In the December 2006 editorial, the General Council recalled the “Objectives of the Millennium Campaign”, with a powerful heading – “God is coming: the cry of the poor at the core of our life”. That appeal should retain an effective place in our memory and even be integrated into the life of each one of us, whatever our situation. Moreover, is it not one of the essential criteria for our various undertakings and especially for those which, since the 2005 chapter, we have called “our own projects” - visible situations, certainly, but also serving the smallest and poorest?
Let’s remember! Because of political, social and ecclesial circumstances, we have lived almost everywhere in Africa, over quite a long period of professional commitments outside the congregation. A number of us have worked, or are still working in state or Church institutions, schools, hospitals, social welfare, etc. Gradually, it has become apparent that these involvements, while corresponding to our charism for Africa, for women and for the poor, risked locking us into a degree of discretion unhelpful to our visibility as MSOLA.
In observing this, the 2005 capitulants insisted on the fact that we are all concerned with the vitality of our charism. Then they reflected, under the heading of MVA, on the usefulness of having “our own projects”. It would be necessary for “one or several sisters to have an apostolate, which would enable those who approach us to see, in concrete terms, what constitutes our mission and our charism, and what our priorities are. In this sense, it would be useful to have ‘a project of our own’, which would allow us to welcome young women and enable them to see how we live the priorities of our charism” (C.A.2005, p.64). In June 2006, the Inter-provincial chapter ofAfrica meeting in Nairobi studied this question. It relied on a strongly suggestive synthesis from the provinces of Africa, listing 24 of “our own projects” (existing or possible), according to provinces. Among the criteria, let us highlight the possibility of integrating young people and a visibility identifying the MSOLA.
Here today, Sharing Trentaprile presents you with four of these “projects”, each one taken from one of the four former provinces now regrouped into the single province of Africa. Two of these projects are concerned with children – a kindergarten in Gumo (Ghana) and a nursery school in Arusha (Tanzania). Another deals with patients, most of them afflicted with AIDS, in the Care centre in Gitega (Burundi). The fourth project aims at another kind of public, namely university teachers and students in a university library in Oran (Algeria).
The history of the congregation wins the favour of a number of readers, as is shown by the spontaneous collaboration of one reader, who recounts the beginnings of the mission in Burundi, 100 years ago. “Awalk through the archives” also allows us to show the first steps taken outside St-Charles by our first Geronomite sisters, between 1872 and 1894, and how they gave birth to the predecessors of “our own projects”.
We also have to share with you something of what has been happening at the Generalate House during the last three months. First, there was the handover from one general treasurer, Pilar Navarro, to another, Francine Maas, which was marked by two celebrations: one was “official”, organised by the general Council, the other more of a community celebration. And let’s not forget the rejuvenating effect on the community of the presence nearby in Villino of the 2006 Juniorate. The three participants provide us with an echo of it.
Finally, you will find, as usual, various communications and information provided by the general secretariat. Good reading, everyone!
Lucie Pruvost, Rome
“Our Own Projects”
TAMAHA, A KINDERGARTEN IN GUMO
Beginnings
When I arrived in Gumo in September 2002, the kindergarten of Tamaha, “Hope” in Dagbanli, was only in its earliest stages. It involved converting the Resource center project, which was initiated by Maricruz Torrès in particular. Tamaha has been created with the agreement of the village’s authorities. Since the construction at the beginning of 2001, the buildings were used in the morning to gather the pre-school-age children together and give them the rudiments of English and some basic knowledge in different fields. They formed a single group of around thirty.
In September 2002, they were separated into two groups. A postulant, Vinolia Ayivor, and our gardener, Idrissu, taught them, although they had had no previous training. After spending the first few months learning Dagbanli, I tried to give them some guidance once a week on teaching methods, preparation and class management.
Later on, I spent some time in the classroom with them. It was a completely new project, without precedent, which was a challenge for me. I had trained and worked as a primary school teacher, but felt inadequate at nursery school level. And the education system in Ghana is different from that in my native Brittany! That was where creativity came in, combining all kinds of materials with imagination and requests for ideas and advice in order to “inculturate” at local level the mission entrusted to me. I went to visit several kindergartens and collected their programs, since there was no official one. I made some mistakes and learned from them (not enough scholar training, I had the image of a French type of nursery school, in which one only really begins at primary stage to develop other faculties in view of preparing them for the kindergarten).
The creation of a project requires the establishment of contacts with the surrounding area, connections with other similar projects and a spirit of initiative and creativity, willingness to adjust constantly, openness to the community, self-confidence, all qualities good to discover and develop! I sometime felt myself lacking in these abilities, not knowing which way to approach things and lacking in organization… I learned to progress slowly, accepting my limitations, entrusting myself to the Spirit, and finding encouragement in the experience of my older sisters, many of whom had been through the same kind of situation. I still have a long way to go. I don’t believe we shall ever have finished and I appreciate greatly the help of my sisters through their questions, challenges and advice.
Ways of working
Having a “project of our own” is certainly also a financial investment, since the whole material side of it is in the congregation’s hands. But our experience in Gumo is that friends, acquaintances and sometimes even strangers are interested in our project, “the sisters’ project”, and display great generosity in their gifts, both in kind and in money. In 2003, the secondary school pupils organized a collection of materials for the children in Tamaha whom they had come to know through the Internet! I think children are also a group who arouse people’s interest and, through them, we are serving the future of the whole population.
