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.…
“Sister Claire-Michelle, you have been a Link! »
Interview of Sr. Claire-Michelle by Sr. Nicole Robion It was Easter Sunday. Claire-Michelle recounts what she experienced that afternoon. In November 2019, a friend of the “Live and Love” movement, from Palaiseau, told me: “A Syrian family has arrived in Verrières, housed by the town hall. Can you contact them? » I thought to myself that she really had a high idea of what I could do! Did she naively think that I was able to take care of them? The accommodation of the host family was a 15-minute walk from Maison St Charles where I live. I went to see them on December 14, 2019. They were sleeping on mattresses. I found the husband, wife and a little girl of school age and a young child walking on all fours. We spoke in English. He was a journalist in Syria. I invited them to visit us in St Charles.…
Awakening the family Spirit
Collaboration is a process that enables people or individuals to work together to achieve a defined and common objective. Our Ukusijoni Common Project at the service of the refugees from South Sudan is a great and challenging mission. To accomplish this, we are privileged to be part of the team that consists of three Missionaries of Africa and the three of us MSOLA. We were sent together to achieve a common goal in participating in the Mission of Christ among our brothers and sisters now known as refugees. To be able to live this mission in a life-giving way, we got the opportunity to come together as the two institutes to spend some time together in Nairobi and to get some fundamentals that would help us in our ministry. Indeed, we treasured this time of formation. It gave us an occasion to see as a team the vision and the…
Solidarity with refugees
From our sister Kordula in the Karlsruhe community at Haus Lavigerie, Germany I met Nora, a Sudanese woman (not her real name and nationality) three years ago during Advent while baking cookies. She had fled with her family, her husband and her three children. Her fourth child, disabled, was born in Germany. Being able to communicate in Arabic made it easier to get in touch and to be there for the family. In August 2020, Nora came to tell me that the employment center was no longer paying them benefits: accommodation, food, medical care, and a contribution for personal needs. These services are guarantees by a legal residency permit that just expired! As Nora is not fluent in German, it was difficult for her to navigate the bureaucracy. The permit expired because she did not immediately respond to the Immigration Office and did not explain the obstacles, which prevented her…