Dec 22, 2020
These are some of the kadua and sukumwiki that the local women grow to feed their families.
I don’t know how your morning is going, but I spent mine hunting down a jailbreaking duck. Born and raised in Cork City, I’m an absolute novice when it comes to anything to do with rearing animals or growing crops. I’m 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, I’m 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 God’s smartest creation, but clever enough to give me a run for my money. After a quick Google search to confirm you can’t get rabies if they nip you (one was especially enthusiastic for his food two weeks ago), we’re 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 Jesus’ 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 wouldn’t 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 I’m intrigued by people living in such close proximity to their animals, I still haven’t 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, there’s always time to enjoy a coffee and a mandazi, a local South Sudanese cake.
We’re 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
Dec 10, 2020
The mud hut behind us is a typical South Sudanese home in the countryside. Most of our students would come from places like these.
“It is coming up to a month since I first stepped off the plane at Rumbek Airport. Since my arrival, it has been a whirlwind of new experiences. The first thing you notice, in fact you can’t miss it, is the heat. I went from winter in Ireland to an average daily temperature of 37C and I was reliably informed that this was the coolest part of the year. I am fascinated that each morning there are people out and about with coats and a few wool hats. They in turn are mystified how I’m surviving sporting shorts and a t-shirt!
I am still settling into life at Loreto Rumbek and it has been a special privilege. It originally began as a school in 2008 under a tree in a scrub field five kilometres outside of the town, that was gifted to the sisters by a local chief. Its purpose was to educate young girls, a challenge in an environment where schooling was almost exclusively restricted to boys. South Sudan is still ranked as the world’s most difficult nation in the world for girls to receive an education, with only three out of a hundred having the opportunity to go to secondary school. Just over half of all girls are married before they are eighteen years old and almost one in five are married before they are fifteen.
When the Loreto Sisters began their work in Rumbek, they were told they were wasting their time. It was obvious to everyone that students wouldn’t come. They came. Then they were told the girls wouldn’t go on to secondary school. They persevered. Then they were told they wouldn’t graduate. Apparently, no one told the girls because they graduated anyway. To stand against the weight of cultural expectations requires a school that sees the very best in each student and a student with a courage of conviction that would be beyond most adults.
Over the last twelve years the project has grown from a few chairs under a tree and now includes a primary school with 1,200 children, a secondary with 300 girls, an agricultural project, and the newly opened primary health care clinic. It hasn’t always been plain sailing and 2020 has been especially difficult. The pandemic has caused widespread disruption around the world and South Sudan is no exception. However, Loreto has had their final classes of primary and secondary school back since autumn because they will still sit state exams in spring. We will need to keep them in our prayers.
Last Saturday we had a small, but significant celebration in the community. Five of the young women finished their two-year intern programme, where they had worked after their graduation in the school and the clinic as support staff. Now they were heading to university in Juba or Nairobi to continue their education, funded by Loreto. It is impossible to overestimate how extraordinary and important this is right now.
Over the years, graduates have gone on to study nursing, computing, teaching, business, logistics, and law. They are the pioneers who will blaze the trail for their younger sisters, making the impossible seem attainable. They are the firm rebuke to the people who say that it is a waste of time and money to educate girls at all. They are the entrepreneurs, the healers, the teachers, the leaders who will build a better South Sudan tomorrow, starting today.”
God bless or Bi Nhialic arrer kek yin as they say here.
Fr. Alan
HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Jan 22, 2020
Health and Education at Berea-Albion Football Club
Cougar Park in Pretoria, South Africa, is home to Berea-Albion Football Club and Academy, where disadvantaged youths are given hope and encouragement as they strive for a better future. The academy hosts up to 60 students at a time, with 50% coming from non-privileged backgrounds and 50% coming from more fortunate circumstances.
“The majority of disadvantaged youths in our development programmes are orphans, or they come from single parent families,” says co-founder Neil Bosman. “They have struggled with poverty, HIV/AIDS, abuse, alcoholism, and poor educational backgrounds.”
There are currently 21 former Berea-Albion students playing top-level football around the world. However, there is also an awareness that not all students will reach professional level, and every player is prepared for a successful future with the combination of educational, social, and health structures taught at the academy. Students attend Bosman College, where the focus is on providing “a sound education base” as well as full professional training in football.
The academy’s motto is “Passio Pro Perfecto” (a passion for perfection), and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been glad to be able to support them in their great work in the past.
“We sincerely thank you for any support you can provide,” says Neil Bosman. “All donations are being put to very good use as we make sure that our young footballers are housed, clothed, educated, trained, and nutritiously fed at Cougar Park.”