In “our own project”, choices of internal ways of working are open to us, and this allows us to reflect the spirit of our congregation. At Tamaha, in the relationships with the parents and the children, through the spirit of fraternity and forgiveness which we try to develop, it is my faith in the Love of Christ that I want to share, my conviction that everyone is a child of God, with His presence indwelling, full of talents to be developed. In the case of a school, we are free to choose the teachers. For the time being, our kindergarten is not registered as part of the Public or Catholic Education System. That deprives us of the benefit of some training sessions offered to teachers and some financial donations. But in Ghana, it is only this year - 2005/06 - that two years of nursery school have been integrated into the school curriculum and it is only recently that a syllabus for kindergarten has been published. However it is “recognized” in the District Education Office since April 2006 (number of children, teachers, ages...), it will allow us to benefit from the visits of supervisors. We pay the teachers ourselves from the Apostolic Fund. New laws (2005) make the official registration more complicated; it can only be obtained if the kindergarten is attached to a primary school.
Since we are in charge, it is also easier to organize ourselves and to adapt to other appeals from the mission. Dates of opening and closing can sometimes be brought forward or put back or a teacher replaced by another person, etc. That was the case when some postulants were taking one of the classes. They had several formation sessions during school hours. The same was true for me: we made adjustments when I left for Algeria and also when I was on leave. Certainly, one of the advantages is the fact that this project is a “launching pad” for the younger sisters. It was for me too - and I am still learning a great deal - and for several of the postulants. When aspirants spend a few days with us, the project is also interesting for them in providing a way of living our charism and sharing in it.
In touch with the population
For me, the fact that this is a kindergarten, and right next door to our house, provides a privileged means of being in touch with the population. Through the children, we are in contact with the families. We can transmit knowledge to the pupils, share our own knowledge with them, but also help them to grow in all dimensions of their being, awakening them to the presence of God and teaching them how to live together. For the youngest children, this is their first group experience. Education is a foundation stone of a person’s life. What they acquire at the earliest age helps to form their social, intellectual and spiritual being. It is also a preventive process. Educated young people escape less easily into destructive temptations to make their living or to give their lives meaning. But three years’ experience has proved to me that the kindergarten must be followed by a solid primary education. The provision is there but it remains fragile. We do not have a good primary school nearby. I notice that the children are regressing in their ability to speak English fluently. All their knowledge should be consolidated in the first years of primary school, which form the foundations of the whole schooling process.
I find lots of joy in this mission; children are eager to learn, to discover their capacities; we are growing through each other, they and I!
Véronique Hégron, Gumo, Ghana
A UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IN ORAN
A whole history
The library we have in Oran has a whole history. Listen to what we were told by the first sisters who moved into “Cayla Square”, where the library remains to this day.
“In October 1964, three of us sisters were sent to Oran and we moved into a bigger flat, which was more accessible for girls…. In the house, the superior gave courses several times a week to around ten illiterate girls and young women. A small library, concentrating mainly on the topics of women, Africa and Islam, provided reading material for students at the Teacher Training College, secondary school pupils or volunteers who wanted to know more about Islam. Some ten girls from the secondary school came to work or to hold discussions in the library which had some regular subscribers. St Marguerite Tortel often passed books on to the student teachers. They and the school pupils came to look for reading material prescribed in their courses, which was difficult to find in the other libraries…..”
Changes occurred
The circumstances have changed and the community no longer lives on the premises. It is located in the town centre, some ten minutes’walk from the flat in the “Square”. Some adjustments were necessary to create more space. The library owes its current image to these efforts and to the fourteen years’ work by Agnès Genevrois, who passed the responsibility on to Danuta Kmieciak, who has a training as librarian.
Today, it is all computerised, open to university students, girls and boys, and specialises in literature, languages and psychology. Five hundred teachers and lecturers are members paying an annual subscription. The context is almost exclusively Muslim, with a few people from other religions. Islam is the religion of the majority of Algerians.
Respond to the needs
The aim is to respond to the needs of academics, students, teachers, lecturers, and graduates looking for employment, as well as those of other readers. It must be understood that the market price of books is beyond the pocket of most of the subscribers.
In response to requests and to take account of expressed needs, we give language courses in French, English and Spanish. We intend also to offer an introduction to computers.
Two years ago, we also used to have a literary club studying a specific author. It promoted some interesting discussions, mainly
about Maghreb literature. The experience proved to be very enriching but, because of the shortage of volunteers to organise and lead it, it is currently in abeyance. We remain open, however, to any initiatives capable of encouraging Maghreb literary and cultural activities.
Permanent presence
These activities require a permanent pre_sence maintained by different individuals. Clémentine Mukampabuka,MSOLA, who has been four years in temporary vows, devotes 29 ½ hours a week to the library and has been in charge since September 2006. She succeeded Danuta Kmieciak who, having been appointed regional in Maghreb, will continue to attend to the purchasing of books and keep the accounts. She also remains available, when we need her, in connection with matters affecting the good functioning of the library.
