Welcome to the Summer 2023 edition of the MSC Message!
Last March 25th was a day of great significance for the MSC Center for the Poor  Agriculture Cooperative in Butaun, Philippines. It marked the anniversary of the organisation, coinciding with Annunciation Day.
Fr. Richie and the Members of the Agricultural Cooperative held their 2nd General Assembly, to celebrate both these events. For the Members, who are mostly farmers from Mindanao, it is a day of hope, a moment to look forward to the future and to reflect on the truly amazing achievements. One of these achievements is the Award for the Most Outstanding CSO in the Country, awarded by the Philippine Department of Agriculture. The Awards states:Â
 “For sharing best practises that demonstrate their dedicated efforts and valuable contributions resulting in outstanding and impactful engagement as beneficiary of agricultural and fishery programs and projects towards uplifting the lives of the farmers and fisher folk in their locality.” It is a testament to the hard work and perseverance of everyone involved in this organisation.
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The cooperative has been experiencing fast growth and expansion, which is thanks in large part to the leadership of Fr. Richie MSC and the commitment of its members. The cooperative has become a beacon of hope for the farmers of Mindanao, providing them with the necessary tools and resources to improve their livelihoods.Â
“Of course we always look with debt of gratitude to the MSC Irish
Province and to your people there for considering us in your fundraising activities.Â
I hope and pray that we can collaborate and work more together in mission.”Â
~ Fr. Richie MSC
This just emphasises how important the many contributions from our MSC friends are. That they have helped to achieve this high achievement is a blessing for us all. With continued perseverance and commitment, the future of the Center for the Poor Agriculture Cooperative in Butaun, Philippines looks very bright indeed.Â
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SACRED HEART FAMILY
IN THE PHILIPPINES
As our 2023 World Projects Appeal continues, our Sisters in the Daughters of the Lady of the Sacred Heart have been in contact to express their gratitude for the support of our mission friends here in the Irish Province.
Sr Marie-Laure writes from Burkina Faso, where the OLSH community are raising funds for construction work to improve the educational facilities in the school of Jules Chevalier de Ouagadougou. “It is a great joy for us Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Burkina Faso to express to you our gratitude for all that you do for us,” she says. “We are very grateful to you. May the Lord through Mary Our Lady of the Sacred Heart accompany you in your mission.”
Provincial Leader Sr Marie Solange also writes from Africa, with thanks for the support given to OLSH communities across the province. “I come with gratitude to you this day to express our joy and thanks in the name of the Province of Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Africa,” she writes. “Through your support, we have been able to improve certain activities in education, health care, or simply the means to ensure our mission. We really appreciate with all our heart this contribution for our province in construction.”
“On behalf of the African Province, I would like to express our gratitude,” adds Sr Clotilde. “Thank you for supporting our projects, and for your interest and attention to our mission in Africa. May the Lord repay you a hundredfold and shower you with his blessings.”
Finally, Sr Renisa has been in touch from Brazil, where current projects included care for the elderly, a kindergarten for vulnerable children, providing liturgical items and catechism books for communities in remote locations, and the support of a second-hand shop whose proceeds go towards feeding 65 local families each month. “I am writing to say a huge thank you for your support of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Brazil, for our ministry to those in need. I wish that you could see face to face the joy and relief your help spreads among the people which we work with. God bless you!”
MSCs and OLSH Sisters all over the world continue on our shared mission to make a difference to the people and places that need it most. There’s still time to take part in this year’s World Projects Appeal, where we’re highlighting some of the projects that need our immediate attention in the coming months. We add our voices to those of our OLSH Sisters as we thank you sincerely for your support – together, we can make a world of difference.
PLEASE CLICK HERE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT
OUR 2023 WORLD PROJECTS APPEAL
As the new year gets underway, the MSC Centre for the Poor, located in the city of Butuan in the Philippine Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, continues in its efforts to promote sustainability and self-sufficiency in harmony and balance with the natural world. One of their most recent projects is the School of Love, a farm school dedicated to protecting and conserving the environment with “tender love and care,” while also encouraging positive growth in those who tend to the earth and reap the benefits of its resources.
Established in 2018, the MSC Centre for the Poor has since developed an agricultural cooperative movement for local farmers, with a view to improving quality of life for the poor and marginalised in society, and those who don’t have a voice of their own. The community there describe the MSC Centre for the Poor Agriculture Cooperative (MSC-CEPAGCO) as a “working arm of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, responding to the difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, by organising the farmers’ sector to ensure food sustainability and care for our common home.”
As part of their ongoing development programmes, the MSC-CEPAGCO is working on building a “learning site” – a model farm covering 4.3 hectares where farmers and community members can learn and practice basic principles and skills in the field of organic agriculture. The model farm has now been approved by the Department of Agriculture as a Learning Site for Sustainable Organic Agriculture, and a Farm School of Technical Education Skills Development Authority, aiming to empower locals through the promotion of an alternative, sustainable lifestyle.
The current goals of the cooperative focus on the promotion of healthy soil and organic produce, the use of ecologically balanced and safe farming technology, consciousness of managing waste with the ultimate aim of a zero-waste lifestyle, the creation of income-generating projects to raise the quality of life of poor families and communities in rural areas, and raising awareness of the necessity of caring for our environment in response to the ongoing climate emergency.
