Safeguarding of minors
Safeguarding of minors is a crucial aspect in our apostolates. Earlier this year, Sr. Justine Akampamya obtained a Safeguarding Diploma from the Gregorian University in Rome. The 5 months course gave her an introduction to the many issues in diverse fields which touch on this topic of safeguarding. She also learned how to apply practically the newly gained competencies and drew up an action plan for the cultural background in Chad. Sr. Justine shares on this. I am glad to have had a training on safeguarding of minors. As daughters of Lavigerie, we are passionate about Justice, peace and integrity of creation. Today, my personal analysis integrates the safety of a human being in “the integrity of creation”. We are a unique creation. The children of this universe are to be raised in an integral manner to facilitate their holistic development. As an educator who spends most of my…
Encounter with the other
Our sister Margaret Kibola from Gumo, Ghana reports from Germany. From 24th August to 7th September, I was invited together with three others from the Holy Cross congregation to visit our partner parish and school in Germany, in the Diocese of Münster. We travelled from Ghana with Turkish Airways and on arrival, discovered that our bags were left in Istanbul. Our hosts communicated with their friends and we had already the first gesture of hospitality by going to a shop to choose what we wanted to wear. It was very touching. Then, my three friends were sent to one family and I was to live in the family of the headmistress of our partner school St. Lambert School. The program was very special as it was to expose us to different realities of parish life, society and school life. We visited many beautiful places and churches. The idea of volunteering is…
Life is beautiful! Let’s live it.
The community of Nouakchott reports on a joyful occasion: The summer camp From July 10 to 27, Sister Elyse Uwanyirigira and her team organized three weeks of activities for the children of the Maison du Quartier and for those studying in other schools. What is unique to this colony is the number of children enrolled: 78! Other children kept knocking on the door after a week of activities, but the limit was reached: sorry, what to do? The supervisors consulted each other and decided to welcome them anyway, because even if they said “no”, a young girl had already said that she was going to sit next to the others and watch what they were doing instead of going home. Three volunteer supervisors, including a retired doctor and a student from the Lycée Français who came with her friend, showed up to lend a hand. Two people passing through…
We gave what we received
Clémentine Mukampabuka, of the Oran community, reports on her participation in this year’s summer camp. The Diocesan Centre Pierre Claverie (CPC) in Oran organized its 16th summer camp in the first half of July. This is a two-week summer camp for children aged 7 to 13. This year there were 60 children and a dozen animators. The children were divided into two main groups: the lions, aged 11 to 13, and the fennecs (desert foxes), aged 7 to 10. These names symbolize the city of Oran, Wahrân in Arabic, which means two lions, and Algeria’s national animal, the desert fox. The children wore these names with pride. There were 5 workshops: drawing, cooking, crafts, games and dance. Everyone had the opportunity to take part in all the different activities. The first week ended on a high note with an outing to a farm called “My Rose”. Roses, a…
Trees as a source of joy and fraternity
Sr Marie Ange, in Nouakchott, Mauritania, joins on a mission to bring trees to schools. Here is her report. On Thursday, 24 November 2022, I woke up when it was still dark to start the four-hour drive to Boghe. I had a cold and was unable to speak, but my heart was full of life. I wanted to finally realise a project developed for almost a year with three young men from the Association Soleil des Enfants: Yahya, Abdoul and Dawda, who were ready with their backpacks. It was cold that morning. Before we left, we made sure that each of us had a bottle of water as the journey was long. One after the other, the three young people said “Bismillah” “In the name of God” and we set off on a beautiful adventure. Along the way, they explained why it is important for them to plant trees.…
Interculturality between generations
Sr Monique Bonami, in the community at the MRS St Joseph in Evere, Bruxelles, shares a story about the pleasures of sharing between young and old. Next to the St Joseph’s Rest and Care Home (MRS) in Evere, north of Brussels, there is an elementary school and happily there are good exchanges between the two structures with intergenerational activities (games, etc.). In the past Sr. Mia had done activities in the school on interculturality, and Sr. Marie-Paule Schiltz and I did some tutoring. For Christmas, the guests of the rest home were invited to the school. This year the religion teacher, Mrs. Sylvie Panneels, organized some Eucharists for the children in our chapel, and all the Residents could participate so about 12 MSOLA were there. I had been with the children in the classes for the preparation and also the Father Chaplain adapted well to the children. …
Youth Forum in Rwanda
Greetings of the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. My name is Marie YEZAKUZWE. I am from Gorero parish, diocese of Nyundo. I arrived in Butare community on the 2nd April 2022 in order to start learning English so that I may be able to start the pre- postulancy. Today, I want to share with you my joy of participating in the Youth Forum. It was in the diocese of Butare, in the parish of Kabgayi. The Forum started on the 17th until the 21st August 2022. This forum gathered all the catholic youth of Rwanda from 9 dioceses. Each diocese was represented and others were following the session through social media. I was touched to see how the Catholic Church cares for the youth. They invited different authorities in the church and in the country in order to share with young people their experience and encourage them to build…
Missionary Saturday 12 November 2022
Although we usually associate November with gloomy moods and grey weather – the home of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (the White Sisters) was recently filled with a very different atmosphere. Enjoying the richness and diversity of cultures, generations and nationalities, we experienced a Missionary Saturday! Amidst the autumn darkness, the Sun shone upon us – Christ, who in the Word of God led us through that Saturday morning. We had the opportunity to feed on Sunday’s Gospel and share it in groups. After a short coffee break with cake, we were introduced to basic knowledge of Poland by our guest, Magda. The presentation of the country’s history, geography, culture, cuisine and other interesting facts about the country was concluded by a series of questions from the participants and a short discussion. An important element of the presentation was the demonstration of how the Catholic faith had…
The Earth is for all… be happy!
Each year in Nouakchott, the “Maison du Quartier” organises a summer camp for 3 weeks. This year’s theme was: “The Earth is for all… be happy! “. This camp aims to help children improve their knowledge by doing several activities with them. This year, we were lucky enough to experience this event because in previous years, it had been cancelled due to Covid 19. The “Maison du Quartier” committee, in collaboration with our community, organised activities that could help these children. There were volunteers who offered to give the children various activities such as: embroidery, crochet, computers, decorating bottles, singing and patchwork. Everyone contributed where they could. We welcomed about thirty children and we put them in groups so that they could participate in all the activities in turn. Through these activities, we taught the children to save nature by recovering and using everything that had to be thrown away,…
Skiknaba
From July 18 to 25, as part of the summer activities for young people and Christian students, our sister Franceline Hien had the joy of leading a training session called “SKIKNABA” with four priests in the diocese of Constantine and Hippo in Algeria. This year more than twenty Christian students took part in this formation activity. There were four workshops: one on knowledge of the Bible, one on the influence of social networks in student life, one on the introduction to the Arabic alphabet and a final workshop on sexuality and Christian life. We started in Skikda from Monday to Thursday morning, then continued to Annaba to finish on Monday morning. I liked the program of the session and the way the workshops were organized. We had four hours each day for the workshops. At the end of a day, each animator had spent an hour with each of the…