CONTENT

Editorial: Lucie Pruvost

In My Surroundings

1. El Hofra, What a Name for a Town Area!, Community of Ghardaïa
2. Living “All to All” in Dar-es-Salaam, Community of Dar-es-Salaam
3.The Joys of Daily Encounters Within the Neibourhood, Community of Ouagadougou Region
4. Day by Day Life in a Popular Township, Community of Hussein-Dey
5. In Nyamugari, among the People Without Fame, Community of  Gitega
6. “Go and Tell My Brothers…”, Luzia Wetzel, Solwezi
7. Getting Close Takes Times, Flora Ridder, Solwezi
8. My Neighbourhood or “Who Is My Neighbour?”, Céline Alie, Solwezi

Sharing Life

1. Women in the Church of Africa, Hélène Mbuyamba, Rome
2. ”No, I Do not Regret Anything!”, Participants of the Session, Rome
3. One Hundred years of Presence in Rwanda, Anne-Katrien, Kigali
4. How Have Our Activities Developped… , The MSOLA

Walk through the Archives

Our Archives, Hildegunde Schmidt, Rome

Communications

Expressions of Thanks from the Newly Professed

Editorial staff

Editorial

   Our call to be « all to all » invites us to get always closer to the persons to whom we are sent. Answers to that call have varied all along our history. Today, perhaps more than yesterday, many communities try to share the life of those to whom they are sent, in a way as close as possible, through insertion in the popular as well as in the most deprived areas. These foundations allow for a closer sharing of the life of the little ones and a reinforcement of the charism. The first part of this number of Sharing Trentaprile wants to present five testimonies from some of these communities inserted in areas sometimes situated on the outskirt of big overpopulated cities like Dar-es-Salaam. Sometimes, they are established in such a way that the community project of encounters can be lived for the best, as in Ouagadougou, Ghardaïa, Gitega or Hussein-Dey. Let us add to the itinerary of these, the sisters of Solwezi, who understood the theme proposed “My Surroundings” as “being close to”, in the sense of the question of the Scribe to Jesus: “Who is my neighbour?”.

      On the whole, they are eight texts that testify of a desire to live concretely certain “Millenary objectives” to be achieved by 2015. It is good to recall their content: to reduce extreme poverty and hunger; to ensure a

basic education for all; to promote equality and autonomy of women; to reduce infant mortality; to improve maternal health; to fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; to ensure a durable environment; to organize a world partnership for development. It is sure that the actual crisis that affects most countries of the world, even the wealthiest, strongly risks the postponing of generous projects, to the detriment of the most deprived, especially in the sub-Saharan Africa. But this, by no means, should discourage us!

      Between us, life is shared. From Rome, for example, with extracts of a conference given by Hélène Mbuyamba, in relation with the coming Synod of the Bishops of Africa. Again from Rome, an echo of what the sisters of 70-80 years have lived during their session. Finally, some notes that allow us to unite ourselves to the Centenary celebrations of the arrival of the first MSOLA in Rwanda.

      A walk through the archives gives us a good picture of the importance of this service for all of us. It is an invitation to preciously keep the memory of all that is lived. A congregation that is alive, loves keeping the memory of its past, transmitting it to the generations that continue to give life to our charism, encouraging them to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors. Is it not one of the aims of the report each community is asked to write every year, at the end of June, to assure this communion among all the generations?
     
      In a religious family that has at heart to build communion for mission, information is also called to circulate. Such is the function of the various communications that you can read on the last pages of this number.   

      When you will receive it, a good number of us will be preparing for a holiday, be it in our country of origin or elsewhere. May each one benefit of this time to renew oneself spiritually and physically, always for God’s greatest glory!

Lucie Pruvost

“El Hofra” – What a name for a neighbourhood…but so lovable!

   EL HOFRA, “the Hole”, such is the name of our area. A name which evokes only to itself its position: far from the centre of the town, below near the wadi, not far from the big fruit and vegetable market. There are hardly any streets, rather some alleys in which it is easy to get lost. None of the few house windows look out into the alleyways. On the other hand, the doors remain often ajar. Our alleyway has its own character. It is a very narrow road, but with much traffic: vans, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, little carts… veiled women, school children and even donkeys which slip in with such carelessness that the Guardian Angels themselves sometimes have trouble regulating the traffic! And if you are a driver, you are advised to know, almost to a millimetre, the size of your vehicle.

     Personal encounters? They follow from the “all to all” of our Constitutions and remind us of the  passage of the Gospel in which Jesus, after having chosen his disciples, gives them no instructions, but rather shows them the plain which lies before them!
     And off we go! We are off to the encounter…

* Early in the morning, on our way to prayer, we meet every day the same “prayer people” going to or coming from the mosques. After a certain time, we recognize each other, we greet each other.
* Further on the way, there are the traders, bakers, market vendors, newspaper sellers, the cobbler of the street corner… Each one of us has sometimes her preference… the circle of acquaintances broadens.
* During the day, there are the neighbours! Visits of occasions (feasts, birthdays, services) or informal visits.
* At every instant, the duties of each of the sisters of the community are sources of encounter: French or Spanish classes, school assistance, which requires making contact with the parents; help to those in the area who are handicapped or sick; integration into Associations, etc. All these contacts attract so many that, on certain days, the house is always packed, women on one side, men on the other.

     This year, three experiences have brought us closer to our neighbours:
* Our former house with its garden and surrounding wall, needing to be renovated, we took up residence for more than a year in a new house reserved for the diocese, almost adjacent to the preceding house. But… without surrounding wall! Immediately the neighbours told us: “Now you are among us!” And encounters are so much easier…
* Last year, a Christian laywoman, residing for more than 50 years directly opposite our house, died. This woman was a “great promoter for women”. She was very much appreciated by everyone, and her passing away attracted many women to our establishment.
* Then, on 1st October 2008, there was the catastrophe of the wadi floods, devastating all of Ghardaia. The necessary mutual assistance wove new bonds of friendship.

     Our Church defines itself as “the Church of Encounter”, encounter between Christians and Moslems, between members of different Arabic and Mozabite communities…Our daily encounters are part of it. I almost forgot one occasion of daily encounter and which could fit into the category of “non-violent communication”: the one caused by the non-observance of parking restriction for cars in front of our gate. That encounter occurs with men, as much as twice a day sometimes, and requires a “geological” patience!