A donation of just €50 will provide a pair of football boots and a ball for a student,
providing essential tools in these invaluable youth development programmes.
CAN YOU HELP OUR MSC MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA?
MSCs working with the Sisters of St Therese
A group of Sisters of St Therese from the Democratic Republic of the Congo are working with the MSC community in South Africa to minister to local communities in need of pastoral aid. Together, the Sisters and MSCs do great work in the area of Rabie Ridge, a very poor township in Ivory Park parish, located outside Johannesburg.
Many of the Sisters are qualified teachers, but they live on very little. They have no means of travel apart from public transport, making extended ministry more difficult, and they live on minimal food and provisions themselves.
The house in which the Sisters live has recently undergone some repairs, as it was in a terrible state – particularly the roof, which regularly let rain in. The house is now in better repair, but the Sisters are still in need of a comfortable space in which they can pray. The extension of their chapel space is estimated at a cost of just over €1,500, and this will provide the Sisters with an essential place of prayer.
The Sisters also run a feeding scheme for children in local primary school St Gemma’s, with 25 children who have been orphaned or who come from vulnerable backgrounds taking part in the programme. From Monday to Friday, the children have a nutritious lunch at 11.00am; however, the Sisters are under real pressure to maintain this due to a severe lack of funding.
It costs less than €2 per day to feed one primary school child
– a total of just over €230 for a week’s food for 25 children.
A small donation can make a great difference.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Nov 21, 2019
It is a pleasure to share these wonderful pictures from a recent Children’s Liturgy at the Holy Family Care Centre in Ofcolaco, South Africa, which took place at the end of September.
Founded in 2002 and run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) with the support of the MSC, 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 urgent need of care. The Holy Family Care Centre can accommodate 70 children, and its facilities are stretched to full capacity on a daily basis.
The priority of this centre is quality of life. The sisters and volunteers at Holy Family see these children as God’s gift, and the simple joy, excitement, and love of the children make the Holy Family Care Centre a place of laughter, fun, and activity.
“The children and staff have benefited enormously from the funding received from the MSC Missions Office in Ireland,” wrote Sr Sally Duigan FDNSC, who runs the care centre, in a letter to our MSC Missions. “We are so grateful.”
“Above all, we continue to give our children love, security, and care, in the hope they will thrive.”
The photos from the Children’s Liturgy celebrations demonstrate perfectly the sense of joy, unity, family, and faith that are at the core of the Holy Family ethos. We are delighted to continue to work closely with the Holy Family team in building a brighter future for the children of the Limpopo Province and beyond.
Find out more about our work with the Holy Family Centre: https://www.mscmissions.ie/about-us/what-we-do/our-projects/ofcolaco-south-africa/
Photos via MSC Mission Office on Facebook.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Aug 22, 2019
We were delighted to welcome Sr Jenny Christie FDNSC to Cork this August, as she kindly took the time to visit the MSC Missions Office during her trip to Ireland. Sr Jenny originally hails from Australia, and now resides in Rome in her role as International Development Officer for the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH).
An invaluable branch of our Sacred Heart family tree, we have been very glad of the opportunity to work with our OLSH Sisters over the past year, with particular attention to the projects that Sr Jenny highlighted in our 2019 World Projects Appeal. The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart do truly wonderful work on a global scale, from education projects in the Philippines, South Africa, Venezuela, Brazil, and South Sudan, to the provision of emergency aid to the survivors of domestic abuse in Kiribati. The OLSH Sisters also founded the Holy Family Care Centre in South Africa, where they currently care for 70 children who have been abandoned, abused, or are suffering the effects of serious illness such as HIV/AIDS and TB.
Sr Jenny has been professed for over 29 years, and has held a number of varied ministries in that time, including teacher, educational administrator, and Provincial Councillor. She has completed Masters degrees in Education and Theological Studies, and now works tirelessly to make a difference where it is most needed in her role as International Development Officer for the OLSH.
The support of our mission friends here in the Irish Province has been a tremendous help to the OLSH Sisters around the world. “The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart would like to thank you most sincerely for the support of your prayers and interest, and for any donations to our mission areas,” says Sr Jenny. “Indeed, support such as yours help make our work possible, and for this we thank you and assure you of our continued prayers for you.”
It was wonderful to have Sr Jenny pay us a visit in person, and we look forward to working closely with the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on their ongoing projects around the world.
PLEASE SUPPORT OLSH GLOBAL OUTREACH
