Aug 31, 2021
At the beginning of 2021, our mission friends and benefactors blessed us with wonderful support for our 2021 MSC World Projects Appeal, which featured global outreach projects run by our Sacred Heart Sisters of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
These projects included support for the victims of Typhoon Vamco (locally known as Typhoon Ulysses) in the Philippines. The most powerful typhoon to hit the country in seven years, it caused untold damage and left in its wake loss of life, severe flooding and damage amounting to millions of euro. A community of 25 OLSH Sisters have been ministering to badly affected families in two very poor areas of Manila, and Sr Ruth S. Yburan FDNSC, Regional Leader of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, writes to thank our mission friends in the Irish Province for their compassion and support.
âEven prior to the typhoon, the people here had very difficult lives.â
âYou cannot imagine my joy, relief, and excitement when I was informed that âŹ21,000 had been donated towards assisting the victims of Typhoon Ulysses,â writes Sr Ruth. âLast year, we received âŹ10,000 from the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and we used it for the most needed things: at that time, food, clean water, and the basics of life. At the same time, we were able to meet each family and learn their situation and their needs.â
âCOVID has interrupted our mission to the people, but we are in a position now to re-start this privileged work. The very generous donation, which we appreciate very much, arrived at the perfect time. Sr Leda and I visit San Mateo and Montalban ones or two days per week. On each trip, Sr Leda and I go to visit a family and see the state of their house. Even prior to the typhoon, the people here had very difficult lives, and many lived in homes made of timber, corrugated iron, strong cardboard, plastic, newspaper. There is no running water at all.â
âUpon meeting the family and speaking with them, we work out together what they need to re-establish themselves. This could be lumber, nails, iron, etc. We go with the family to the local hardware stand, where we like to do our business to support the owner in his little trade store. Once the necessary materials are located and the price paid, with the generosity of MSC Mission Office, Cork, the family takes home the needed materials and can work on their ânewâ house.â
âBoth we, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, and the people of San Mateo and Montalban express our deep gratitude for the hope you give us. We remember you daily in prayer. Thank you for allowing us to continue helping those who suffer.â
Aug 26, 2021
Cuan Mhuire is Irelandâs largest voluntary provider of addiction treatment services and rehabilitation, working with people who suffer from alcohol, drug, and gambling addictions. With 2,500 people admitted to their centres across Ireland every year, Cuan Mhuire has treated approximately 100,000 people since its foundation in 1966. Their programmes range from 12 weeks to 20 weeks, and beyond, personalised to each individual case, with additional aftercare, family support, and life skills training. The Cuan Mhuire mission is âTo provide an environment in which people who feel rejected and dejected because of their addictions become aware of, and learn to deal with the underlying problems relating to these addictions and discover their uniqueness, goodness, giftedness and their real purpose in life.â
Bro Giacomo Gelardi MSC recently visited the Cuan Mhuire centre in Ballybay, Co. Monaghan, where MSC funding recently allowed for the replacement of the chapel roof. George, one of the Cuan Mhuire Ballybay team, writes to tell us more about the centre and the work done there on a daily basis.
Cuan Mhuire Ballybay
âWe were delighted to welcome Bro Giacomo to visit us here in Cuan Mhuire Ballybay in recent times. It was an opportunity to thank the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart for their funding support for the replacement of our Chapel roof, which over the years had fallen into a very poor state of repair. We were very grateful to have this work completed late last year and to know that our little Chapel is safe and dry.