 Community of Ghardaïa, Algeria

LIVING “ALL TO ALL”
     
     Karibuni Tandale! Welcome to Tandale! A squatter shantytown situated about 5 km northeast from the centre of Dar-es-Salaam. The place is overcrowded with more or less 70.000 people living in an area not bigger than 3 km2 and being 80% of the population Muslims.

      Among the main social problems, we can name unemployment, even though most of the people came to Dar hoping to get a job, many of them did not succeed and ended up doing small business, part-time work or just roaming around the streets. There is also a high percentage of people suffering from the terrible disease of our times, AIDS and its effects, not only many sick citizens, but also a big number of orphan children. To this, we can add prostitution, alcoholism, drug dealing and whatever we can imagine, related to a situation of extreme poverty. Most people live in very small houses and many manage only to rent one or two rooms. There are hardly any infrastructures, and it is a daily struggle to get clean water, while most dwellings are surrounded by dirty water from the sewage. The hygienic conditions are very poor.

      The Karoli Lwanga parish is situated at the heart of Tandale, near the main market. The parish was started in 2005 and is under the responsibility of the Missionaries of Africa. Some of our sisters started working there before the fathers, and since those early beginnings, a lot of development has been achieved. At the moment, we are committed in the Salomé Learning Centre (SLC), a MSOLA project mainly geared to empower young girls and women through different educational projects and in coordination with TASODEC (Tandale Social Development Centre), which includes a variety of projects, both are part of the parish activities.

The beauty of African´s towns is that nobody can pass by without being noticed, greeted or involved in a short conversation. So, every day, while walking on our way to the parish and later on in the evening, while coming back to our community, we meet many people. They are street vendors, workers and children going to school and those going to the market to buy products in order to sell them somewhere else. We also encounter people while home visiting, accompanying them in different events such as funerals, sickness, and invitations. We know some, because they come to the Centre, and others are parishioners we serve in one way or another.

      To our work places, people come to us asking for information, advice, help; and there, we have a colourful rainbow of different people: students of the Salomé Learning Centre (SLC), orphans of the Kizito Centre, sick people coming to the “Home Base Care” (HBC) project, those having problems and searching for help in the parish, friends who come to greet, parishioners we encounter in the liturgical celebrations, etc.

      At the moment, all these encounters are taking place during our working hours and prayer time, but surely this will change in a couple of months when we will move to live on the spot, in a small house situated right at the centre of the parish buildings. This will give us the possibility to be closer to the people and to their life situations. It will also help us to be considered not as mere “workers” of the parish, that come and go, but also as their neighbours.
      Despite the fact of not living right among our neighbours, our apostolate allows us to encounter people in their concrete life situations. In order to share with you, we recall a recent experience, the story of Juliana. She is a 22 years old young woman, student of the literacy classes at the SLC. Her family situation is not very stable; her mother lives 600 km away from Dar, and the father lives in Tandale with another woman. The only brother, who was supposed to take care of her, was very sick for few months, and one week ago, he even died.

      In October 2008, Juliana got pregnant, but kept denying it until last month, when for everybody, it was very obvious.  After talking and talking with her, she agreed finally to go to hospital, because she complained of having malaria. There, it was proved that she was indeed pregnant; yet unable to accept the reality, she kept insulting the doctors. After a few hours of counselling and three kinds of tests, she confessed that she had a boyfriend and that now, she was pregnant. The main issue for her was to tell the “sister” and her father that she had had a sexual relationship with her boyfriend. Once the fact was revealed and accepted, she felt free and happy.

      The next step was to help the family, especially her father to accept the circumstances and to take care of her, without punishing her or even chasing her out of the house. A couple of weeks after, the mother came to take her back to their real home in the south of Tanzania. This is one of the simple ways by which we are accompanying people in our daily ministries and certainly a special occasion to be closer to those we are sent for.

      In all our daily encounters, we feel that the dimension of our charism, which we are living in a deep and real way, is our “ALL TO ALL”: on age (children, young and adults), on religion (Muslim majority and Christians from different denominations), on health (the sick and the
healthy), on men and women alike, on those friendly to us and on those less respectful. Indeed, there are no barriers for the one who feels loved and wishes to share that love with others (brothers and sisters). This is the beauty of our Congregation, that through our charism, we are invited once and again to accept and welcome those who are different and at times strange, so that the Kingdom of God might find its place here and now.

Community of Dar- es-Salaam, Tanzania

The Joys of Daily Encounters Within the Neighbourhood

      Our community is situated at St. Julien, in the 2nd district of Ouagadougou, not far from the Cathedral, from the public stadium and from the chapel of the district. We live in the midst of other concessions. There are houses of a permanent structure or houses in “banco”. Ours is a firmly built house.  It is a popular township. There is a mixture of different age groups, social classes and ethnic groups. There are also all kinds of trades: women selling rice, local drinks, porridge, shoes, and small shops. There is also a lot of other trading: garage owners, plumbers, mechanics, dentists… and also civil servants.

      We have good relationships with our neighbours. Visits to one or the other are made spontaneously. There are no barriers which keep people from visiting us. When we are all absent, our neighbours can easily tell our visitors where they can find us: at mass, at work, in town…  Some of our neighbours receive the visitors to await our return. The needy or those unknown who knock at our door are sometimes directed by our neighbours. Once or twice, they even prevented a suspect to enter. They watch over us!

      The shade of our trees? How wonderful! It has become a tent for the garage owner and his workers. On Sunday, young people settle down there. They talk and prepare their tea party which has become a real ceremony. Children find a space to play, and a place to rest when they are tired.   At noon, it becomes a dining room, a place of prayer for our Muslim brothers and even a place for the very little ones who like to imitate those who are praying. It is always a pleasure for us to receive the little ones who beg to be taken higher up, just to see those who are downstairs. Others want to see Jesus.

      Our cook assures our contacts with the neighbourhood. So, we do not need to go too far to find a plumber, a mechanic, a carpenter or an electrician. All are our neighbours. Right in front of us, there is a cafeteria where, each morning, people meet in small groups for their breakfast before leaving for their work. One of our neighbours, a woman, who holds a restaurant, offers us some local dishes. We have no problems to find shoes as there is a group of young people right in front of our door to sell them. We can even count the number of beats they give the shoes to enlarge them! From our rooms, we can follow television programmes and enjoy the music without loud-speaker. Daily, we share in the tears, the cries and the laughter of the children, even during moments of prayer. The noise of the motorbikes awakes us during siesta. We are not far from a mosque. So our alarm clocks are on holiday. At a distance of 200 metres, we get a taste of the talents of artists through their plays and crafts exhibitions. From our place, we can follow matches and concerts without having to go there.

