Jan 25, 2021
Last year, our World Projects Appeal introduced you to the children of the Yetsi region in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Bishop Toussaint Iluku MSC was raising funds to build a school in an area of extreme poverty and hardship.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is ranked as one of the poorest countries in Africa. The diocese of Bokungu-Ikela, located in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was founded by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1961 and is an area of real and pressing need.
The population depends on agriculture and livestock for their livelihoods, and on a day-to-day basis, they live hand-to-mouth in precarious conditions.With the diocese coming up to its 60th anniversary, Bishop Toussaint and MSCs in the region are shining the spotlight on the lack of educational facilities in the region.
The Catholic Church is one of the main sources of hope for struggling families in the area, particularly when it comes to education, and our MSCs are doing their best to lay the groundwork to give local children,and generations to come, hope for the future.
Thanks to the generosity of our mission friends here in the Irish Province following last yearās appeal,Bishop Toussaint and his team were able to fund the construction of a school building in Yetsi.
Work is ongoing on the project; however, the school is sorely lacking in equipment as essential as benches and tables. The children can often be seen studying on the floor due to the lack of the most basic facilities,creating additional challenges for students who already have very little, and who are desperately trying to make the best of what they have in order to build a more hopeful future.
Some of the pupils bring their own chairs from their homes. However, many of these children are from homes that have so little, they donāt even have a chair to bring to school.Those children who donāt have them, they have the
floor, where they sit down and follow the teacher.ā
– Bishop Toussaint MSC
Even the smallest contribution will help Bishop Toussaint and MSCs in the diocese of Bokungu-Ikela to continue to educate needy children in the region, providing something as simple as a bench and chair where pupils can study and gain a fighting chance for a brighter tomorrow.
CAN YOU HELP OUR MISSIONS IN THE CONGO?
Jan 25, 2021
Founded in 2002, the Holy Family Care Centre in South Africa has been run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart with the support of the MSC for almost 20 years, under the leadership of Sr Sally Duigan FDNSC.
The Holy Family facility provides invaluable care to young children who are seriously ill, and who, in the majority of cases, have been orphaned or abandoned. These children are primarily HIV positive and are in need of specialised care.
āThe reasons for admission to the Holy Family Centre vary, but many children have been abandoned, sexually abused, physically abused, orphaned,or made vulnerable because of HIV/AIDS,ā says Sr Sally. āSome come from horrific backgrounds and arrive here very ill, malnourished, frightened, lacking social skills, and generally very bewildered.ā
The Holy Family Care Centre is, above all, a place of family, unity, and love.
āWe love these children unconditionally,ā says Sr Sally. āIt doesnāt take long for them to feel at home and to change once they feel loved and cared for.ā
With the resources to accommodate 70 children, the centreās facilities are stretched to full capacity and beyond on a daily basis. Today, 76 children are resident at the centre, and of this number, 56 children attend the local primary school.
Last year, due to the challenges brought about by COVID-19, Sr Sally and the Holy Family team made the decision to home school the children for the year.This has proven to be very beneficial for the students, particularly those children with special needs who require extra care and attention.
Now that the school is returning for the new year, the Holy Family children are in need of help. The students need uniforms, shoes, books, pens, pencils,and bags, to prepare for their return to school and to be able to receive an education that will give them a solid foundation for a brighter, more hopeful future.
From pens and pencils to full school uniforms, even a small donation will make a big difference to Sr Sally and the Holy Family team.
Can you help to educate the Holy Family children?
āIt is with deep appreciation that I say āThank you!ā In the past year, you have helped our ministries very significantly, and in this time of uncertainty, you are helping us to help people affected by the coronavirus pandemic all over the world.ā
āMay you be blessed! Be assured of our continued prayers for your intentions, through the intercession of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.ā
Sr Marife Mendoza FDNSC
Congregational Leader of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
CAN YOU HELP EDUCATE THE HOLY FAMILY CHILDREN?