Cuan Mhuire Ballybay first opened its doors in 2007 as a Transition House, providing continued support to men who, having completed a Cuan Mhuire Residential Treatment Programme, need extra time and aftercare to continue their recovery and often to address issues such as homelessness. The house caters for 12 male residents, and gives them opportunities to access training, employment and, through one-to-one work, address barriers to independent living.â
âFaith and special devotion to Our Lady has always been at the heart of all we do here in Ballybay.â
âIn addition to the Main House for the residents, the adjacent Fitzgerald Centre provides a strong community dimension. The Centre is used to support those in addiction, their families, and the wider community. Our weekly Aftercare meeting is held there as well as Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Al Anon, and Gam Anon meetings. On any given week more than 160 people avail of our services, which also include counselling, family advice and support, as well as referrals to Cuan Mhuire Treatment Centres. At the heart of all our services is our âOpen Doorâ Policy and people come from the greater Cavan/Monaghan area to seek support. As part of our community outreach, we are also happy to offer the use of our facilities to various local and community groups supporting the elderly, mental health, and family support services.
We are very fortunate to have beautiful grounds, which are maintained by our residents. Sitting in a quiet corner is our little flag-stoned chapel. It is modelled on the City of the Poor Chapel in Lourdes. This is a non-denominational place of prayer and quiet for people to visit of all faiths and none. It is open 24 hours a day and it provides an oasis of peace for people from far and wide. Faith and special devotion to Our Lady has always been at the heart of all we do here in Ballybay. Each year, our Cuan Mhuire Ballybay Novena takes place from August 7th to 15th, and it draws people of every age and walk of life. An average of 350/400 people attend daily.â
âCuan Mhuire Ballybay is above all a place of welcome.â
âAs with all aspects of life, Cuan Mhuire Ballybay activities have been restricted due to COVID-19. We have endeavoured to maintain contact and offer support to people through telephone calls. We look forward to gradually re-opening all our services in the coming months and most especially to our Novena again in 2022.
We were delighted to be able to share our story with Giacomo during his visit, we and look forward to welcoming him back to visit us again â he knows where we are!
Cuan Mhuire Ballybay is above all a place of welcome where those in need due to addictions or other life difficulties can find support, feel at home, and find the healing that they need to continue their lifeâs journey.â
Aug 24, 2021
August 15th 2021 marked the 18th anniversary of the foundation of our MSC community in Vietnam, which was established in 2003. MSC Fr HoĂ ng, one of the original MSC students in Vietnam and current leader of the MSC community there, shared a letter celebrating the 18-year anniversary with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Australia website.
18 years of grace of MSC in Vietnam: 2003 â 2021
August 15th
Dear brothers,
A journey of 18 years, it is a quite long enough period with so many memories and graces for our small MSC community here in Vietnam. It is a great chance for us to stop and look back in the attitude of thanksgiving to God and expressing our deep gratitude to our mother Province, the Province of Australia and to those who have journeyed and been part of us, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Vietnam for the last 18 years.
The presence of the community in Vietnam has been found and fostered constantly and generously by the Australian Province, since during the time of Jim Littleton as Provincial, till the decision to begin during the time of Bob Irwin, with the support, development and encouragement during time of Tim Brennan, John Mulrooney and now Chris R McPhee. And of course there have been so many other MSCs of the Province being present with us during those times. They have brought so many good things to us, their zeal, love, simplicity, humor, wisdom, …, above all MSCness and Spirituality of the Heart.
In the 18th anniversary of MSC in Vietnam, we would like to give thanks to God for His grace and His Son’s Heart, Jesus Christ our Lord, through the charism of the Holy Spirit that He gave to our Founder, we have chance to experience God’s deep love and bring His love to everywhere and everyone. We also express our gratitude to all those who have been with us in many ways. May God continue to bless us.
A blessing and happy anniversary to everyone!
Because of the pandemic that we cannot gather for this special celebration, thus each house will have mass in the house with the same intention of thanksgiving to God’s grace and gratitude to the Province. And then each house may have a simple ‘meal’ together.
Once again, happy the foundation day of MSC in Vietnam.
In Jesus’ Heart!
HoĂ ng MSC
Find out more about MSC COVID-19 relief ministry in Vietnam
Images via the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Australia website.