The project promotes a “holistic world view perspective” of “seeing ourselves within the web of life” – essentially, becoming aware that everything we do in life “causes a ripple of impacts, big or small, good or bad, to travel throughout the web and ultimately back to us.” This drives the desire to make a positive difference, alongside the awareness of a “high level of mutualism,” seeking to enable a better quality of life for each other as much as for one individual, “working together for the betterment of all.” With a consciousness of the damage that has already been done to local ecosystems, the School of Love is working on allowing the environment to regenerate. “From the tiniest seeds to a grown tree, from fertilization of eggs to completely matured animals, from planting to nurturing, growing and harvesting, all these processes are realised because of tender love and care, whether by nature or by a responsible steward,” states a recent report from the MSC-CEPAGCO.
Involvement in the scheme is far-reaching, including members from the professional, religious, and agricultural sectors of the local community, in addition to providing opportunities people undergoing rehabilitation from drug and alcohol abuse, young people who are out of school and lacking the necessary skills or prospects for progression, repatriated Filipinos from overseas, the indigenous Lumad community, and single parents who are struggling to raise a family on their own. To date, more than 100 participants have completed the training programme, going on to find employment in farming and market gardens, running community gardens, school programmes, and international development and food security projects. “One of the most important outcomes of the apprenticeship is the ripple effect our graduates have working locally, nationally, and internationally to promote, practice, and teach sustainable, organic farming and gardening,” reports the cooperative programme.
A sustainability expert who recently reviewed the programme writes of their experience in a report for the MSC-CEPAGCO: “I felt at home for the duration of my stay; all the people are so accommodating and warm. They include in their daily activities the morning and evening prayer, also yoga and meditation. We cooked and ate together (I introduced the practice of giving gratitude while we are circling the table), socialising on some nights, gardening together, and helping with livestock. We were able to unwind and rejuvenate as we visited a hot spring resort. The Christmas party was a joyous celebration, exchanging gifts, playing games, rendering karaoke songs hits, and dancing until past midnight. Every Sunday, [participants] have Mass with their missionary priest, then a big breakfast after the Mass where the stakeholders bring a potluck. [Each participant] must have a once-a-week value formation workshop with the stakeholders who are regular employees.”
Now in its second year, the agriculture cooperative continues to promote and develop an ethos of sharing, of zero waste, and a simple lifestyle based on having enough. As part of the programme, rainwater is collected and purified for use as drinking water, with the treatment of waste water and sewage the next project on the horizon. Unreliable weather conditions present their own difficulties, with issues such as storms and typhoons causing real challenges, especially when the MSC Centre for the Poor also act as first responders in these circumstances, bringing urgent relief aid to survivors of such natural disasters. In these cases, the community at the Centre for the Poor have also installed their water purifiers for regions where people have no source of safe drinking water as a result of storm damage.
From food foraging to composting, the different techniques employed on the programme are many and varied, and are constantly developing for the better in the quest to provide a positive, practical space in which people can grow and learn as they reap the benefits of nurturing the earth and our common home.
Images and quotes from the MSC-CEPAGCO Sustainability Report (January 2023),
courtesy of Fr Richie Gomez MSC.
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SACRED HEART FAMILY
IN THE PHILIPPINES
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) are a vital part of our Sacred Heart Family,
working in partnership with MSCs all over the world under our shared motto:
“May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved.”
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart are active in their ministry in several areas across Brazil, from educating young children to caring for the elderly, and everything in between. This year, they’re appealing for our help in funding a number of different projects that will continue to change lives for the better in regions of real and pressing need.
In Alfenas, OLSH Sisters run a second-hand clothing shop, where the money raised from sales is used to buy food supplies for poor families in the area. Currently, the outreach programme provides food for 65 local families each month. Our 2022 World Projects Appeal helped the Sisters to raise money for essential renovations to the shop, and washing materials to launder the clothes for resale. This year, the Sisters are appealing for our help once again, as they do not always receive enough monthly donations to provide enough food to the families that depend it.
€1,000 will help the OLSH community in Alfenas to continue their outreach work
in providing food to families in real need.
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart began ministering in the small city of Eldorado in February 2022, working to help people in the local parish. Sr Ivone, one of the Sisters there, has founded two groups of the Lay of the Chevalier Family to help reach local families in need. Sr Ivone provides spiritual support to these lay groups in their shared mission.
€1,000 will purchase a multimedia projector to assist Sr Ivone
in sharing the Sacred Heart spirituality and mission.
Last year, our mission friends helped OLSH Sisters in Maranhão to buy essential liturgical items for Mass in remote locations. This parish is responsible for 18 small chapels, with approximately 250 catechists working with 2,000 young children who participate with the catechesis across their mission stations. This year, the Sisters need help to provide catechism books for the children attending the chapels across the parish. “It is a joy for us to serve the people,” write the Sisters in their appeal.
€1,000 will buy catechism books to help 2,000 children in their ongoing education.
