Category Archives: Health and Social work

  For Sr. Valérie Kaboré, Hydra Parmentier, Algeria, collaboration takes the form of mutual aid, solidarity, partnership…   I would like to share with you my experience at a day care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related illnesses and their family caregivers. It is a work of the Archdiocese of Algiers which began in 2015. I joined the team in June 2019 and have taken charge of its coordination since 2020. It is the only center of its kind in all of Algeria. The small team is made up of a cook, a speech therapist, a psychologist and three social care assistants. We welcome sick people, members of their families and occasional volunteers during the day. We also open our doors to interns, psychomotor therapists or speech therapists and everyone else. Finally, we have a partnership with health professionals such as doctors (geriatrician-neurologist-psychiatrist), physiotherapists, associations, professionals from other professions…

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    “Mary’s “yes” sparked the first “Hail Mary”; it was with this word that Father Pierre Tequi introduced the Eucharist on the feast of the Visitation in our “cathedral parish” of Ghardaïa, where our entire central sector was gathered for our last Eucharist in the company of Sister Maria Angeles, Pierre Tequi (French Fidei Donum) and Claude Venne (Missionary of Africa) to whom we said goodbye on that day. Mary, eagerly going to meet her cousin Elisabeth, did not know in advance what God was going to reveal to her when she met this woman who, despite her advanced age, also saw the wonders of God.   “How do I have this happiness that the mother of my Savior comes to me?” Yes, when we came to this country, to this region, we did not know in advance everything that God was going to reveal to us about Him,…

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  One of the missions of Butare community is formation of the pre-postulants. Here pre-postulant Maria Ahok Wek, from Uganda, shares her experience of apostolate in a school for the hearing-impaired students.   We are in the pre-postulate at Butare community, Rwanda. This program aims at giving a progressive entry into the formation process of MSOLA religious missionary life. We have many introductory classes which help us know more about the congregation, consecrated life, how to journey together as a group, to be aware of what is taking place within oneself and around us, to know more about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Bible and its origin. We are also introduced and initiated to prayer and community life, Apostolate, Actualization of the Vital Human strengths, how to become a Peace builder, to solve various conflicts in a nonviolent way and many other introductory classes. I am Maria Ahok…

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  From Bobo-Dioulasso Community, Burkina Faso   For us at the novitiate, JPIC-RD is a process of transformation that first touches us personally and then invites us to develop the right relationship with God and with all creation. Day by day, we discover that JPIC-RD begins with ourselves, with why we were created. The principles and foundations of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius help us to deepen our mission on earth. In the novitiate, we insist on a personal relationship with God Triune and with ourselves, in order to live just and peaceful relationships with our brothers and sisters and all other creatures. This is lived out daily in our personal prayer, in our work on ourselves and in all our interactions with people, animals and other creatures. We realize that whenever we are at peace with ourselves and with God, we become peacemakers and witnesses to justice. The…

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  Céline RIHOUX, a young Belgian nurse, volunteered in the community of Gitega, Burundi Bujumbura 9pm: The plane touches down on the tarmac. This is it, after almost a year’s wait, I’ve arrived in Burundi. After a Covid test (does that still exist?!) and the crowds, I meet Sr. Yollande and Roger at the airport. These two formerly virtual friends are now in the real world. After a night’s rest at the PAR (Procure d’Accueil Religieux) and a few zigzagging roads through the magnificent Burundian hills, we arrived in Gitega and more precisely at the home of Srs. Marceline, Maïté, Anastésie and Yollande. As soon as I entered the property, I found myself surrounded by smiles and words of welcome. It was very comforting after a long and tiring journey. Over the next few days, I worked in the dispensary run by the Missionary Sisters of Africa in Gitega. The…

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Le Kapokier Rouge, health center of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, brings hope to the Chadian people and to certain neighboring countries. In this month of grace, we have the joy of sharing with you what is for us a sign of hope as we so often talk about it: “Let us be bearers of hope!” Since May, our sister Monique Pouyez has left France to lend a hand in the construction of a new building at the Kapokier Rouge centre. Today it is completed and we give thanks to God who gave strength to those who contributed to it. After the working time, we organized the inauguration day which took place at the center on 23/11/2022. In gratitude, all the staff rejoiced in this work. In good collaboration and a pleasant atmosphere, they moved to begin work in the two new buildings. The mass and the…

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In 2010 when PROSAMI launched its midwifery training program with the initial group of fourteen Congolese nurses, The congregation of The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA) believed in our mission, stepped in, and became one of our top donors, giving annually significant amount of money to support our activities. We can train more midwives, equipping them with skills to provide safe, higher standard quality care to communities in a low resource setting and thus contributing to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality rate in the DRC. The student midwives from the current group on training expressed their gratitude to you for your support, acknowledging the huge difference you contributed to their professional lives. Kindly find their words of appreciation. Agnes Kanyanya PROSAMI, Founder & Training Coordinator

As part of the love for creation and for the benefits of nature’s gifts, many of our sisters encourage the use of two particularly beneficial trees: Artemisia and Moringa. Artemisia Annua from the large Asteraceae family which also includes tarragon and wormwood, is a plant widely distributed in China. They are plants used for more than 2000 years in traditional Chinese medicine to fight against fevers and viruses. In 2015, Chinese researcher Tu Youou won the Nobel Prize for her research into the effectiveness of Artemisia Annua extracts against malaria. Moringa Oleifera, native to India, thrives in particularly dry and arid soils. In the Nile Valley, Moringa is also known as “Shagara al Rauwaq,” literally “tree that purifies.” Used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine, it gives the power to fight more than 300 diseases, including colds, diabetes, and high blood pressure or to stimulate the immune system. Moringa leaves contain…

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women in delwende spinning cotton

MSOLA community of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) Sr Vickness Nangongo Muleya, MSOLA. In Delwende (Ouagadougou) Sr Vickness Nangogo Muleya, director of the Delwende Center in Sakoula, asked to stay at the center during the pandemic, in order to accompany the rejected women accused of witchcraft and to ensure their protection against Covid-19. The Delwende center welcomes mostly women, but there is also a few men who have been chased from their villages accused of witchcraft. Sr Vickness shares her experience: « I saw their faces light up and at the same time they were surprised that I came to stay with them at this difficult time. They were surprised to see me there the whole day and night but their faces were shining. In my heart it was like a dream and I was in awe of what was happening. The first night I prayed in the hangar because my room was…

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MSOLA Bunamwaya community (Kampala – Uganda) Throughout the year Sr Theopista and the prepostulants have participated regularly in praying the Rosary, the Way of the Cross and in other celebrations and activities in two special plac in our area : at Namugongo Bunamwaya and Lost City (two disadvantaged areas). These are the places where people, especially youth, addicted to drugs and alcohol, live with their families. In collaboration with Mr. Richard Yiga, the leader of laity of the subparish, we aimed at helping them in behavior change. Occasionally one or the other members of the community joined the Group. Only our presence and listening attitude made those people feel accepted, respected and loved. They were proud of having sisters interested in them and participating in celebrations organized by them. At one moment, Theopista participated in the organization of a treatment camp for those who wished to finish with their addictions. It was sponsored by…

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