Jan 25, 2021
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) first began their work in Brazil, in the city of Alfenas, 100 years ago. Today, they continue to help local communities all over the country, wherever and whenever they are needed most.
Community cars for pastoral work
OLSH communities in the cities of BarraĆ§Ć£o and Campinas are both raising funds to buy a car each, which will prove invaluable to their pastoral work in local areas.
Sisters in BarraĆ§Ć£o cover a total of 17 mission stations in the city and surrounding area. Some of these stations are located up to 40km away from the city, catering to local farmers and their families who are not able to travel into the city to hear Mass. Sisters in Campinas run a local kindergarten, caring for 296 children from the ages of two to six for eight hours a day. The Sisters here provide food, education, and spiritual care to these vulnerable children, and the school survives on donations and goodwill.
Each of these two communities needs a car at a cost of ā¬5,000, to be able to continue their essential daily work.
Childrenās choir in Mirinzal
In Mirinzal, the local childrenās choir run by Sr Maria is a safe haven for youths who come from backgrounds of severe hardship. Last year, we helped Sr Maria to buy musical instruments for the choir, and this year, she is asking us to help her to raise funds to buy three wireless microphones for the choir to use during Masses.
ā¬500 will buy all three microphones, allowing the choir to continue to play wonderful music at parish celebrations.
Mass for remote communities
OLSH Sisters in Mirinzal are asking for your help in buying essential liturgical items for Mass, such as missals, chalices, and lectionaries, for three of the 18 mission stations they cover in remote locations across the north of Brazil.
ā¬813 will provide liturgical items for families and individuals across three mission stations to continue to join together in faith and celebrate Mass in their spiritual communities.
Empowering local women
In Alfenas, an OLSH-run social work centre helps 65 families from the region,providing them with essential food supplies once a month. The Sisters here also have a special purpose in empowering local women, enabling them to learn various practical skills, such as sewing, which will help them to earn money and provide desperately needed financial support for their families.
The OLSH Sisters at the social work centre are raising funds to replace a number of tools in their sewing and fabric painting workshops. They need two cabinets and two sewing machines, which will allow them to continue their work in helping local women to learn invaluable skills for self-sufficiency.
ā¬700 will buy items facilitating practical skills that will provide a lifetime of benefits to women and their families in the area.
CAN YOU HELP THE OLSH SISTERS IN BRAZIL?
Jan 21, 2021
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:
āMay the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved.ā
CARING FOR THE ELDERLY IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
In Papua New Guinea, a community of 86 OLSH Sisters provide dedicated hands-on care for vulnerable individuals and families, from young children to the elderly. In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial assistance from the Irish Province allowed the OLSH Sisters in Papua New Guinea to provide extra safety measures in the Hartzer Centre, an aged-care centre attached to the main convent in Port Moresby, the countryās capital, where the Sisters care for elderly OLSH Sisters and MSC missionary priests who have devoted their lives to serving the people of Papua New Guinea.
As we all know, hygiene is one of the most vital defences against the coronavirus, and our mission friends in Ireland and the UK have already helped to provide extra sinks for improved safety measures. The Hartzer Centre has eight rooms for their elderly residents, but the centre does not have a dedicated laundry area of its own, and this creates significant difficulties surrounding hygiene as the centreās nurses must bring all dirty laundry through the convent dining room to reach the communal washing area.
Sr Relida, Provincial of the OLSH Sisters in Papua New Guinea, has sent her ādeep gratitudeā for the changes we have already helped to make, and now asks if our mission friends in the Irish Province could please help the Sisters to build a small laundry area for the Hartzer Centre, to ensure the continued safety and care of vulnerable elderly residents.
In a time where good hygiene can quite literally save lives, especially in the case of the elderly and infirm, can you help us to help the Hartzer Centre?
A donation of ā¬235 will buy a washing machine for the centre, while the new laundry room will cost ā¬7,100 in total.
SOWING SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE IN SOUTH SUDAN
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.Most recently, the Sisters have been working to build gardens which will help to provide a stable and sustainable source of food and water to families in the region who have very little.
