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…
Advocating for teenage girls’ education in Uganda
Uganda, like all other countries, was very much affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. Among those who suffered the most are the nearly 15 million children and youth who did not attend school for almost 2 years due to the pandemic strict lockdown. Some of its consequences are a big number of early marriages among girls and teenage pregnancies. The government issued a policy allowing all children (pregnant ones included) to go back to school, once it was opened in January 2022. The Church in Uganda saw how much the girl child was affected by the Covid lockdown and her education challenge in post-covid period. At the end of April 2022, I participated in a workshop organized by Africa Faith and Justice Network, Association of Religious in Uganda and John Paul II Justice and Peace Centre, entitled “Education and decent work for all: Address the impact of Covid-19 on teenage…
The creation of a business school
Madeleine Jacqueminet spent more than half a century of her African missionary life in Burkina Faso. A teacher by training, she has done secretarial work and accounting. The years have passed and today she is at the St Charles retirement home in Verrières-le-Buisson, where she has kept her good mood, her dynamism and her joie de vivre… For me, the “All to all” of our founder Charles Lavigerie, began the day I responded to a request from Cardinal Zoungrana (from Ouagadougou), who asked for someone to start a commercial school. There was a lack of secretaries in Burkina. But what to do? I started from NOTHING, I had to find a group of students, equipment, a room, organize everything! My first job was to prepare an entrance exam to select the most suitable girls to start this training. Then I went to see the headmaster of the technical school…
Missionary and vocational animation in Poland
Our Lublin community came to be strongly linked to Africa due to the significant contribution of many sisters who have lived and worked here in Poland. People who desire to know more about Africa, to travel to Africa or to support Africa are referred to us by those who know us. Parishes and even schools within and outside Lublin invite us every year to speak about Africa and our MSOLA charism. We also have an African Museum which attracts different groups yearly. These invitations and visits have been very few for almost 2 years due to the pandemic. However, there is more life and joy since the beginning of this year as we are able to visit schools and receive students in our museum for animation. The joy of meeting children of basic schools so eager to know more about our charism and Africa is so encouraging. We normally begin…
My experience with children on and off the street
BY SR. MARIETTE MACOZI KAPUTA, KINSHASA, DRC When I arrived in Kinshasa three months ago, I received the appointment to work at ORPER (Oeuvre de Reclassement et de Protection des Enfants de la Rue), a structure that welcomes children on and off the street for various reasons. As I welcomed this appointment with joy, I was still apprehensive about how to deal with these children, whom I imagined to be very difficult. To my great surprise, these children welcomed me with open arms and after a few days they were at ease with me as if we had known each other for a long time. They immediately noticed my twisted Lingala and since then, they have not hesitated to make corrections while encouraging me that I will eventually speak well. These children surprised me with their spirit of solidarity and sharing. When there is food, for example, and one of…