      We notice that the people have a lot of attention and respect for us. We can never pass on the road without greeting one another, without being invited to share their meal. They are happy to hear us speak their language because they know that we are an international community. Taking part in the events, weddings, baptisms, funerals, as well as in prayer and other activities in the chapel of the district allows us to strengthen the bonds with our environment.

Through our mutual welcoming, we live the “all to all” (cf. 1 Co 9:22) and also the Word of Jesus: “Let the little children come to me” (Mt 19:14). Thanks to this neighbourliness, we daily live a dimension of the Incarnation “God among us”, for it is He who reveals to us his presence there where he sends us. 

Community of Ouagadougou Region (St. Julien),  Burkina Faso

Day by Day in a Popular Township - Hussein-Dey
     
Our township

      Our township, Hussein-Dey, is a suburb very close to Algiers. It is quite an ancient area, without big buildings. We live in an apartment on the 1st floor of a small building dating back to the colonial time. We are surrounded by six families, without forgetting the young business man, « General Food » with « Bread and Milk » on the ground floor, just under our windows. The market place, the train stations and the bus are nearby. The chapel where, twice a week, the small Christian Community gathers for the Eucharist, is also a few minutes from home.
      This area is undergoing a complete transformation, quite a lot of demolition is going on, the one hundred years old trees, on Tripoli Street are cautiously uprooted to be re-planted somewhere at Kouba, a neighbouring locality. Heavy works are done in view of a future tramway, a lot of noise, a lot of dust, holes and trenches all around us. This is the ransom for progress. Nobody knows exactly what will come out of that.

Cordial relations
  
   Most of the families living in this area are here, since the going away of the Europeans who were numerous here. They all know one another which favours a “neighbourhood spirit”. We know one another, we recognize one another, not without an occasional embarrassing curiosity regarding those who frequent us. Religious questions, especially those about prayer, are always there underneath. It is the same for the young people close to the Christian Community. For them as for us, “great discretion”! That does not prevent us from being well integrated in this township.

      In the streets as well as with the surrounding families, relations are cordial. We belong to the area. We greet one another, we exchange a few words, but not much more. We frequent one another rather rarely. We have to seize the occasions. Simone finds that the car is a good means to make contacts. The young guardian will always find a parking place for her. Pilar gives Spanish courses to two students of the township.

Our presence

      Our presence in this area wants to be discreet, attentive, respectful. Small gestures of daily life are valuable for us as well as for those who surround us. Gestures of sharing and of joy: engagements, weddings, births… Sorrows: sicknesses, deaths. Thus, very lately, our neighbours have been grieving: five were killed in a road accident. Social problems, unemployment, soaring prices, young people who cannot get married because of lack of lodging.

Our community
     
      Certain very close neighbours greet us by our first name. In our community, we are four of four nationalities: Raymonde-Marie (French), Simone Dislaire (Belgian), Pilar Navarro (Spanish) and Namakoma Zawadi Barungu (Congolese). We are accepted, but not invaded, far from it! When people need our help, they know how to find us. We realize a great change in relations between the families as well as with us. We benefit of a favourable and very sympathetic a-priori because of the sisters who have lived here during the terrible years the country has gone through. Islamization goes its way. All that leaves traces. “It will never be like before” the older people say. The “religious question” is particularly touchy and gives rise to “mistrust and distance”.

      It is through all that that we try to deepen and adjust our mode of presence.

The Community of Hussein-Dey, Algeria

AMONG THE PEOPLE WITHOUT FAME

Our area Nyamugari
      The only congregation present in Nyamugari, we live in a working-class area of Gitega, Nyamugari, Swahili township, with a rather bad reputation. The population is made up of economically poor people. Most of them are single women, widows or unmarried mothers who care for several children. Some make a living from small businesses, sale of vegetables, fried sweet potatoes, groundnuts, charcoal. Others resort to prostitution to find a living for themselves and their children. This increases the spread of HIV/AIDS adding to their distress and poverty. The great mosque of Gitega is also found in our township which has a high percentage of Moslems.

In our own health centre
  When our sisters arrived in Gitega in 1988, they took into consideration all these elements in line with our charism, and that is why they chose to come live in this township. They began by helping the women get out of prostitution by founding the women’s promotion centre “Shiruka Ubute” which means in Kirundi “Stand up to conquer laziness”. They started also caring for the sick, the war victims and children suffering from malnutrition. Presently, we have our own small health centre to help this vulnerable population, to treat and accompany the HIV/AIDS victims and give a balanced diet to underfed children giving them the possibility of normal growth. In September 2008, we transferred the centre of promotion of women to a diocesan congregation. We continue, however, to visit and encourage them.
  
Community open to everyone
   With the residents of the township, we have good neighbourly relationships. When we go out, the children come to greet us warmly and to hug us - a joy for them and for us. Our community is open to everyone. We welcome all kinds of people: friends, families of our Burundian sisters, young girls who are interested in our MSOLA vocation, religious, the poor and people asking for hospitality. We do our best to make everyone feel welcome. In turn, we visit them in their families strengthening the bonds uniting us.
  
   Given the situation of an increasing poverty in our township, we are close to what our neighbours are living. We seek together how to bring relief to those who are suffering the most. In the house facing ours, lives Marciana, an old mother who is alone, poor and sick. We decided to share our meal with her. We visit her each day, encouraging her and bringing her the meal. We have friendly relations with our Moslem neighbours. Among them is Maman Pili whom we help to make a living, thanks to a small business selling charcoal, wood and vegetables. Next door lives Isaac, the muezzin of the mosque, and Maman Musole. We visit them on feast days, family events, marriages, baptisms, funerals, in sickness or pay them simply a friendly visit, a courtesy call. As for the Christians, we meet them at our parish Mucunguzi, each day for mass or in one or another of the parish meetings. Quite a few of our neighbours attend the health centre because of their sicknesses, persons living with the HIV/AIDS, the children with malnutrition or simply persons who are destitute and ask for help.
  