Aug 19, 2021
Every couple of months in Loreto Rumbek, we have a celebration. Itâs something of a bittersweet gathering with pizza, Coke, a few tears, and plenty of good humour. We had one only last Wednesday. They mark the departure of the graduates from our intern programme as they go on to further education. This time, we had three go to university in Nairobi, where two will study business, and one brave soul will train to become a social worker. Where she will even begin when she returns here is a mystery to me, but it is a welcome start. They will be welcomed in Nairobi by twenty other Loreto graduates who have gone before them and have, in fact, paved the way for them. Among our alumni we have women studying nursing, teaching, logistics, child protection, commerce, and medicine.
As I have mentioned before, decent education is a rare and precious commodity in South Sudan. Anytime Iâm driving to a nearby school or going into the local town, Iâm struck by the number of children who are out tending cattle, instead of being in class. Boy and girls, who are younger than my own niece of seven spend their entire day bringing the goats, sheep, and cows to the watering hole and back again. Many are dwarfed by the size of the animals they look after. Their education will be sporadic at best, but more likely non-existent.
Last week, we had our entrance of our Loreto Primary and take up was brisk. Families contribute the equivalent of the cost of a chicken for a yearâs education, a daily meal, and free healthcare in our clinic. When we had the entrance exam for our secondary school last month, demand was once again far in excess of what we had available. The secondary girls have just finished their end of term exams and started their holidays, but we are looking forward to welcoming them back, along with our new first years at the beginning of September.
The children who get into primary school are fortunate to have access to basic education denied to many of their peers. Girls who manage to get into secondary school even more so, but where do they go to from there? One of Loretoâs most successful programmes is the internship programme. Each year, secondary school graduates apply to return to the school to become an intern. This means they work across a wide variety of roles, such as teaching assistants, translators in the clinic, administrators in the school office, or team leaders in the agricultural project.
Interns who work for one year will have their third-level course funded anywhere within South Sudan. However, if they successfully complete two years, we fund their university education in Kenya, where the standard is significantly higher, and the options afterwards are far greater. At âŹ5,000 per university student for studies, accommodation, health, and food, it is a significant investment, but one that is ultimately worth it.
Coming back to the three women from last weekâs celebration, they took off from Rumbek on Saturday with their tickets firmly in hand. They will have only a week to prepare their documentation, arrange passports, and sort out COVID tests before flying to Kenya. It is undoubtedly an exciting time. To reach as far as they have demonstrates their extraordinary commitment to education in the face of nearly overwhelming odds. Each one has a story of determination and sacrifice that is simultaneously unbelievable and inspiring. This latest step is only one more in a journey which will hopefully lead them home, and they can help in the building up of their community, especially opportunities for girls and women in South Sudan.
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Aug 12, 2021
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Australia website has reported on the current COVID-19 situation in Vietnam, where our missionaries are responding âwith an inspiring MSC spiritâ.
The people of Vietnam are currently under a martial law curfew between 6.00pm and 6.00am since the beginning of August, with approximately 80,000 cases at the beginning of the month.
With one of our MSCs in Vietnam referring to the virus as âa roaring lionâ, we read that âmany people are poor, homeless, and hungryâ. The hospitals are full beyond capacity, with temporary hospitals being built as quickly as possible to accommodate the overflow of patients in need.
MSC communities in Vietnam are doing all they can for those who need their help. As well as sourcing food from wherever they can, they are also sharing their own rations of rice and vegetables with the poor and hungry, obtaining travel permits so that they can move around their local regions distributing food and necessities.
While the final professions of several of MSCs waiting to take their vows in Vietnam will have to be postponed due to the current restrictions, MSC Fr Chung writes that the ministry of MSC communities in the region âkeeps our heart burning for our mission of spreading love of God for othersâ.
We join our voices with our Australian brothers as they say: âThank you to all our Vietnamese MSC brothers in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Australia, for spreading the compassionate love of God by how you live your lives, wherever you are.â
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR GLOBAL MSC COVID-19 RELIEF MINISTRY
Images via the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Australia website.
