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The
MSOLA in Burkina Faso | |
The
Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa have been present in Burkina Faso since
1900. They were the first women catholic missionaries in the country.
They
started schools, hospitals, worked as catechists, forming leaders, animating the
christian communities and founding three religious congregations.
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The
work of the MSOLA in Burkina: | | MSOLA
from Burkina Faso
- Jeanne
d'Arc Ouattara working in Gitega (Burundi)
- Gisèle
Some working in Burkina Faso (Ouaga Cathedral)
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Sr.
Ana Mari Ygeño opens the "ant hills"
whose mixture is ideal to build
the stove.
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Ameliorating
the traditional fire system
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Ana
Mari Ygeño is a Spanish MSOLA . She has worked in Western Africa (Burkina
Faso and Chad). Actually she is in Burkina Faso working with women.
In
an African region where the desert advances each year, to find firewood for cooking
becomes a problem and destroys the few trees remaining. To cope with this problem,
Ana Mari is trying to transform the traditional fire: a pot resting on 3 stones,
a system that consumes a lot of firewood, and loses a lot of heat, for closed
cookers where the burning of the firewood is controlled and the hot air heats
the pot. This reduces in nearly a quarter the consumption of firewood. The
women want to see... They will only be convinced when the method will prove efficient.
Here we see Sr. Ana Mari teaching the women how to build the cooker.
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Sr.
Ana Maria teaches the women how to build the
stove and how to use it. Learning
through experience. | |
Then
they will teach her how to cook one of their traditional meals...
Less firewood means also more time to dedicate themselves to other tasks or to
spend more time for their formation.
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The
sister who help the prisonners to pray
Antonine
Delisle is from Canada and has lived her long
missionary life in Burkina Faso. She has spent
a number ofyears in Bobo Dioulasso and is well
known there because of hergift for reflexology,
through which she has cured manypatients that
had nearly lost hope of being healed, and her
visits to the prison.
For some years, Antonine has been working with
prisoners where she has seen the Spirit of Jesus
at work. She has helped the prisoners to develop
artistic crafts : decorating ball-point pens,
making artistic containers with plastic bags
of different colours…
One
day the bell of the MSOLA house rang once, twice,
three times. A Muslim man was making desperate
signs for attention : "Whom do you want
to see?"
- "I want the sister who helps us to pray
in prison."
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Sr.
Antonine with a sick person.
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"
We understood that he meant Antonine, but the man was very
disappointed to know she had gone out. "I just wanted
to tell her 'thank you' for having kept my hope alive while
I was in prison, and to let her know that I have come out
and that I will not return there. Tell her that Issa has
come to thank her for what she meant for me while I was
there. She kept in me the desire to change..."
Yes,
Antonine is well known in the prison of Bobo-Dioulasso,
where there are about 400 detainees, most of whom are
men and a few women. She has taught them to use the plastic
bags to do all kinds of beautiful handcraft work with
it. They cut the plastic bags, and plat them following
the traditional Burkina drawings to cover different objects:
pens, tins, jars, boxes... They use objects that are thrown
out and they transform them in really beautiful objects.
That gives them something to keep busy, the pride of being
able to do something with their hands, develops their
creativity by inventing new patterns, and allows them
to earn some money for themselves or their families.
For
many of them Sr. Antonine is the one who believes in them
and helps them to be "useful citizens" with
very simple means.
Antonine
tells us what she leaves in her visits to the prison:
"Every
week I visit the prison where we meet for a Gospel sharing
with the priosoners. About thirty people participate. There
are Catholics, Animists and even Muslims who want to know
" Issa " (Jesus), better.
"I
always marvel when seeing to what extent these prisoners
(men and women) are hungry for God, for his message of love,
of peace and of forgiveness. I have noticed how they help
one another to integrate into their lives, one or other
aspect that has made them reflect, after hearing about Jesus.
They relate simply the joy they experienced when doing an
action that was difficult but which was their response to
a discovery of the message of Jesus. Often it is a neighbour
who relates all the good that he noticed in his companion."
"The
atmosphere in this prison has greatly improved. Literacy
classes are given by a detainee and they are followed by
a number of 'students' of all ages.
"I
thank God who allows me to collaborate in his work of salvation.
" Sr. Antonine Delisle
Bobo Dioulasso- Koko
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Sr.
Ana Maria Olmos, visits a family from the Peul tribe, near Dori.
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The handicapped become well-known tailors
in town
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One of the Sr.
Ana Maria Olmos worked a number of years with the handicapped.
They
have learnt sewing, embroidery and other crafts, and they have a
workshop
where they manufacture and sell their products.
They
have bicycles for their displacement and they earn their living.
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| | The
handicapped at the courtyard of their Center. | | | | | |
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Other activities of the sisters
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| Sr. V
éronique Hégron with some girls from Ougadougou, interested in
Missionary life.
The
MSOLA work also with the youth,
animating their groups, initiating
projects. | |
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| A
young MSOLA sister at the river Volta chats with children who have gone to fetch
water. | | |
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The
women of the Delwende Center look after their fields. The Center welcomes women
who for different reasons are accused of witchcraft and their life is at danger
in their village.
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