Christmas of the poor
  This year, we have lived a beautiful experience with the people of our township, in celebrating the “Christmas of the poor”. In collaboration with the Caritas of our parish, we prepared a meal for the most impoverished. Faced with the situation of poverty, starting from May 2008, we decided in community to deprive ourselves of something each day so as to share with the poor. Instead of distributing the food, we decided to organise a feast day where the poor were our guests of honour. We prepared the meal, served it and ate with them. We wanted to bring together Moslems, Catholics, Protestants, pagans, people of differing ethnics – living in this way the “All to all” of Lavigerie.
   The people were touched and felt themselves valued and recognized in their dignity.  They expressed their gratitude. We all had the joy of being close to them, sharing a bit of ourselves, witnessing to our unity and our mission; expressing God’s love for all, acting as Jesus did for whom the poor were the favourites, putting into practice the words “invite those who will not be able to invite you in return”.

Challenges of our proximity
   Our proximity to the people has its challenges: being always available in front of the needs and the misery, facing the same destitution, feeling the demands beyond our capacities. As a community, we are called to discern together what stand to take faced with the crisis of values, the lying, the corruption, the cheating and the begging… We reflect together how to help the people come out of the vicious circle leading to death.

Our Scriptures
   This is to what our Scriptures invite us: “Our whole life is a participation in Christ’s Paschal Mystery…To begin again each day, to endure in difficult situations, to accept suffering, partings and diminishment, all this becomes source of life in him” - “Our choices are guided by our desire to be available for the apostolate and to be close to the less privileged” (Constitutions, n° 22 and 35). The Word of God also enlightens us: “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10). As St. Paul says, “… planted in love and built on love… you will have the strength to grasp… the length, the height and the depth (of Christ’s love) (Ep 3:17-19); “… become all things to all” (1 Co 9:22); “… make up one body in Christ” (Rm 12:5-6).
  
   May the Spirit of the Risen Christ continue to inspire our thoughts, our gestures, our words, our actions which make of our presence a visible sign of God’s Love for all.

Community of Gitega, Burundi

“GO AND TELL MY BROTHERS… THEY WILL FIND ME THERE” (Mt 28:10)
     
      It started with a phone call from my assistant:  “Sister, I think we are in great trouble”. The youth had gone for a picnic; I had given strict orders not to swim in the river Mutanda… After one hour, I was informed that one boy, a boarder Grade 11 pupil at SOTEC (Solwezi Technical College), Peter, had drowned.

      As Coordinator of Solwezi Youth Alive Zambia (SYAZ, a youth organisation with programmes in the fight against HIV/AIDS), I had tried to delegate more and more responsibilities… Thus monitoring from far, I begged the Lord for His presence and guidance.

      After searching the whole day, the youth came back without having found the body of Peter. The search went on the whole Sunday… The headmaster with his staff and the Provincial Education Officer (PEO) came in and got the family (12 people) from their far distant village. They were accommodated in the staff room at SOTEC, and the headmaster would sleep with them. We met with all the youth for sharing and prayer over the event…

      But later in the afternoon, I went with some of our youth to the river (45 km distance), where we met the family with the teachers and the PEO in prayer. The bereaved family was desperate to find the body of their child; they vowed not to return to their village without it. On Tuesday evening, I met with the family, but what I tried to make them understand was not well taken by them. I got discouraged, being overwhelmed by the burden, and I surrendered totally to the Lord, praying that only His will may be done… asking ardently for the grace of understanding for the family, that even if the body could not be found, they would accept and return to their village.

      A group of teachers, together with the maternal uncle of Peter, went on Friday afternoon to see the Chief of the area who explained how vicious the river was and that of several people who had drowned in the past, only one body had been recovered. He sent his people with them to the river, where they explained this all clearly… Early Saturday morning, the headmaster came to see me informing me that the family had now decided to return to the village, even without the body of Peter… I went to the school and spent the whole morning with them.

      That morning became a most significant experience to me – deep sharing with a family that had accepted God’s will in peace, not accusing, not turning to witchcraft, not claiming anything. I could share with them that Peter was alive and, as they could not take his dead body, they would bring him along with them alive in and through Jesus our risen Lord, in the Spirit. During that morning, I learnt about the family, their aspirations and occupation. They, in return, were interested in the activities of SYAZ. We made photos, we became friends. The following week, the headmaster hired people to continue the search. After 10 days, the body was found, floating on the river. The headmaster accompanied the vehicle bringing the body to the village for burial.

      This tragedy has been transformed into an experience of Jesus’ presence amongst us, leading us through pain and anguish to new hope. The testimonies of the headmaster, filled with kindness and care, the PEO and many others who have shared and lightened our burden, the change of heart of family members as believing Christians and their submission to God’s will remain in my grateful memories, assuring me that “The Lord is risen indeed…” He is going ahead of us, meeting us there in the Galilee of our daily lives and activities!

Luzia Wetzel, Solwezi, Zambia

Getting Close Takes Time

To get to know them  
     
      I began my work in Solwezi October 2007. It took some time till my apostolate began to take shape. Later, I started to go to Kimiteto, one of the outstations of the cathedral parish. I started to meet with the women. In my desire to get to know them and their living conditions, I started to attend the meetings of the Small Christian Communities (SCC), and later, decided to visit each family. The catechist accompanied me on those visits. I started to collect data on the families, their religious affiliation, education and the status of the sacraments. This revealed a great need for catechesis. Parents, who had been baptized and received the sacraments, often had not bothered to have their children baptized or to receive the other sacraments. The area is dominated by the Evangelical Church of Zambia, which was the first to arrive in this area, the Catholic Church here being only 60 years old.

To come closer to the people
     
      I had a great desire to come closer to the people. When, one day, I heard that one of the Church members had lost a grandson of 7 years in a car accident, I accompanied the members of the Church to the funeral. We stayed a short time, prayed and left. I then decided to return in the evening with my mat and sleeping bag to spend the night at the funeral home, as the people do. This made a deep impression on them, a white person to come and sleep at a funeral home. Imagine, only a week later, there was a funeral of an old man who had lived alone, rejecting the care of his family. The SCC had taken charge of the funeral. After the Sunday Service, I accompanied the Christians to the house of the deceased. I simply sat among them, waiting for the final arrangements for burial. I was decided to go with them to the burial grounds, but they told me it was too far. They expressed their great appreciation at my presence, and members of other Churches being present also were touched.