The gardens contain bores which are drilled and fitted with a pump, a tank, and a watering system.
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.
CAN YOU HELP THE OLSH SISTERS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Jan 18, 2021
Feliz Navidad!
A heart warming token of gratitude from the Community of Ecuador that received funding from your donations that helped form a community building a church and centre in their parish.
Below is a Letter of Appreciation from P. Moacir Msc to our Provincial SuperiorĀ Fr. Carl Tranter MSC.
“Thank you for having been our angel during this time of pandemic helping Pastoral Social and the Community of Ecuador of the Future.
The youth of Ecuador del Futuro prepared a beautiful novena for the community. Even by zoom and twice in person, it has been a special moment.
Attached is the video they prepared to wish you and your mission team a Merry Christmas.
P. Moacir, MSC.”
SUPPORT MISSION PROJECTS
Dec 22, 2020
These are some of the kadua and sukumwiki that the local women grow to feed their families.
I donāt know how your morning is going, but I spent mine hunting down a jailbreaking duck. Born and raised in Cork City, Iām an absolute novice when it comes to anything to do with rearing animals or growing crops. Iām used to getting my eggs in cartons and my milk in convenient two litre plastic containers from Centra, so life here has presented some exciting new challenges. One thing is certain though, Iām not taking my food for granted any more.
Lorteo Rumbek does its best to make use of the land around the school to provide some of the food it needs for its students and staff. Each year for several months they grow groundnuts, a nutritious local staple. They also keep goats and pigs. In fact, just last week our community grew with the arrival of eight new piglets. And then there are the ducks, the newest members of my flock. Certainly not Godās smartest creation, but clever enough to give me a run for my money. After a quick Google search to confirm you canāt get rabies if they nip you (one was especially enthusiastic for his food two weeks ago), weāre getting on surprisingly well.
The food security that we take for granted at home, is wildly aspirational in South Sudan. Self-sufficiency and resilience are very much part of daily life. Localised fighting, an infrastructure severely damaged by flooding, and insufficient irrigation systems, mean many families live hand to mouth. Whatever meagre crops they grow must be watered long before dawn and late after sunset, to avoid the intense heat of the day. It involves long hours of backbreaking work, but the women who look after their small plots work miracles with the dry, sandy soil. In the villages around the school, Loreto has drilled several wells and set up hand pumps that provide much needed access to water. The people cultivate kadua and sukumawiki, both similar to cabbage, which they use to feed their families or, if they are fortunate enough to have a surplus, sell in the market.
Last night after Mass with the students, we were discussing the miracle of the Nativity and the simplicity of the stable for Jesusā birth. For us, this experience of abject poverty shows usthe humility of God entering into our world in the form of a small, vulnerable child. However, it was explained to me that this is how children are born here in South Sudan all the time. Each home is made up of a number of tukuls or mud brick huts with grass roofs that house the families and any animals they have, sometimes sharing the same space for added security. This echo of the Nativity reminds me of how close Jesus was to those living at the very margins of society. There is no Christmas shopping here really and even if there was,there wouldnāt be the money to spend on such luxuries. Instead, the focus is on being together, to sharing the little they have, and being grateful for whatever blessings they have received.
While Iām intrigued by people living in such close proximity to their animals, I still havenāt entirely embraced the local way of life. My ducks and I need our own space. In the end it took the best part of twenty minutes for me to shepherd my errant duck back to his coop. It may have been my imagination, but I did get the sense that the rest of his flock welcomed him home with an awed sense of respect for his daring escapades. If I was being absolutely honest with myself, I think he probably deserved it.
After the Sunday Masses, thereās always time to enjoy a coffee and a mandazi, a local South Sudanese cake.
Weāre only three days away from Christmas, so from everyone here in Loreto Rumbek, we hope you have a joyful time as you celebrate the birth of our Saviour and a peaceful New Year.
God bless,
Fr. Alan
HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