Another MSOLA, Valérie Kaboré, who has been three years in temporary vows, also plays an important part. A Russian laywoman married to an Algerian, Mme Natalia Korchi, has worked with us for six years and gives 14 hours a week. We also work closely with the community of Marist Brothers - Xema, a Spaniard, provides three hours a week of courses in Spanish; Arturo, a Mexican, offers an introduction to informatic technology for 2 ½ hours a week; Jean-Marie, a Frenchman, gives French courses. An Algerian, Mme Aïcha Chiikh, who is a retired English teacher, gives three hours of English tuition a week, while Mme Galina Missoum, another Russian married to an Algerian, gives three hours a week on computers technology.
Funding
We also have to think about funding, which has to cover allowances for all the staff, including the MSOLA engaged in the library, the rent, and the purchase of books and other materials. Help from Misereor and the annual subscriptions cover these costs.
We have no particular procedures to follow in relation to the local authorities but, since we are in a flat owned by the congregation, we pay the communal charges and take part in meetings with owners and tenants to ensure the good management of the block.
At “the sisters’house”
The library affects our community life, in the sense that each one’s experience is part of the common mission. Moreover, the library’s location, not far from our community, enhances the visibility of our commitment. It should be said that all those who come to see us know that it is “the sisters’ house”. So, even in a country where it is practically impossible, as foreigners, to find paid work, we can offer an involvement to new sisters or other people who want to work with us.
We can also practise this collaboration by going to see individuals who are, or wish to be involved in associations or other activities, something which take us beyond the limits of our usual duties. All this can be further enhanced by connections and friendships formed in the library itself. It is also thanks to the library that we are in touch with Algerian writers, through reading their works or attending various conferences.
Clémentine Mukampabuka, Oran
MSOLA PROJECT – KINDERGARTEN IN ARUSHA, TANZANIA
“St. Simon Nursery School” is the name of this “Msola Project”. It has three classes; baby class is called “Lavigerie”, middle class, “Marie-Salome”, and top class, “St. Simon”.
Brief History of the project
The Nursery School was started in 1997 by the parishioners for the children around, so as not to go far distances. From the beginning, one of our sisters, Sr. Theresia Schmitt, was in charge of the administration especially the finances and the supervision, and in 2003 Sr. Gisela Schreyer took over from Theresia. The school was at the verge of collapsing due to few children and the unfaithfulness to pay the school fees. With the help of Birgitta Gremm who had training for Nursery School and her own efforts, it improved very well both in teaching and discipline. In May 2005, Harriet joined for teaching and in view of taking over from Birgitta.
Goals/Objectives
- To help the children of our surrounding and to provide a good start in school education
- To help the children from poor families and to help them have healthy relationship with one another and to know God
- Welcoming children from different denominations and foster good relationship among them
- Use of non-violence way to teach the children and learning through playing
School's interaction with the local authorities
The school representative of all the parents (chairman board of governors) is the local chairman for the village. He helps us well in making consultations and having meetings with the parents.
How many of us are involved?
We are two involved: Harriet Kabaije, 31 years, for teaching and administration, first year of profession; Hortencia Sizalande, 33 years, six years of profession, for teaching. At large the whole community is involved for instance, Gisela Schreyer and Pierrette Renaud look after the supervision of the building; Akeza Hagos, 43 years, helped in teaching for 9months. There is a lot of support and collaboration as a community since we are sure that this is our MSOLA project (a treasure in our hands). Other personnel are Tanzanians: Sabina John, teacher, Kesia Alfred, cook.
Open to all
The school is located in the village near the parish and our community .It is for all the people no matter of religions. We have children from the Lutheran Church, Assemblies of God, Catholic and Pentecostal Church, and once we had a Moslem. At least 20 children would be for sponsorship, and this year we had only 10. These children helped by our congregation are mainly poor, with single parents - either father or mother died - or from poor family situation.
I have already mentioned how the whole community gets involved in our project and each one feels the contribution of each other according to each one's capability. Our own visibility is the support and help from one another, working together as sisters and
sharing of what happens in the school. It is interesting how each one of us participates especially during the graduation feast for children. A real indication of a family spirit which our ancestors Marie Salome and Lavigerie wished for us to have.
Harriet Kabaije, Arusha
THE GITEGA CARE CENTRE - “A PROJECT OF OUR OWN”
Beginnings and evolution
When we arrived at Nyamugari, a district of Gitega, the people of the district, on hearing that I was a nurse, asked us to open a Care Centre. But because of the proximity of Gitega Hospital and other Care centres, the provincial Council had not foreseen this. In fact, it was the events which prompted us to set up medical facilities in that area.
The first treatments were provided in our own house in 1993. Later on, AIDS took root in that working class district. In order to receive patients, we converted a local building, which very quickly became too small. Then we bought a plot of land and proceeded to renovate the buildings. Thus, in February 2005, the “Nyamugari EPC Care Centre” was opened – a “project of our own” agreed by the Province (EPC stands for ”Equipe de Prise en Charge des Séropositifs” - Team Responsible for HIV positive Patients).
The Care centre is situated in a working class area of the town, with a Muslim majority. We treat a lot of Muslims, Protestants from different Churches, some Catholics, staff from the parish and beneficiaries of the parish CARITAS, war and AIDS orphans, as well as other children from the FVS (Family to Defeat AIDS).
The opening of the new centre coincided with a strike at Gitega Hospital. Around that time, some people began to arrive; they previously would have been afraid to come for treatment, fearing that it was a centre designed for “people living with HIV/AIDS”. We treat patients from Gitega and the surrounding hills. We also treat the poorest people, who have scarcely any money with them, on the basis that they could pay later.