      All this prepared the ground for the unexpected appointment as parish sister-in-charge, when the bishop created the new parish St. Mark out of the three outstations, which had been grouped as a zone before.  People already knew me, and I found myself well accepted among them. Now I find little time for visiting, as I concentrate on training and on building up new structures. People are proud to be a parish, and I find a great willingness to learn and to co-operate.

      May God bless this new parish and may we be able to grow together as the Body of Christ, into a community rooted in faith!

Flora Ridder, Solwezi, Zambia

MY NEIGHBOURHOOD OR “WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?”

My first experience of close neighbourhood in Zambia
      The title “In my surroundings” reminds me of the question the lawyer put to Jesus “Who is my neighbour?” (Lk 10:29). This is the question I will try to answer here. My first reaction is one of profound gratitude to the Congregation for my first experience of close neighbourhood in Zambia. It was in Kayambi Mission, when I was given, as first task for 2 years, to get to know Zambia before being accepted in Gaba Pastoral Institute. Every month, I was spending a week in Makasa’s Village with a young unmarried lady of about my age, both being received in the empty house of Fr. Paul Makasa, the son of the first and Catholic wife of Chief Makasa. Fr. Makasa was a diocesan priest of Mbala diocese. He was preparing to be in charge of the Catechetical School of Mulilansolo. It is in Kayambi that I learnt to be a Zambian, a “Mubemba”.

      Who were my neighbours?
      At Makasa’s place, it was the youth, since I was starting the Xaverian Movement, and the adult community, which accompanied our new learning. At the mission, there were different groups: when I was teaching the ladies of the home craft to read, write and count, it was they and their babies who were my neighbours; when teaching religious education in the local primary school, it was the teachers and the pupils of the area, many of whom were the Xaverians that I worked with at the mission as well; when working at the hospital as the ambulance driver, it was then the staff, especially the nurses going to the under-five clinics, and the villagers of around the centres we were visiting, mostly ladies and their children.

      Indeed, my neighbours were those who were in need of my presence and services. This was reciprocal. As a newborn Zambian, I needed them too to learn absolutely everything belonging to relationships at all level, and how to survive in that completely new environment. My community and all these people did it with such a love that they allowed me to reach the point that I can truly, scientifically say that I am a “Mubemba”, since I tried the test given in Tamale Cross-cultural Institute in Ghana to verify by testing how much I had taken in of the Bemba culture. This was 20 years later.

      Now in Solwezi, what is my answer?
      After 40 years of living in Africa, learning to receive, welcome, be a loving presence to those the Lord puts on our way, it is all the passing sisters of the diocese coming to our welcoming community, the diocesan staff, the staff and catechists of St. Kizito Pastoral Centre, that of all the parishes of the diocese, etc. I feel, even if it might be difficult to believe, that my neighbourhood extends to the limits of our vast diocese. When we learn once to be a “neighbour”, we cannot live without it ever after.

Céline Alie, Solwezi, Zambia

WOMEN IN THE CHURCH OF AFRICA

      It is on this theme that, on 27 March, Hélène Mbuyamba, responding to an invitation from SEDOS, expressed herself to some hundred persons, most of them religious. This conference was in the context of presentations in view of the 2nd Synod of Africa. The Lineamenta were made public in Yaounde, on the occasion of the Pope’s visit to Africa on the 20th March 2009. The Synod will have as theme: The Church of Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace. Here are some especially interesting extracts from Hélène’s text.

      Right from the beginning, I want to approach this question looking at it from the point of view of collaboration between men and women. This collaboration, it seems to me, has everything to do with the theme of the Synod. (…) I would like to make a tentative comparison. Could not the Africa of today remind us of this young twelve year old girl, whose father Jairus, the synagogue chief, comes to plead with Jesus to save her, for she is breathing her last? (Cf. Mk 5:21…43) (…)

      The attitude of Jesus towards this woman recalls the one of our Founder. In 1867, he writes to  members of an association as follows: “In spite of the zeal of the missionaries (men), their efforts will never produce sufficient fruits, if they are not helped by women apostles in the approach of women. They cannot fulfil this ministry on their own; only women may freely approach these pagan women, keep up charitable relations with them, bandage their wounds, touch their hearts… This apostolate does not stop at the woman. She is at the origin of everything since she is the mother. Her children are what she makes them. She places in their souls the seeds which nothing destroys and which germinate in spite of all the contrary forces. Bit by bit, through the women, we have the family, and through the family, the society.” (…)

      At the example of what this young sick girl represented in the eyes of her father and her mother, the present Africa is, according to Benedict XVI, “the great hope of the Church” because of all the positive signs of the last decade, as is shown by n° 6 and 7 of the Lineamenta. In spite of that, Africa is ever at the extreme, like the young 12 year old girl. (…) Of what is Africa dying at this time?

      Hélène gave some statistics. She spoke also of rape being used as a very precise military weapon:  Be it in times of peace or of war, violence against women and girls takes on increasingly a disquieting amplitude. (…) With such problems, Africa is not ready to get up. In the eyes of many, Africans or not, Africa is even dead. What else can be done except to accept this fatality?

      The chief of the synagogue hears a similar discourse regarding his daughter, “She is dead, why bother the Master?” But Jesus, who has heard, says to the father, “Fear not, only believe!” Shortly after, he will say this surprising word to those lamenting, “She is not dead, but asleep.”, word that is received with mockery… During this whole scene, the mother still in the shadow is none the less very present. “So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay.” The presence of the couple near Jesus is not without meaning. In choosing to take with him only this man and this woman at his side to have them witness the restoring to life of their child, Jesus performs a prophetic act. (…)

      This man and this woman are the image of our Church which wants to be sacrament of the Kingdom of God. It is to the man and to the woman together that Jesus entrusts his mission to further the kingdom of justice, peace and reconciliation in the world. How many obstacles lie on the path of real collaboration between men and women, in the Church as well as in the society!

      Hélène then presented a few aspects of the social and political situation in Burkina Faso and in D. R. Congo. She continued: Let us also recognize that in many cases, especially in the rural areas, the woman may become the greatest obstacle to her own development, when she lives under the hold of tradition and retrograde customs. She sees it as quite natural to be relegated to the background and caught in the traditional role of mother and housekeeper.

