“Thank you for your great generosity of heart!”: A message from Yaoundé, Cameroon

It is with great joy that we recently received an update from our MSC brothers at the Sacred Heart Bilingual College in Lada II, a small village situated 25km from Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.

Construction in Yaoundé, where the MSC community provide help and hope to local families who have nothing.

Br Magloire overseeing construction work in Yaoundé, where the MSC community provide help and hope to local families who have nothing.

Construction in Yaoundé, where the MSC community provide help and hope to local families who have nothing.

Back in the summer of 2018, we appealed to our mission friends in the Irish Province to help the Sacred Heart family in Lada II, an area racked by extreme poverty and hardship. The Sacred Heart Bilingual College opened in 2016 to both male and female students, but remained in an unfinished state of construction with minimal facilities and equipment.

The MSC Sacred Heart Bilingual College in Lada II, Cameroon, provides education for local youths who struggle daily with extreme poverty and hardship. (Image via @MSCMissionOffice on Facebook.)

Poverty is a huge challenge faced by local families, who cannot afford to send their children to school when they are struggling to find enough food for daily meals. The students of the Sacred Heart Bilingual College are grateful for amenities that we take for granted every day; “I appreciate the toilets,” student Wilfried said, “because they have taps around them where we can wash our hands.”

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The MSC community in Yaoundé contacted us in recent weeks with “great joy and satisfaction” that the project has made excellent progress, thanks to the support of our mission friends here in the Irish Province. “The new MSC community is now established,” they wrote. “It was blessed on October 21st by the UAF MSC Superior, Fr Yvon-César Banackissa, who installed also the new Superior of the community on that day, Br Magloire Njankou Samen. This structure will be greatly helpful in strengthening our abilities, our aims, and our dreams, particularly in running our school.”

The blessing of the MSC community in Lada II, in October 2019.

“We are sincerely grateful to everybody who supported our project for your great generosity and openness of heart, for your support, help, and care. By so acting, you show us the real proof of your commitment to help people to live and to enhance their fundamental right to dignity.”

The Yaoundé MSC community sent us some pictures of the progress as the building works have been completed, and of the blessing of the community at the end of October. The MSC Mission Office on Facebook have also made photos available from a recent visit to the school in October, when they captured photos of Br Magloire and his team undertaking extensive carpentry projects, making the desks and furniture from the school.

Br Magloire and his team building the desks and furniture for the MSC Sacred Heart Bilingual College in their carpentry department. (Image via @MSCMissionOffice on Facebook.)

“Thank you, once again, for your unceasing kindness and generosity towards our African community and mission,” wrote the MSC community in Yaoundé. “Thank you for your great generosity of heart!”