The increase in the numbers of patients naturally led to an increase in staff and changes in organisation. We instituted a new system of recording and maintaining patient registers. We also established a small pharmacy and made bags for carrying the medicines.
Involved in this service
We are two MSOLA involved in this service – Jeanne d’Arc Ouattara, aged 37 and four years professed, and Felisa Garcia Galàn, aged 67 and 42 years professed. We both share the management of the centre, the co-ordination of activities, finance, etc.
There are seven other people in our team:
Two nurses are responsible for patient consultations, dressings, home care for serious cases and other duties appropriate to their qualifications.
A nursing assistant is responsible for thrice-weekly nutritional rehabilitation of children, giving talks on health and nutrition to mothers and guardians, etc. and weighing children. She also conducts consultations and helps for the reports. .
Another woman, along with one of the mothers, prepares food for malnourished children, attends to the surgical materials and areas, makes up and fills the medicine bags, and carries out various other tasks.
A young man is mainly in charge of the pharmacy and the distribution of medicines to the patients. He also helps with purchasing.
A girl welcomes the patients, distributes patients’ records, accepts payments and keeps the register up to date.
The seventh member is a girl who is interested in our vocation. She had come to Gitega to get to know us better. She provides the service to the malnourished three times a week, substitutes in the pharmacy and other services, and makes some home visits, etc.
To these have been added, for the last three years, some young African MAfr. aspirants, who come to carry out part of their apostolate at the centre. This year, there are seven of them, one of whom is a nurse. Two of them come for two afternoons a week and the others for two or three hours a day. They help in all kinds of ways.
Activities
The centre’s activities are divided between treatment and nutritional rehabilitation.
The treatments concern various categories of people – patients in general and people living with HIV/AIDS, both at the centre and, for serious cases, at home. To these are added exceptional hospital admissions, especially in day-time, follow-up of patients admitted to Gitega Hospital, psycho-social responsibility for HIV/AIDS, and pre-and post HIV test interviews. We also work to prevent “opportunistic” infections (illnesses that can be incurred or developed by the individual because of the weakness of his/her immune system). On two afternoons a month, we meet with all the HIV/AIDS patients for the distribution of bactrim, sometimes providing material help, giving talks or showing videos, which can help them to live positively and avoid infecting other people - not forgetting the follow-up of patients receiving anti-retroviral treatment and anonymous HIV/AIDS patients and carrying out home visits.
As for nutritional rehabilitation, it is for malnourished children, of whom there are many around us. They are mainly very young children – some of them orphans, some not – whose weight is well below normal. We see them three times a week for studying their situation as regards nutrition and they are given nutritional support.
Various projects connected with the centre
But that isn’t all. Mention should also be made of various projects connected with the centre.
For the fourth year in succession, Caritas Ireland, “TROCAIRE”, is funding a school’s project for children and young people. The beneficiaries of this project are the children of HIV-positive parents, children with HIV, orphans and other “vulnerable” children. This year, we expect to provide schooling for 210 children and young people at primary and secondary levels and to support 70 of the poorest families through Activities which bring Resources (AGR). For 2006/07, 10,000 Euros have been granted.
Cases of malaria are very numerous in Burundi, and Gitega is not spared. Cases of resistance to anti-malarial drugs are common. In order to combat this curse, and recognising that “prevention is better than cure”, I prepared a project for purchasing mosquito nets. A German women’s organisation gave us some help, which made it possible to distribute 800 nets.
Finally, for three years, we have been receiving the bactrim necessary for HIV/AIDS, thanks to a project which WHO agreed to with the National Committee for the Fight Against AIDS (CPLS). But we have subsequently had to purchase it. In January 2006, I presented a little project to the Provincial Committee for the Fight Against AIDS. This project enabled 136 HIV-positive patients to receive their daily medication for three months. Since then, we ourselves have continued to buy the necessary bactrim.
Financial sources
Finance for the Centre comes from several sources. The principal part is help in kind from the Northern France branch of the Order of the Knights of Malta. To this are added contributions from the MSOLA apostolate fund, various donors and the National Committee for the Fight Against AIDS (CNLS). Those patients who are able to do so also make their contribution.
Visibility
As for visibility, there really is some. This project gives young people who wish to spend some time with us but who live far away, the chance to come and see us, so as to get to know us better. In this way, they can discern their vocation and, at the same time, earn a little money to help their families. It also enables us get to know them better and assist them in their search. This “project of our own”, therefore, creates a situation which gives the possibility of awakening vocations.
Felisa Garcia Galàn, Gitega
FROM ONE TREASURER GENERAL TO THE OTHER -
RELAY TRANSFER
At the Generalate, on 16 December 2006, took place the official transfer of one treasurer general, Pilar Navarro, to another, Francine Maas. This transfer had been in preparation for some time now. Francine had left her beloved Tanzania in September 2003 to learn French in Paris. She arrived here in Rome, in March 2004, to familiarise herself from Pilar, with the art and the secrets of her future responsibility. The work was not totally foreign to her. Had she not already been involved with similar tasks in her own diocese?