      In the Catholic Church, the clergy was and remains a world of men. It is nothing surprising then that the Catholic culture be essentially masculine in its institutions, and very hierarchical in its organization. Within this Catholic tradition, however, women mostly religious, have found a place and space for self-expression and freedom.

      Hélène then evoked contradictions found in the Catholic Church concerning certain principles, such as equality recognized but not applied.

      Gender integration is cruelly missing in the Church and in the societies of Africa and elsewhere. And if the woman, so to speak, is absent from decision-making circles concerning life at different levels, how will she make her specific contribution? 

      However, the stand taken by Jesus concerning women had and continues to have, a transforming power, always to be discovered. Thus, they bring to light, shall we say, the anti-Gospel character of the sharing of tasks in the Church, entrusting the structures to men and the infrastructures to women. Fortunately, prophetic voices are being raised. Some bishops, priests and laity actively work in the spirit of Vatican II so that the Church, People of God, become increasingly this community of brothers and sisters, disciples equal in dignity before God and thereby rendering the Good News of salvation for all credible.

      Let us return once again to the gospel scene giving us as a framework. (…) What Jesus reveals through this gospel episode underlines the newness of the Gospel. The mission of nourishing the child is given to the mother and father. Prophetic mission, it joins the biblical affirmation according to which we are created to the image of God, man and woman (Gn 1:27).  And what of the message of Paul to the Galatians? “… every one of you that has been baptised has been clothed in Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor freeman, there can be neither male nor female – for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Ga 3:27-28). Do these words not confirm what has just been said?

      Now what of the Church? To what extent has it appropriated this newness? Speaking of Jesus, Paul said, “… in his own person, he killed the hostility (Ep 2:16). Obviously, he also wants to remove barriers between man and woman… The challenge for the Church of Africa is, if it puts itself at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace, that it has not 36 different ways to search the roots of hatred, injustices and wars which undermine the continent. She must absolutely promote a genuine collaboration, not only with laity and the believers of other religions, but also between men and women in her own midst.

      Examples of this very collaboration are not lacking neither in the Church nor in Africa. In South Africa, One man can campaign is an initiative of a network called Sonke gender justice. It works among men, women, youth and children of South, East and Central Africa, notably in the domain of violence towards women and for the diminishment of the AIDS pandemic. The campaign supports the idea that each one of us has a role to play and can contribute to create a better world, more just and fair. At the same time, it encourages men and women to collaborate in view of actions aiming to improve our world. It exhorts religious organizations to take position to sustain efforts aiming at putting an end to violence done to women. It also lists a series of actions which religious leaders may undertake to bring an end to the scourge.

      “Africa for the rights of women” is another campaign which began on 8th March 2009 (…). Its aim is to ratify African and international means of protecting women’s rights and to help respect them by law and in practice. Eminent masculine personalities have already shown their desire to collaborate by supporting this campaign.
 
      It is to this prophetic role that the Church is called. In this way, it may see with the eyes of God, listen with the ears of God, feel will the heart of God and speak with his mouth.

"Talitha Koum..." Africa, I tell you arise!
If the Africa of today must stand up and walk,
the WOMAN has her role to play in this mission,
as partner of the man.

 (…) The God of Jesus-Christ is a God of life. In the concrete situation of Africa today, the problems related to justice, peace and reconciliation at the social, political, cultural, economic and religious level are in opposition to God’s will. In the life of the Church, the woman is doubly concerned by the challenge resulting from this situation. Firstly because of its very nature, and then because she is a committed Christian with others in the construction of the society in general. It is from the woman that life is born. It is her mission to transmit the seed which none can destroy, as our Founder asserted. The woman is therefore challenged to “nourish” the child, be it a boy or girl, with the Kingdom values.

      Before leaving Angola recently, the Pope firmly asked that equal dignity of men and women, be recognized, affirmed and defended. Today, he added, no one must ever doubt the fact that women have the right to play an active role in all the sectors of life.

Hélène Mbuyamba, Rome

“No, I do not regret anything!”

      Throughout our whole MSOLA missionary life, we are offered participation in one or another session. Our group is just finishing the one for those of 70-80 years. What a gift for us! “Participating in a session is always an adventure which opens you up to paths of liberty and commits you for the future.”  Some of us were reluctant to come to this session… One of them tells us now: “If one day you are invited, do not hesitate... I dislike digging in to my past… I discovered the marvels which God does for us and with us… It was all I could wish for!”

      These three weeks were given us to create a pause in our seasoned missionary life. The theme of our session was “The art of aging”. Each day, we deepened an aspect of this theme in our life: personally, in small groups and in plenary. Hard work! …but always in view of a discovery of God’s work in our life. Always, he accompanied us… Admiration at the sight of what he has realised for and with each one of us: different, but all one in the same vocation for Mission.

      For this, we were helped and encouraged by Patricia Massart, our accompanist, who prepared prayerful liturgies adapted for each day. Many thanks to her and to Fr. Herman Bastijns, MAfr. so available to celebrate the Eucharist, to present certain themes of the session and for personal encounters.

      It was a grace for us to live close to the Generalate and to meet with sisters of the General Council, Piluca, Hélène, Marie-Alice and Chantal. They shared with us on our family life, now and to come. Their vision enlightened, strengthened and made us more responsible.

      Finding ourselves in Rome, we loved seeing our Pope Benedict XVI and visiting the sites where Peter, Paul and numerous Christians gave their life so that the Good News of Jesus be made known. We were able to walk in the streets of Rome following pilgrims of all the ages, admiring the works of art inspired by faith. We also walked in the footsteps of Cardinal Lavigerie.

      Many seeds have been sown during this session needing only time to germinate, ripen… Savouring the Word of God, discovering the marvels of the love of God in each one of us, a fraternal life at a deeper level, the joy of the mission today.

      We sang “NO, I DO NOT REGRET ANYTHING!” WE DO NOT REGRET ANYTHING! This session has been a tremendous grace for each of us. The grain has fallen into the ground and can now bear fruit for “the source which God has placed in us will make it fertile.”

         Participants of the session, Feb.-March 2009, Rome

In Rwanda, 100 Years of Presence – This Calls For a Celebration!
     
