February 8, 2024 – St. Bakhita Day
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER AND AWARENESS AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING INTERFAITH PRAYER VIGIL FEBRUARY 8, 2024 – ST. BAKHITA DAY THEME FOR THE YEAR 2024: JOURNEYING IN DIGNITY: LISTEN, DREAM, ACT This interfaith prayer of this year’s International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking is an invitation to integrate the journeying for dignity centered on the four elements of nature. We can offer prayers, reflections, and rituals that honor and connect with the elements of earth, air, fire, water, and metal in listening, dreaming, and taking action in combating human trafficking. For this year’s Vigil of Prayer, we are invited to listen, dream, and act to journey with each person with dignity. We know everything is interrelated and exploitation of people cannot be tackled without a respectful relationship with all creation. Hence, we invite you to reflect on the realities of human trafficking and the five elements of…
Talitha Kum International launched the “Walking in Dignity” application
Sr. Abby Avelino, MM, International Coordinator of Talitha Kum On January 30th, 2024, in the presence of about 300 people, including ambassadors, people from institutions, religious and young people, Talitha Kum International launched the “Walking in Dignity” application. DOWNLOAD THE APP Sr. Abby Avelino, MM, International Coordinator of Talitha Kum, opened the online and onsite event by presenting the goal and features of the app, a project that Talitha Kum members, embassies to the Holy See, and many volunteers have been working on for over a year and a half. The idea is to walk together, especially for and with young people, and engage against human trafficking by feeling involved in prevention, care of persons and empowerment of survivors. The Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, H.E. Frances Collins, emphasized the importance of synergy between the networks and different organizations: Working through networking, with different departments and states, is crucial because this…
Migrate or stay… Epiphany collection
We receive and publish from Pierre Diarra, theologian, administrator of “Aide aux Eglises d’Afrique”, Consultor of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue How fortunate a person is to be able to choose to migrate or stay at home! Do Africans who put their lives at risk trying to cross the Sahara and the Mediterranean choose to migrate or to stay? Do they really have a choice? Often crammed into makeshift craft or boats in poor condition, migrants do not always realize that they are putting their lives at risk. Political, economic and religious leaders in Africa and Europe don’t always dare answer the question: why are so many young people risking their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean? People who leave their country often do so against their will. They flee a country at war, unemployment, distress or poverty, in an attempt to “save their skin” or improve their living…
The most beautiful day!
Sister Nicole Robion in the community of Sceaux, France, shares her apostolate with migrant women. In 2012, the CORREF (Religious Conference of France) was looking for volunteers for the “Champs de Booz” Association, created in 2003 to support and accompany single women, seeking asylum. It really touched my heart because I was looking for an activity on my final return to France and half of the women contacting the Champs de Booz come from sub-Saharan Africa. No greater happiness than staying in close contact with Africa! In 2017, the chapter specified that one of the apostolic orientations is the accompaniment of migrants. This made me feel joy and confirmation of the call perceived on my arrival in France. Bearer of Hope, the Lord gives this to me and the women tell me this with their faces all lit up when I greet them in their language: Dioula or Fulani!…
Born of the Spirit
(left to right) Br. Mwansa Rodgers, Fr. Drani Felix, Sr. Linah Siabana, Fr. Konseimbo Karim. In front, Sr. Magdalena Orczykowska and Sr. Julienne Bouda – wearing the jackets of the Ukusijoni Refugee Team. Our new community in the North of Uganda makes us directly participate in bringing into reality our congregational dream and desire of opening new missions, going towards the peripheries and collaborating with the Missionaries of Africa. As a thanksgiving act for 150 years of our existence, united as sons and daughters of Cardinal Lavigerie, we initiated a new common project at the service of the refugees thus directly implementing one of our apostolic orientations: Migration, refugees, and internally displaced persons. Due to prolonged insecurity in South Sudan, DRC and Ethiopia, Uganda is a host country to over 1 million refugees thus becoming the country with the biggest number of refugees in Africa. Listening to the voice…
Bearers of hope in Karlsruhe, Germany
Sr. Elisabeth Biela joined the community of Karlsruhe in November 2020. As leader, she had accompanied the community, but the concrete apostolate was new for her: getting to know the laws concerning the displaced persons, the organisations like Caritas, Diakonie (the protestant Caritas) and Justice Project, persons with whom to network etc. Here she shares her experience. “Soon I was asked to accompany a Yazidi family from Iraq who were at risk to have to leave the country. Their problems are not yet solved, but they moved into a flat and feel at home. It is a real challenge to understand the complicated letters of the German administration, fill in papers, accompany them to offices and even find a job. But it is a great joy for all of us, when things work out. Sr. Kordula Weber has organised a German class for Arabic speaking women in our house, the…
A meeting that awakens our charism
While on vacation for a few days with the Poor Clares, I received a request from my friend, the mother abbess: “Marie-José, I need you. I have just had a phone call from Secours Catholique who will accompany a young African girl who will be staying with us for a day or two.” The young African arrives. She lives in the same hallway as me. At one point, I walk past her room, see her door wide open. She is sitting on the bed and rummaging through her backpack. Beside her, the unfolded sheets. ” Can I help you? We’ll make the bed together.” She warmly thanks: “I did not know this method of making the bed”. Then she tells her story: “I am an orphan–no father and mother. I lived with my grandfather and went to school until my grandfather died. There was no one left to pay and I…
Woman of faith and hope meeting the refugees
Sr. Agathe Mukamuligo, Lilongwe community (Malawi) Who are they? Where do they come from? Where are they going? They are men and women, young people and children who live as a family, not having their own family nearby. There are many widows and single mothers. They come from the Great Lakes countries in Central Africa, and are now in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in the Dowa district of Malawi. Where are they going? They are here, waiting for a host country or continent. Most dream of the USA, Canada, Australia and Sweden. They form the community of life and faith of St Ignatius of Loyola. They have the right to refugee status, but some of them have been waiting for a long time: 21 years for some, 20 years for others, 5 years, 3 years or 1 year for the last arrivals. And they continue to arrive. Although they have…
Face to face with human suffering
By our community in Ukusijoni, Uganda In our common project in which we collaborate closely with the Missionaries of Africa, we are at the stage of needs assessment, and we have just finished in one of the refugee settlements. We go to the refugee settlements and meet people, listen to them through group discussions, home visits, interviews and questionnaires. It is a very enriching and necessary time. We have an opportunity to discover with details the reality in which the refugees live, their struggles, pains as well as their aspirations and hopes. However, at the same time, it is a challenging experience as we meet face to face with real human suffering. The most heart-breaking sharing is about the lack of food: reduced ratio given by the UN, rocky place or no land where to cultivate for oneself, crops destroyed by cattle… many find themselves in a hopeless situation. There…
Youth in action in the Refugee Camp in Dzaleka, Malawi
By Sr. Agathe Mukamuligo, Lilongwe, Malawi I have seen and I witnessed it. I was at the service of the Catholic Community of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It was an experience from January to May 2022.The general situation of the Church in the Refugee Camp: Why the Catholic Community of Loyola? There are three Catholic communities in the camp. We belong to the Catholic community of St. Ignatius of Loyola served by the Jesuit Fathers. At first, it was one community, but now there are three! I found myself in this reality of the Church where we try to practice our faith, thanks be to God. The situation of many of the young people: They were born and raised in the refugee camp. Most of them came from Tanzania and were transported to Malawi. These young people, members of the Catholic community of St. Ignatius of Loyola, are very committed.…