As for PILAR, the page was really turning. It had to, after more than ten years of a service not of all tranquillity. She had herself taken over from Johanna van der Heijden, the relay taking place from one generation to another. The serious task undertaken for the installation of the Generalate in Rome had not been completed. There remained the completion of dependencies dug out from under the garden, a garage, other annexes, and more especially the laying out of a chapel which would replace the temporary one in one of the guest rooms. All of this not only entailed meetings on the spot with architects and contractors, but also many administrative undertakings. In Rome, as in other cities, we may not just build what we want where we want it.
Some festivities had been foreseen for this transition. There was first of all the official ceremony of handing over prepared by the general Council, one which was both simple and solemn inserted in a time of prayer. It was thus that Pilar had received the mandate of the faithful steward reported in the gospels: "The one trustworthy in small things will be trusted with greater". And then the call: "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit." Thus it is that, in turn, the Master "will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them."
As for FRANCINE, she first listened to Piluca reading the passages from the Constitutions related to the charge of the treasurer general. Then, Pilar was invited by the general Council to give to her the vade-mecum containing the fine points of the different aspects of the treasurer general's office. This 'aide-memoire' (memorandum) is quite symbolic as well as being very useful for gradually 'soaking up' the details and doing her job well.
After this, in a short dialogue filled with fraternal affection, Pilar encouraged Francine, and Francine recalled Pilar's attitudes in the exercise of her function. Let us retain the love for the congregation, love of her mission and all the sisters, her availability, her wisdom, all of these qualities essential for such a service. The last element of this rite o f passage, was the reading of the minutes of this transfer, and its signing by each of the members of the GC and by the two principal 'actors'. One imagines the round of applause from all present that followed. Then Piluca received her sending into a new stage of her life. Finally, crowning it all, came an aperitif and festive meal!
Two days later, on the 18th, it was the community's good-bye to Pilar. This started at the end of the morning with a special prayer of joy and thanksgiving. "Are we sad in the separation? No, because we are sending you, Pilar, to continue rejoicing in the service of the Lord". Songs, Scriptures, Constitutions and Capitular Acts alternated to illustrate in deep thanksgiving, the different qualities of the heroine of the day, already enumerated on the 16th by Francine. It concluded with Pilar's sending by Piluca:
"The Lord now entrusts to Pilar
the listening to his Word
to always better serve and live the dialogue
with the believers of Islam."
Once again, aperitifs and a festive meal...But that was not all since the afternoon and the evening were given over to watching a pre-showing of a DVD, a film "Le grand silence" (the Great Silence) - the first public release being only on 20th December. We wanted to offer Pilar, in a last community encounter, this long spectacle of almost three hours. With her, we were transported into the silence of the Great-Chartreuse, monastery suspended on the flanks of the Alps in the region of Grenoble in France, and reputed for its austerity and the rigour of its cloister. Thus it is that with few words, together we visited this place of silence and majestic beauty, gradually discovering the invisible into which the producer of the film wanted to introduce its spectators.
And, then! It is thus that we gave to Pilar her new route and welcomed Francine in her new responsibility.
I shall walk under a too heavy sun,
In a torrential rain or in the tornado.
Walking, the sun will warm my heart...
The rain will turn my deserts into a garden.
By using out my shoes,
I shall use up my habits.
I shall walk, and my walk will be a new approach.
I shall go, not so much to the end of the road,
But rather to the end of myself.
I shall be pilgrim.
I shall not only go on a trip,
I shall myself become the journey, the pilgrimage.
Poem by Jean Debruyne
Thank you Pilar, and welcome Francine!
Lucie Pruvost
ECHOES OF THE JUNIORATE 2006
We – Jeanne d’Arc Ouattara from Burundi, Laurence Huard from Mauritania and Véronique Hégron from Ghana - had the joy of spending three months in Rome on the occasion of our juniorate. This powerful time of deepening of our being and mission as MSOLA has reinforced our attachment to Christ and our sense of belonging to the congregation. Today, we feel re-energised and again choose this life until death. In the opening ceremony, we presented our apostolic project and our aspirations for this period of our life through the symbol and dynamics of weaving.
HOW ARE WE TO LET OURSELVES BE WOVEN AND SHAPED?
At the beginning, the foundations on which our consecration was based were presented - the religious life and the vows. Sister Marie-Luce Baillet, a Marianiste, introduced the vows to us from a new angle. By creating us in His own image, God has blessed us with three dynamics which will enable us to achieve self-realisation: “Bear fruit –multiply – subdue the earth”. These are our desires to possess, to love and to decide. The vows are given to us in order to direct our desires, which have been misdirected by sin, towards Life. We kept returning to this essential means of our religious life throughout the juniorate. With Marie-Luce, we unwound in energetic ball games during the breaks! At the end, we offered her the “ten commandments of religious life”, the fruits of what she had given us.
The human maturity, which had been deepened in that session, reverberated in the one that followed, which was on Interculturality, led by Marie-Alice Terrettaz and Bijundi Bashige. We discovered that we are marked by values and counter-values received in the family. They have shaped us and they influence our community and apostolic relationships. The iceberg, the cycle of evangelical life, high and low context, the rules of respectful communication…are so many tools received to adapt us continuously and make our differences a source of richness in the service of our common mission. Even with four of us, (Maïté Oiartzun joined us for the first three sessions), the discussions would have been limited by the fact that we are all of the same generation. So we very much appreciated the participation of our sisters from the general house, who came to enrich some of the discussions.