      A jubilee is a time to remember, a time to celebrate. When a house has been built, those who live in it, do not see the foundations anymore; however, the whole house rests on them. During 2009, we celebrate the arrival of the MSOLA in Rwanda one hundred years ago, on 13th March 1909. Filled with gratitude, we remember the foundation stones. Thanks to our sisters who preceded us, we were able during these one 100 years to journey with the people of Rwanda, announcing the Good News of salvation and inviting them to do the same.

      Today, history continues, and the Gospel is deeply rooted in this country. Our charism, life received, life given… this does not only belong to us. We wish to share it with our Rwandan brothers and sisters to whom we were sent.
      The first ones with whom we have shared this event, on Sunday 15th March 2009, are the Christians of Save where it all began. In a church filled to capacity with all the pupils of the parish and the Benebikira Sisters, Speciosa Mukagatare introduced the Centenary celebrations in a lively manner. She spoke about the beginnings, the joys and difficulties which were met with, characteristic for that time. Then she presented us all, according to our nationalities. We had the joy to have with us Jocelyne Morin, Provincial, who had come from Kenya, and Maria Victoria Elia Ansa, (Marivi), Regional of Central Africa, from Bukavu.

      After the celebration of the Eucharist, the Benebikira Sisters took charge of everything. They led us first to the cemetery where four of our sisters are buried. Together with bouquets of flowers and the appropriate prayers, they honoured the memory of “our Ancestors in the faith”, as they love to call them. We prayed with them in an awe-inspiring silence.

      Afterwards, we were taken to their main house at Save, where a group of Benebikira, together with our sisters from Butare and the 4 postulants had prepared everything. As always on big feasts, there was a festive meal, speeches, dances, songs, and elderly sisters gave very touching witnesses about our sisters with whom they had lived in Save; they had been very touched by them!

      In her speech, Sr. Thierry Dominique, Superior General of the Benebikira Sisters, warmly thanked the MSOLA. In short, she said: “What we are today, we are thanks to you and we are very proud of it. The small seed which you have sown has become a tall tree”.

      Presently, there are 345 professed sisters. And Sr. Christine, Superior General of the Abizeramariya Sisters, who was invited and present at the celebration, added: “We will always remember you in our congregation, because our history has and will always have your imprint. Thank you for your heritage which you have shared with us and for the road we were able to walk together!”

      Finally, Sr. Jocelyne spoke and, in the name of the Congregation, thanked the sisters who had welcomed us so lovingly. She said: “I feel very much at home here! Let continue our way together and simply tell one another what we have to do and we can improve.”

      We ended the day filled with gratitude towards the Lord from whom all good things come, as we sang Vespers together.

Anne-Katrien, Kigali, Rwanda

How Have Our Activities Developed Over the Past Hundred Years?
                       
Extracts of an article published in the Kinyamateka, newspaper of Rwanda:

     What has got us going, and how did the people of Rwanda fit into our steps? What got us going is evangelisation. Proclaim the Good News of salvation to the people of Africa, this is our charism; this is God’s Gift to the Church of Africa.

      In all the missions where we have worked – Save, Nyundo, Rwaza, Kabgayi, Zaza, Butare, Nyanza, Kigali, Gisagara, Busogo and Kinazi – the first and most important activity was, and still is, to be an apostle, a witness of God, to announce with all our being and our actions the Gospel message of the love of God, according to the strong exhortation of the founder, Cardinal Lavigerie, who told us: “Be apostles, and nothing but apostles!”

      Our first task was everywhere to catechize: teach the Good News of salvation, above all to form and accompany teachers, catechists, at all levels. Today, especially lay people in big numbers, assure this apostolate with zeal.

      Great importance has been given also to the education of young girls. The very first secondary school for Rwandan girls was founded in SAVE in 1939. It was a major event! In 1975, the direction of the school was handed over to the Benebikira Sisters.

      Another accent was put on technical training schools. On 4th February 1952, the domestic science school for middle classes was opened at NYANZA. (Since 1980), the Benebikira Sisters continue up to now to run this school very efficiently. Another school which has undergone a lot of changes is the one of ZAZA. In 1990, the school and the house were handed over to the Benebikira Sisters. Numerous are the mothers who have studied at these schools, and many among them have today high-ranking functions.

      Another very important apostolate has been the care of the sick. As mentioned above, from the beginning, the sisters have been in charge of dispensaries, then of health centres, nutrition centres, maternities, hospital care. In this area of health, it is the Government, which at present, has the supervision of the hospitals and health centres, helped by Rwandan religious sisters and competent lay people.

HOW DO OUR ACTIVITIES CONTINUE TODAY?

      Today, we have handed over most of our activities to the Rwandan people, according to the instruction of our Founder who, from the very beginning, had said: “The missionaries have to be initiators, but the lasting work will have to be done by the Africans, having themselves become Christians and apostles.” At present, we try to see the actual needs as they present themselves: formation of young girls who could not study, ongoing formation of volunteer catechists, formation of postulants, collaboration in the accompaniment of persons who suffer from HIV/AIDS, of those who are traumatised, of widows and orphans, etc.

      Another task, which is primordial for us, is to awaken a missionary spirit in the Church of Rwanda. “You, Africans, you are, from henceforth, your own missionaries”, said Pope Paul VI in Kampala. And Mgr. Kizito Bahujimihigo added: “A local Church is an adult Church when she opens herself up to other Churches, when she leaves her own boundaries to evangelise the others.” Yes, the flame of total consecration to the service of God and the Gospel has to pass into the hands of today’s young Rwandan people, boys and girls alike; this is our greatest desire!

      (…) we also want to give thanks to God for all the gifts, all the graces received during these past 100 years. With gratitude, we will remember all those who have walked this path in bringing the Good News of salvation.

The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa

A Walk through the Archives

OUR ARCHIVES

FROM THE BGINNING UNTIL 1925

      Our Archives are divided into several periods: the first extends from the beginnings of the Congregation up to the end of the first Superior General’s mandate (1925). This is the ancient period, the one that has to do with the beginnings of our History. 

