Jul 14, 2022
We were delighted to receive a letter from Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Officer for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH), alerting us to the latest news from our Sisters in the Sacred Heart in Burkina Faso.
A landlocked region of West Africa, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, with very limited natural resources and extremely harsh living conditions for many vulnerable families and communities. The Daughters of the Lady of the Sacred Heart are active in their ministry here, including the running of the Jules Chevalier School in Zagtouli, where over 500 children receive a nutritious meal alongside a vital education every day, and the heading up of a Centre for Girls in Untandeni, where young women and children – down to a little baby girl who had been abandoned under a tree near the community – receive schooling and loving care in a safe, secure place to live.
This summer, our OLSH Sisters have facilitated the sinking of a well in the Pouléba region, where the Sisters are in the process of founding a community, with plans to open a small dispensary to assist the local people. This well will be an invaluable resource for families in the extended area, where many people have to travel long distances in uncomfortable conditions simply to carry water to their homes.
Please join us in praying for our OLSH Sisters and the communities they serve, as they continue their great work in Burkina Faso and around the world.
Please click below to see a video clip of the well being sunk in Pouléba.
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SACRED HEART FAMILY
Jun 9, 2022
Sincere thanks to all who took part in our recent fundraising event for the children of the Holy Family Care Centre, a care facility run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, with the support of the MSC, in Ofcolaco, South Africa. The fundraising event took place at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork, across the last weekend of May, and raised a running total of €5,200 for the Holy Family community, with donations still coming in.
The plant and cake sale took place during the weekend Masses, where local treats such as home-made brown bread and fresh free-range eggs were also on sale. Teas and coffees were available for all to enjoy while they browsed, while John and Richie kept the atmosphere light and lively with marvellous music on the accordion and mandolin.
A group of five alpacas took a star turn over the weekend, as Pat and Nora Casey from Macroom were kind enough to bring them along to take part in our fundraiser. “A few of alpacas were due a grooming session,” reported Fr John Fitzgerald, our MSC Missions Office Director. “Luckily, Fr John Finn was at hand with his farming skills to shape their fringes and add to their overall good looks.”
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 20 years, under the leadership of Sr Sally Duigan FDNSC. The Holy Family Care Centre is an invaluable facility for young children who are very ill and who, in many cases, have been orphaned or abandoned. These children are primarily HIV positive and are in need of specialised care. With the resources to accommodate 70 children, the Centre’s facilities are stretched to full capacity and beyond on a daily basis; Sr Sally admits that the team at the Centre does its best never to turn a child away, and the Sisters there sometimes find themselves with 80 children in their care.
“The 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,” says Sr Sally. “Some come from horrific backgrounds and arrive here very ill, malnourished, frightened, lacking social skills, and generally very bewildered.”
The Holy Family Care Centre is, above all, a place of family, unity, and love. “We love these children unconditionally,” says Sr Sally. “It doesn’t take long for them to feel at home and to change once they feel loved and cared for.”
A sanctuary for children in need, the team at the Holy Family Care Centre care for the children on a 24/7 basis, and the Centre feels more like a home to one big happy family. The availability of funding is an ongoing concern, as the Centre relies on donations and the generosity of MSC mission friends and the local community for the upkeep of buildings and equipment, and to be able to continue doing the work that they do – “[giving] our children love, security, and care, in the hope they will thrive,” in the words of Sr Sally.
“Since our parishioners here in Cork cannot visit Holy Family, or help them directly, the plant and cake sale is a wonderful way of supporting Sr Sally and her team in keeping the Centre going, without having to worry about the immediate future,” said Fr John. “In addition, it was great fun for all involved!”
IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT THE HOLY FAMILY COMMUNITY
May 18, 2022
Welcome to the Summer 2022 edition of the MSC Message!
• Read a special greeting from Fr John Fitzgerald MSC, Director of the MSC Missions Office.
• Find out more about the visit of our MSC Superior General, Fr Absalón Alvarado MSC, to the Irish Province.
• Catch up on the latest news from the mission fields, including updates from our MSC brothers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, and our OLSH Sisters in Brazil and Papua New Guinea.
• Read more about the latest updates from our global COVID-19 relief ministry, with a report from the Pacific Islands.
• Discover the ways in which our MSC community in the Philippines is helping survivors of Typhoon Odette.
• Fr Alan Neville MSC writes from South Sudan, where he is currently ministering with the Loreto team in Rumbek.
• Read all about recent celebrations in the Venezuelan Region, where two members of the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have marked milestone steps on their missionary journeys.
Read the Summer 2022 edition of the MSC Message
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Mar 31, 2022
We were delighted to receive a recent update from the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Brazil, where a second-hand clothing store is run by the Sisters at the Social Centre in Alfenas.
All money raised from sales in the store is used to buy food for the poor. Volunteers help to prepare the food supplies for poor families in the area, and each month, the OLSH Sisters distribute 65 food parcels to local families in real need of help and support.
The Sisters are in the process of renovating the space in order to make it more practical, and also to promote a more appealing shopping experience with the aim of raising much-needed funds. New areas have been added to display the clothes and shoes for sale, and the Sisters continue in their work to feed and care for hungry families in the Alfenas region.
Our 2022 World Projects Appeal is continuing to raise funds for outreach programmes such as this one, run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Brazil and beyond. “Your generous donors are remembered in prayer all over the world, with deepest gratitude,” writes Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC, International Development Officer for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
Please keep our Sacred Heart Sisters in Alfenas, and across the world, in your prayers as they continue to share the message of God’s love, whenever and wherever it is needed most, despite the challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
PLEASE SUPPORT OLSH OUTREACH AROUND THE WORLD
Mar 24, 2022
MSCs in the Philippines joined forces with the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and local volunteers to offer emergency relief aid to survivors of a fire that tore through the community of St Teresa of Calcutta in Quezon City on Tuesday, March 8th.
The MSC Scholasticate Community visited the community of the St Teresa of Calcutta Chapel to help with relief aid, including food provision and the distribution of care packages, shortly after the fire took place on March 8th. The St Teresa of Calcutta Chapel is just one of the chapels of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Mission Station in the area, which is under the pastoral care and guidance of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
More than 80 families were left homeless following the blaze, where possessions, houses, and valuables were all lost to the flames. The MSC Scholasticate Community distributed care packages containing food and essentials, including pre-loved clothes and goods for families that had been left with nothing following the fire.
The MSC Scholasticate Community shared an update on the relief aid on their Facebook page, writing, “Gratitude is due to the OMI Theologate Community, SFIC Philippines, and some other individuals for sharing their resources in helping the affected community.”
“Together, we all make present the Heart of God on Earth,” they finished.
Please keep our Sacred Heart family in Quezon City in your prayers as they help survivors of the fire to find safety and security in the wake of this disaster.
Images via the MSC Scholasticate Community – Philippines on Facebook.
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