OLSH Sisters in SĂŁo Paulo run an outreach programme in an aged-care centre, where workshops are offered to elderly people who wish to take courses in topics including English, smartphones and computers, yoga, handcrafts, and more. Before the COVID pandemic struck, the centre catered to over 110 elderly people, and the demand is now rising once again. The majority of the people who attend the centre come not only to learn new skills, but to share their days with others and avoid loneliness.
€1,000 will provide materials for the Sisters’ workshops for the elderly,
such as equipment for embroidery and knitting classes.
In Campinas, OLSH Sisters run a kindergarten that currently welcomes 210 children from vulnerable backgrounds, providing them with a safe space to learn and grow. The Sisters are working to raise funds for two current projects: the purchase of fans to make their kitchen a safer and more comfortable work space when cooking meals for the children, and the renovation of an eco-friendly playground area, where children can play and grow in harmony with nature.
€2,000 will contribute greatly to the ongoing care of young children in the kindergarten.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR OLSH SISTERS IN THEIR GLOBAL OUTREACH
With ongoing mission projects in education, childcare, agriculture, and healthcare, OLSH ministry is touching and transforming lives across Africa.
Burkina Faso, located in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. In its capital city, Ouagadougou, OLSH Sisters began working to nurture and educate disadvantaged children in 2007. Unfortunately, many children in the region are unable to attend school due to poverty, or travel distance. The Sisters in Ouagadougou make every effort to accommodate as many children as possible, which has led to issues with overcrowding in the available spaces.
The Sisters are currently working to raise a total of €9,170 to facilitate
the division of a large hall into separate classrooms,
in response to the ever-increasing demand for school places.
The Holy Family Care Centre is a residential care facility for children located in Ofcolaco. Currently home to 75 abandoned and chronically ill children, Holy Family provides a loving, nurturing environment for children with critical medical needs, who have nowhere else to turn.
Sr Sally Duigan FDNSC, leader of the Holy Family community, is appealing for support for ongoing necessities in the centre, including medications and baby formulas, educational supplies, weekly groceries, everyday clothing, and petrol to transport the children to and from school and hospital appointments.
€10,000 will provide immeasurable help to the Holy Family community as they continue their work in providing loving, caring childhoods to children in real and urgent need.
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Senegal have set up a small farm on their novitiate programme, in order to produce food for their daily needs, and to make their community more self-sufficient. Since the initial establishment of the farm, they have added poultry, rabbits, and pigs. The current global financial crisis has raised the cost of feed significantly, and the Sisters are appealing for funds to help them to purchase enough maize for the coming year.
€1,000 will contribute to maize supplies for the novitiate farm for one year.
In Toutouli, Cameroon, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart have three hectares of land, including an orchard and a large area used for growing food crops. The produce grown supports the dietary requirements of the OLSH community, while they also sell food to local families. Encouraging self-sufficiency for the OLSH Sisters, this project also creates employment opportunities as they hire local workers to help on the farm.
€10,000 will purchase essential new equipment,
such as hoes, machetes, motor pumps, sickle blades, and juice extractors.
Lyonda, a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is an area of great poverty in a country that faces ongoing battles with diseases such as malaria, leprosy, and monkeypox. OLSH Sisters run a health care clinic for the local population, and are currently fundraising to be able to install equipment, including solar panels, batteries, and lamps, to give the community at the clinic access to solar energy and improved treatment facilities.
€10,000 will make a huge difference to the Sisters’ ability
to provide efficient health care to local families.
“Our sincere thanks to your wonderful benefactors in the Irish Province for the assistance you give to us. It is very much appreciated! We remember you in prayer, with deep gratitude.”
~ Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Officer for the OLSH
MSCs began ministering in the parish of San José de Chilibulo, in Quito, Ecuador, eight years ago. Today, the parish has a population of almost 42,000 people, with nine pastoral groups working to serve communities across the region.
The parish of San José de Chilibulo is a busy and constantly developing one, with several activities and programmes catering to different community groups. Parish catechesis runs every weekend from September to July, pastoral care groups for the elderly take place every day, and pastoral formation takes place once a month. Youth groups also provide holiday camps for children from low-income and vulnerable families, and MSCs work with the local Caritas group to provide regular social activities for local families.
As the parish continues to grow, parish priest Fr Marcelo Campoverde Arcentales MSC
has established the immediate need for two improvements
to the current facilities available to the local community:
a working parish kitchen, and the necessity of improving the outdoor space
outside the church and pastoral centre,
at a total cost of €11,500.
The need for a safe and hygienic cooking space is a priority, as the parish currently cater to several different community groups, such as cooking nutritious lunches for the elderly, providing meals for needy families, and preparing food for gatherings and celebrations. At the moment, they do not have adequate space to prepare food, and a dedicated parish kitchen would allow them to continue their work in serving the local population.
The parish is appealing for funds to repair the entrance area to the church and pastoral centre, replacing the current earthen floor with a cement covering. When it rains, the area becomes dangerously slippery, and is extremely difficult for the elderly or those with limited mobility to navigate. Several people have already fallen on the precarious ground, and so a safe surface is essential for the local community to be able to continue to visit in comfort and safety.