In the same way, the session on Non-violent Communication reminded us that self-knowledge is essential if we are to manage conflicts, take part in negotiations and struggle against injustices etc, in a Gospel-based way. Our animator, Fr Guy Theunis M.Afr., confided in us by sharing his personal experience. His interactive method prompted us to search our own depths for the sources of our reactions. These in-depth and genuine sharings were offered during our Eucharists. They created moments of powerful communion in Christ and with the world.
Then came further deepening of the vow of poverty and of our membership of a Body, through the session on Responsible Management given by our sister Daphne Alphonso. A trawl through the Bible enabled us to rediscover ourselves as stewards of this world’s goods. “All that we are, all that we receive and use is at the service of the mission”. (Const. No. 135). We were made aware of the importance of keeping in mind the aim of our consecrated life – namely, the mission of following Christ, who took the option for the poor. Since then, we reflect before giving “our assent” ! (Isn’t that so, Daphne?)
The following week, Annemie Hens helped us to reflect on this Mission entrusted by the Church to our congregation. She placed it in the context of globalisation and gave us its history and theological foundations. After observing Jesus living His mission, we shared a lot about our own apostolic experience. How are we to draw out the priorities of the mission today by bringing our charism up to date? That is what we reflected on together. Annemie’s experience in the Arab- Muslim world provoked a sharing of our different experiences in contacts with Islam. That enabled us to feel again the importance of our presence as MSOLA on the lines of fracture, as women of encounter, women of acceptance and dialogue, women who dare to “put forward their faith”, while respecting the faith of the other, so as to build the Kingdom. That is what we want to become. In our enthusiasm for her intervention, we appointed her a “doctor of the Church” and awarded her the “stethoscope of globalisation”!
The final session resonated with the first. The whole approach of the juniorate culminated and came together in the deepening of our Constitutions and Capitular Acts. Suzy Hadermann, “a woman with a heart of fire”, retracing the human history of our Constitutions as a text inspired by the Spirit, put “living water” to our lips! Through that heritage, we read the vows again, this time bringing to them our identity as MSOLA, women/disciples/apostles, religious and missionaries for Africa, no matter where we are. Our whole experience of the temporary vows became adjusted to the “weave” of the congregation. We were discovering how our writings also shape us – “Did not our hearts burn within us, when he spoke to us on the road?“
In our retreat which followed, Suzy invited us to follow Christ in the light of our Constitutions, contemplating Jesus and offering Him the experience of these three months. We allowed Him to love us, speak to us and send us “into Galilee”, where he goes ahead of us. “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you: may they have my joy in them and may their joy be complete” (Jn 17).
The richness of these sessions was complemented by time for relaxation, socialising, walks by the sea, social evenings, discovering Rome, and pilgrimages in the footsteps of St. Francis at Assisi and St. Benedict at Subiaco, with our brothers, the Missionaries of Africa.
We are happy to have been able to experience the juniorate near to the general house, meet the sisters of the general Council, become aware of the importance of the mission of our sisters engaged in in-house services and visit the archives. This closeness enabled us to take part in family celebrations, such as Hélène Mbuyamba’s 30 years of religious life, the expressions of thanks to the outgoing European Council and, for Jeanne d’Arc and Véronique, the joy of renewing our vows on 8 December, with all our sisters and M.Afr. brothers. Being in Rome thrust us into the heart of the origins of the Church. We were also able to spend a very emotional day following in the footsteps of Cardinal Lavigerie.
And finally…
“Letting ourselves be woven and shaped, so as to weave and shape, in our turn as responsible women, a community of Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, bearers of values which, since our origins, have contributed to the building of the Kingdom”. We can give thanks, at the end of our juniorate, for having experienced this phase in our apostolic project in joy and fraternity. We are ready to head for our “Galilees” in order to continue to “weave the cloth which the Mission entrusts to the congergation” along with our communities - Jeanne d’Arc in Gitega, Véronique in Gumo and Laurence at Paris Gay-Lussac in France. We thank the general Council, our provincial Councils, our communities and all our sisters who have supported us in prayer. Special thanks to Bijundi (Mama Coco!). She formed a community with us and accompanied us throughout our whole journey.
Jeanne d’Arc, Laurence and Véronique
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE
Christ alone you shall seek and follow.
You shall clarify your secondary motivations.
To live the vows properly, you shall develop your human maturity.
You shall discover your real name in the heart of God.
Since each of us is wounded, you shall not judge any of your sisters.
As day follows day, you shall become a more accomplished woman.
Whether tired in body or troubled in soul,
you shall not neglect your reserves of energy.
You shall believe in the ‘grace of the function’, and shall obey your superior.
In an idolatrous world, you shall radiate Jesus, your only treasure,
and become his prophet.
Thus, with Mary, you shall become the body and blood of Christ.
A WALK THROUGH THE ARCHIVES
THE GERONOMITES GO OUT OF ST.-CHARLES
Our own projects? How did such things come about during the earliest times in our history? Without going yet into the question of visibility or the integration of the young sisters who, at that time, formed the whole congregation, it was necessary to respond with all speed to the gross needs of the places to which we were sent. Had we not been founded, as a matter of some urgency, to look after an orphanage with 300 children, taking over from the Sisters of St. Charles of Nancy, whose presence had been only temporary? But above all, hadn’t our Founder borne in his own person an apostolic project extending well beyond his only Algerian diocese?