Aug 5, 2021
We were delighted to received recent communication from our OLSH Sisters in South Sudan, where a project funded by generous donations from our mission friends here in the Irish Province will see a new vegetable garden, with its own solar-powered irrigation system, established in Aluakluak, Mapuordit.
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart recently marked 25 years of service in South Sudan, where they have been involved in everything from education and nursing to general pastoral work. The region of Mapuordit is currently home to a small community of OLSH Sisters who minister to the needs of families in the area, facilitating the care and education of over 700 children at nursery and primary level.
Since 2020, the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been helping our OLSH family in South Sudan, by raising funds to build gardens around the OLSH schools in Mapuordit, which will help to provide a stable and sustainable source of food and water to families in the region who have very little. Further fundraising took place in 2021 as part of our annual MSC World Projects Appeal, with a wonderfully generous response from our mission friends here in the Irish Province.
The Sisters grow vegetables such as sweet potatoes and green vegetables for consumption by local families, using the natural resources available to provide a much-needed food source. The land in the region is extremely fertile, but with six months of regular rain and a six-month dry season, the gardens need a simple irrigation system, made up of bores which are drilled and fitted with a pump, a tank, and a watering system, to allow them to be used on a year-round basis.
These gardens are used to grow a variety of vegetables, and, when cultivated to their full potential, will be hugely beneficial in the long-term provision of nutritious food supplies to local families, who are up against a daily struggle to afford to feed their children. The gardens are an investment which will provide years upon years of profit to local communities, from being a source of nutritious food to providing local students who tend to the crops with the physical and mental benefits of gardening.
A place to grow in Aluakluak
The current project aims to provide a fully solar-powered irrigation system for a garden that will assist in supplementing a food supply for at least 30 families in the region of Mapuordit, especially during the six-month dry season in the area.
The initial plans placed the project in the Jur area of South Sudan, with preliminary meetings taking place at state level, at regional level, and at a local level, with the local Jur chiefs involved in the decision-making process as a location was chosen. However, project supervisor Sr Rita Grunke FDNSC reports that an âintense disunityâ and âinstabilityâ among the Jur chiefs meant that it was âimpossible to proceedâ in the proposed location at this time.
The decision was then made for the project to go ahead in Aluakluak, an extremely active area of the parish where âa strong, dedicated womenâs groupâ had been applying for funding for a development such as this one for several years. Here, the garden will be located between the primary school, which currently has approximately 560 students enrolled, and the nursery, which last year catered to 160 registered students. Both the primary school and nursery are run by the parish at a very high standard, with older Primary 8 students having won places at the Loreto Girlsâ Secondary School and the De La Salle Boysâ School, both located in Rumbek.
Families of the primary and nursery students in Aluakluak will all benefit greatly from the project; the students themselves will have vegetables to supplement their school meals, and parents will be able to take away vegetables for evening meals for their families.
âA community willing to help itself.â
In February of this year, a well was installed to provide a source of water for the garden in Aluakluak. âThings move slowly in the region,â explains Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Office for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. âAll of the materials have to be brought in from elsewhere, and then the workmen have to be availableâ â and naturally, COVID restrictions and lockdowns have made progress even more challenging in recent times.
Despite the challenges, the local community has been working together to ensure progress moves as efficiently as possible, where 25 ladies from the area each dug four holes for the metal fence posts.
Project supervisor Sr Rita Grunke FDNSC expresses her âdeep gratitude and blessings abundantâ for the âŹ25,000 funding sent by our MSC Missions Office here in the Irish Province, as without irrigation, crops cannot be grown, and local people will be unable to become more self-sufficient and develop their own food security.
âDeep gratitude for your generous involvement in this project,â writes Sr Rita. âBe assured it will serve very needy families, as well as a community that is willing to help itself.â
âThank you for keeping Mapuordit alive.â
LEARN MORE ABOUT OLSH GLOBAL OUTREACH