      Our first sisters, not being intellectuals, were not at all concerned about old papers and especially not about keeping them. The idea of keeping their correspondence surely never occurred to them. In the case of Mother Marie-Salomé, at least, the Cardinal having charged her in 1887, not to communicate to anyone the letters he was writing to her, she destroyed them all! (H. O. p. XIV) But Cardinal Lavigerie, our Founder, on his part, had kept all of Mother Marie-Salomé’s letters, as well as the drafts of his answers. After his death, these documents were collected by Fr. Voillard, who was the general representative of both Institutes, Missionaries of Africa and ours. Fearing that Mother Marie-Salomé – in her humility and also her ignorance about the importance of keeping records - might destroy all these papers which witnessed to the important part she herself had had in the development of our Congregation, he kept everything – sealed up, with the mention: “To be returned to the Superior General of the White Sisters when Mother Marie-Salomé is no longer in office…”.  In 1901, when the religious persecution in France made him fear searches and even confiscations, Fr. Voillard sent the precious parcel to one of the White Fathers’ houses in Belgium, for safekeeping.
 

AFTER 1925

THE DIARIES
After 1925, the time when a new Superior General had been elected, Mother St-Jean, who succeeded Mother Marie-Salomé, he restored it
to our Congregation. This stock constitutes the most precious part of our archives. The same White Father obliged our sisters, in April 1893, to write diaries in each community. He asked at the same time our elderly sisters to relate their souvenirs about the origins of our Congregation. More used to handling the hoe than the pen, they wrote, out of obedience, very simple narratives, which now have an unequalled witness value.

      The novitiate diary was begun on 1st May 1886, on a hopeful note: it relates the Cardinal’s visit to St. Charles after the 1885 intention of dissolution and the return from La Bouzaréah, when the Founder announced that he was definitely settling the Congregation at St. Charles (H. O., p. 404). This is the diary, which preserved for us in detail, all the souvenirs of the Founder, his visits to the Mother-House and his instructions to the sisters. Not all the communities were faithful to the injunctions of the Directory concerning writing the ‘Annals’. But from 1894 onwards, all the communities obeyed conscientiously.

      A good many of these handwritten diaries are kept in our archives: simple exercise-books, yellowed, ink faded, damaged by heat and eaten up by termites… Unfortunately, many were not preserved, due maybe to difficult situations, wartimes, etc. Those that remained are a mine of information on the life of the sisters, their activities and surroundings. All of these, noted in scraps of phrases written on the spot, are much more valuable than the printed diaries which underwent more or less important alterations.

OTHER DOCUMENTS
      Year after year, to these initial documents was added everything that can be gathered relating to the life and history of the Congregation, as well as to the sisters’ activities and all that can furnish background information. Here is a listing: Reports from
communities and provinces (annual and/or others), Historical narratives concerning a foundation, an activity or a journey; Official or business correspondence – not personal letters! Historical summaries, diaries, and other notebooks from the communities; Minutes of the General Council; Minutes/Records of General Chapters and Assemblies; Circular Letters; Publications (Sharing Trentaprile, Recollections, Salomé’s and Lavigerie’s programmes), Obituaries; Newsletters of Provinces and Regions etc.

CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
      I don’t know how all those documents were originally kept; but there must have been a certain order already existing at the time when Sr. Marie Lorin introduced, in 1948, the classification system, which is the one I found on my arrival in December 2001. A new period within the classification of documents starts on the occasion of important events such as a new General Chapter, especially when some modifications within the Congregation were adopted (e.g. a new General Council, new structures). Our classification system is comprehensive! To classify the documents according to periods means that files are closed from time to time, which facilitates researches within a certain period of time. I do not have to consult each time all the archival material, which would not only be time-consuming, but also spoil or damage the files in the long run!

      Our classification is decimal, which allows adding new files through simple sub-divisions. By using numbers and not initials of names or abbreviations proved helpful in many ways, especially when countries, places and/or dioceses in Africa began to change their names (e.g. Upper Volta into Burkina Faso, etc.). At times, we receive additional material from our provinces, e.g. documents concerning the foundation of a community, etc. Such documents cannot be placed in their proper place: this would disturb the whole classification system. We decided therefore to register them under what we called “SURPLUS”. Thus, they can more easily be found.

Hildegunde Schmidt, Rome
Sources: Sr. Marie Lorin’s notes

EXPRESSIONS OF THANKS FROM THE NEWLY PROFESSED

… OF BOBO

      « What great joy it is for us to meet you through this little word, expressing all our gratitude. We were so happy to receive all the messages coming from everywhere to support us in our first commitment.

      Many thanks to our elder sisters for being in communion with us through their prayer, encouraging us to attach ourselves to Christ and his mission! This makes our fraternity grow in us.
Heartfelt thanks to our sisters of the noviciate community who gave themselves body and soul so that this feast would be celebrated with a deep joy!     The inter-noviciate choir animated the Eucharist very beautifully. After the Eucharist, we shared a fraternal meal with all who had come to support us; and we danced a lot! It is an unforgettable day for us. Once again, thank you for the very profound messages which helped us recollect ourselves and to offer ourselves to the Lord with joy. May God bless you!  Union of prayers.”

Véronique Mputshila and Marie Ange Ndayishimiye
Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

… OF ARUSHA

      “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” Indeed our hearts are filled with gratitude and joy towards God for his love and mercy shown to us and the Congregation, for the gift of our vocation. The day of our profession was really beautiful and joyful, more than our words can express. We felt it was a sign of hope for our Congregation, for Africa and us. God is ever faithful to his promises.

      This day was so wonderful because of you, our sisters. Your prayers, support, communion with us and your love that accompanied us on this journey have been really overwhelming. The many cards we received from you all, have added to the joy and excitement of that day. We really felt that we are truly sisters. All in all, we are very grateful to you all; thanks very much for all your prayers, wishes and concern from the five of us newly professed sisters here in Arusha. May you continue with the same spirit of being truly sisters for the greater glory of God the Father!

Linah Siabana, Vickness Muleya, Birgitta Gremm,
 Lucy Nabweteme and Malgorzata (Gosia) Poplawska
Arusha, Tanzania

Sharing Trentaprile is published 5 times a year by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, at Viale Trenta Aprile, 15 - 00153 Rome, Italy  -
E-mail: l.pruvost@smnda.org; pruvostlucie@hotmail.com

Editorial staff: Chantal Vankalck (G.C.), Lucie Pruvost (Editor), Madeleine Bédard (computer layout and printing), Hildegunde Schmidt (archivist) - Translations: Doris Gastonguay, Marion Carabott, Maria Pouliot and Father Joseph Hebert, MAfr, L.ucie Pruvost et Hildegunde Schmidt - Mailing: Nicole Robion