In November 1866, the day after taking part in the inauguration in Tours of a church raised on the tomb of St. Martin, the apostle of the Gauls, he had had a disturbing dream. “He found himself transported to an unknown country, where dark skinned people, who spoke a strange language, approached him” (See F. Renault, Le Cardinal Lavigerie, Paris, Fayard, p.111) The dream became a sign of discernment to accept the unexpected proposal from the Governor-General of Algeria, which would open a door for him towards the centre of Africa – “that continent of 200 million souls”. There were many projects to be started for the newly born congregation to get off the ground. These were called “refuges”, “orphanages” and “hospitals”. Charity, the fundamental tool of the apostolate in a Muslim environment and amidst the peoples of central Africa, could certainly be practised there!
Reading the first volume of the Diaries - that for 1894 – enables us to recognise the very rough conditions in which the commitment of the first MSOLA was exercised. Wherever they were sent, first to North Africa, then to “the Equator”, the sisters used to find themselves in relatively inaccessible places, sometimes even after weeks or months of travelling. The living conditions which awaited them were very rudimentary. If others, usually the M.Afr., had not been there before them, they also had the task of gaining acceptance among the population. In the event, that happened quite quickly and the sisters made great efforts to familiarise themselves with the languages and customs.
First, to go out of St. Charles: the first appeal was from Laghouat on the northern Algerian edge of the Sahara. After a journey of some 20 days, a little group of three Geronimites arrived on 23 January 1972. Mgr Lavigerie had sent them there in response to a request from the French authorities of the day. The sisters went there to open a school and workroom, but they began by “caring for the Arabsin the surrounding area”. One of the sisters contracted smallpox, which caused great concern among her companions. Once any risk of contagion had passed, they opened the school. The History of the Origins notes that they were very much loved by the people, both European and Algerian Muslim but, for reasons explained in The History of the Origins (pp. 83 and 103), their presence lasted for only a year.
Then, from 1873 onwards, the foundations were laid in the Chelif valley, first St. Cyprien des Attafs where Mgr Lavigerie set up homes for orphans to train them to become farmers. “The first sisters in that foundation (five Geronimites) received “the mission of teaching agriculture to the the heads of the families and house-keeping tasks to their wives. In addition, during the first year, they were responsible for the cooking for all the inhabitants of St. Cyprian’s. The archbishop provided provisions for the Arab Christians and bread for the missionaries”. (Diary 1894 p.24, brief history of the foundation of St.Cyprien and of the 12 communities founded till then and still existing at the beginning of 1894). For everyone – sisters, fathers and newly arrived young couples – life was rough.
Not far from there, St. Monica’s House in Les Attafs produced a similar situation. Opened in 1877, it avoided the need for the sisters to make the journey from the hospital, which had also been founded by Mgr Lavigerie at the beginning of 1876. In this virtual desert, that institution had to operate as an effective charity for the particularly poor Muslim population of the region. A Sister of the Assumption was the first superior, until the appointment of Sister Marie-Salomé in 1879. The hospital, which was also called “Maison Dieu (House of God)” - in Arabic, “Beyt Allah” - was placed under the patronage of St. Elizabeth. In 1893, “the famine brought many abandoned girls, the little ones being sent to St. Charles; the women, who had taken refuge in the hospital while offering the work of their hands, remained there ”. (Brief history of the foundation reported in the Diary1894, p. 16) Until its transfer to the Algerian public health authorities on 1 January 1972, that hospital was to remain one of our typical projects. The same applied to the other two MSOLA hospitals in Algeria, which were opened in 1894 (St. Eugenie’s at Beni Mengallet) and 1895 (the Lavigerie Hospital at Biskra in the south of Algeria). As they developed bit by bit, the three hospitals layed a major part in training competent Algerian nursing staff.
But already, from 1878 onwards, the orientation was towards Kabylia, a large mountainous region in the east of Algiers, where the M.Afr. had arrived in 1873. At the urging of the population, they asked for the sisters to come. On 21 March 1878, “Sr Salomé and Sr Pélagie (…), with a Sister of the Assumption who had been assigned to them as superior”, arrived at Les Ouadhias. The journey on mules from Tizi-Ouzou, on steep mountain paths, took eight hours. The first task was to gain acceptance, and not any more to bring up the orphans already rescued, ‘a new form of mission’, as is written in an ancient historical account. Visiting the villages with an interpreter, they distributed medicines to the sick and performed virtual miracles, before succeeding gradually in gathering some pupils.
Several other foundations followed – Beni-Ismaïl, (later called Bou-Noh) in 1884, where a school was opened, and then Djemaa Saharidj in 1887, where they were located not far from a mission run by Protestant deaconesses, with whom good relations were established. Here too, the project was the running of a girls’ school. Finally in 1894, the sisters arrived at Ighil-Ali, where they were solemnly received by groups who bade then welcome: one group of Kabylies declared themselves “very happy to see, for the first time, some sisters in our mountains”.(Diary 1894, p.495)
In the meantime, the congregation began to go out of Algeria to establish itself in Tunisia. The sisters arrived in October 1882 and settled in La Marsa, some twenty kilometres from Tunis, in a house offered to them by the Cardinal, including an area of cleared ground which they set about to bring into cultivation while opening a school in the village and then a “refuge” in 1885. “Their poverty imposed great privations on them but, just as everywhere else, God stayed close to His missionaries” (Dairy 1894, p.58). Other foundations succeeded them and, in 1894, there were four spread in the four corners of the country.
