in faith and celebrate Mass in their spiritual communities.
“The parish communities that were helped in Brazil are very poor,” writes Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Officer for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. “Once again, you have our deep gratitude.”
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OLSH OUTREACH PROGRAMMES
Jan 20, 2022
Fr Richie Gomez MSC, community leader at the MSC Centre for the Poor, located in Butuan, updates us on the current situation in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Odette, which struck on December 16th, 2021. In a letter to Irish Provincial Superior Fr Carl Tranter MSC, Fr Richie writes of the deep gratitude of the Filipino MSC community for the support of our mission friends in the Irish Province. “I would like to thank you for your untiring support to the Philippine Province,” he writes. “We are your extended arms, feet, mind, and heart in reaching the poor, and now with our typhoon survivors.”
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart – Social Initiative and Collaborative Action Project (MSC-SICAP) is a group of missionary volunteers “with a charismatic heart,” working as a dedicated disaster response and management team under the umbrella of the MSC Centre of the Poor and led by Fr Richie, the centre’s director.
In response to the devastating impact of Typhoon Odette, Fr Richie has gathered a group of community-based volunteers, including doctors, engineers, teachers, business people, artists, students, and many more. “When it made landfall, winds of up to 210 km per hour were uprooting coconut trees, ripping down electricity poles, and hurling slabs of corrugated tin and wood through the air,” reports the MSC-SICAP group. This group initiated an immediate active response to provide a basic relief kit of necessities including food, water, medicine, and hygiene products, to victims from both the mainland and islands of Surigao. “The group aims to amalgamate passionate and compassionate volunteers in the region, whose hearts are dedicated and committed in the service of humanitarian movements,” writes Fr Richie.
MSC Strategic Disaster Response Plan
The MSC-SICAP group, working with the MSC Centre for the Poor, have developed a strategic disaster response plan, detailing three recovery stages:
Stage 1: Bangon-Igsoon (In the immediate aftermath of the typhoon)
This stage has focused on answering the immediate and urgent needs of survivors, with the distribution of essentials such as food, water, medical aid, and clothes. All of these necessities have been issued directly to victims of the typhoon at designated distribution points, with a target reach of 10,000 households.
Stage 1 also includes the installation of water filtration stations in Siargao Island, which is currently suffering from a dangerous cholera outbreak. These water filtration stations cost 100,000 Philippine pesos, an equivalent of approximately €1,700.
Stage 2: Bahay-Buhay (Approximately one month after the typhoon)
Stage 2 involves helping to build simple houses for families who cannot afford to repair or rebuild homes that have been destroyed by the storm. The target goal is to build 500 houses, benefitting people from the communities of Siargao, Nonoc, Bayagnan, Dinagat, Loreto, and the Islands.
Stage 3: Heal-Surigao (Taking time to heal the island)
During Stage 3, MSCs around the islands will pray with local communities for cleansing and renewal of the land. This stage will also incorporate the arts as a vehicle for healing children and the wider community, through music, dance, storytelling, and more. Through the creative process, it is hoped that children and their families will be able to better process the impact of the typhoon and look with renewed hope towards the future.
“Faith based, love driven.”
The motto for the response plan is “Faith based, love driven”, as MSCs throughout affected areas work together with local communities to rebuild a ravaged land. The MSC-SICAP group are working to “react, respond, and rescue” the victims of natural disasters such as Typhoon Odette, providing fundamental needs, from the physical to the spiritual, and bringing the light of hope into the hearts of survivors.
As they continue in the implementation of their response plan, the MSC-SICAP group write of the impact of Typhoon Odette, and the power of faith and unity in the hope of renewal:
“‘Expect the unexpected’ – a classic line that could somehow happen to anybody at any moment in any place, just like the typhoon, Odette, that wrecked Surigao. It was once a haven of nature’s bounty, with exciting hullabaloo coming from different nationalities. Now, nothing but silence! December 16th 2021 was an unforgettable traumatic moment for every Surigaonon and tourists in the area, along with other areas where the typhoon made landfall. It was a nightmare…
Strong winds of 165 km/h near the centre, with gusts of up to 205 km/h and central pressure of 950 hPa, swept away houses, buildings, trees, and street posts, leaving the entire place destroyed. The roaring storm sounded horrid, bouncing back into each corner, frightening the children, the elders, and the weak, a miserable experience of anxiety and fear. The unthinkable orchestration of chaos, fear, hunger, and hopelessness has savaged and saddened our Surigaonon brethren.
Emotionally, the circumstances have been intensified because it was near Christmas season when the typhoon hit – supposedly a season of merry making and thanksgiving, to celebrate the most awaited Simbang Gabi, but this year, it turned out differently. Many have suffered and been broken, dreams have been shattered, smiles have been torn, and hearts have been wounded. That echoing feeling of devastation resonates in the whole island of Mindanao and to the heart of the world.
They need our HELP! They need our PRAYERS! They need US!
We, the Missionary of the Sacred Heart- Social Initiative and Collaborative Action Project (MSC-SICAP) volunteers, have initiated a massive calamity response from the very start, beginning with providing basic needs to over 5,000 families in several parts of Surigao. The operation runs under our own strategic organising and management system to accelerate the distribution of relief goods with the help of our partners. Hundreds of volunteers convene 24/7 at the district house of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Butuan City, and together we are working hand-in-hand to address the urgent necessities continuously.
Fr Richie Gomez is the captain of the project and keeps our vessel afloat amidst exhaustion and sleepless nights, for the sake of the wailing sacred land of Surigao that seeks our comfort. We will stand right beside them until they will rise back.
For us, this is an awakening journey and a profound reminder of what our hearts are made of – compassion and kindness. Together, we will rebuild the hopes and dreams of our fellow Surigaonons’ brothers and sisters, and with the provisions of God’s divine grace we shall rejoice back the victory of our loving and united place, Caraga.”