1894 saw a considerable expansion of our fields of activity, at a time when the congregation numbered 106 professed sisters. This was the departure for the interior of Africa, with the opening of Ushirombo and Karema in Tanganyika. A hundred years later, Sharing Trentaprile (June 1994) related the epic story of their long journey. Because of the circumstances, notably the death of the Cardinal in 1892, they needed time to respond to the request from the M.Afr. The latter wanted to have the MSOLA there to look after the distressed women in the region. They would be the first European women to penetrate so far into the depths of Africa, far from the coasts of the Indian Ocean, with days of travelling on foot, by ’machilla’, on donkeys or by boat. On arrival, they were going to have a lot to do. They would have to look after orphanages, refuges, and schools which admitted orphans, freed slaves and women refugees, and to care for the sick from the surrounding area, not to mention the difficulties of acclimatising. The numbers in refuges of that kind were ever-increasing. The work included catechesis and teaching the younger people to read and write….There were many baptisms. The number of Christian households multiplied and all this filled with joy and hope those women who had abandoned everything – country¸ family and companions – forever.
So it is clear that the first MSOLA projects revolved around the acceptance of the most deprived children and of women in distress. Thus were the essential elements of our charism for Africa clarified. Who can describe the faith, the generosity, the love and the courage of those women, our “ancestors”, in the mission to which God never ceases to call us today?
Lucie Pruvost
CENTENARY OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE SISTERS OF OUR LADY OF AFRICA IN BURUNDI - 1906 - 2006
STA, in its issue of December 2006, briefly referred to the centenary of the arrival of MSOLA in Burundi (p.108). We are now able to offer you the narrative of this arrival, as told by Gyslaine Dubé.
One hundred years ago, on 19th October 1906, four Missionary Sisters f Our Lady of Africa, “the women in white” coming from Usumbura, arrived exhausted but happy, in Buhonga. This plateau was tucked in the hills overlooking Lake Tanganyika (Buhonga means: “pile of rocks”). We are speaking of Mother Clemence, German, and three Dutch: Sisters Willibrod, Lamberta and Alexandra. This was “the big news of the year echoing in the mountains of Buhonga”,place chosen to receive the first community of Missionary Sisters in “Urundi”, wrote Fr. Rene Collart (Urundi was then a German Protectorate) - (Cf. R. Collart The Beginnings of Evangelisation in Buundi, Perugia, E.M.I, 1981 , T II, p.158).
Already in 1905, on 9 September, Mother Claver and her companions, left Marseille passing through Mombasa, then via Uganda and Tanzania. Some sisters will stay in these countries to begin the mission. As for Mother Claver and her travelling companion, Sr. Joachim, they travelled through Urundi passing by Muyaga, Mugera, and Usumbura. Their aim was to study the possibilities of foundations in Urundi. In her diary Travel in Equatorial Africa p.172), Mother Claver explains: “Here we are in the ‘Switzerland of Africa’, the mountains unfold one after another, never in the centre of Urundi, have we climbed such steep slopes nor passed through so many rivers. Finally, the three hours of walking on foot foreseen stretch out into six and a half, since it is impossible to be carried through such steep slopes. From rock to rock, one descent after another, from one banana plantation to another, we finally reach the Fathers’ mission station called Buhonga. On an elevated plateau, nestled in the green plantations among the oil palms, the house dominates a marvellous valley. To the west, in the indenture between mountains, the Tanganyika appears, and in the rainy season, even the details of the opposite shore of the Lake are visible.
In his book Birth of a Church (Usumbura, Lavigerie Press, 1963, p.53), Father Jean Perraudin writes: “A warm welcome was given to the four sisters arriving on 19th October, 1906. But there had not been time to prepare them a permanent house. Masons were rare at that time, and the missionaries had to personally take care of many tasks which later could be entrusted to patiently trained collaborators. “
What exactly was the situation in the post of Buhonga at the time of and during the years following the arrival of the sisters? First of all, a bit of geography! At an altitude of 1335 meters, this bit of hill is literally carved out of the flanks of the Mboza. Mgr. Gorju, White Father, tells us: “It is with hoes and sticks of dynamite that we set ourselves up. Higher up through stairs and supportive walls, we catch the nest of the White Sisters. Here, all is at hand: peaks, slopes, folds, all in a variety of mosaics with the recurrent manioc which is the staple food in this part of the country” (Cf. Mgr Gorju, Zigzagging through Urundi, Anvers-Namur, Missionnaires d’Afrique, l926, p.59).
On 2 June 1903, Father Sweens described ‘the happening of the day’: “A crowd of some 200 persons climbed the Mboza... It was the planting of a large cross on its summit... For the first time, the Barundis pronounced on the Mboza the 12 articles of the Faith at the foot of the sign of our salvation: “Let us hope that in its shadow, through our humble works, our crucified Lord will establish his Kingdom.” In l904, he writes: “The Mission is slowly progressing: 100 to 150 persons come to catechism every day. Some thirty of them receive instruction at length. At Usumbura, the Germans continue to liberate the slaves, ten years after having forbidden the trade.” Thus it is that a boy and two young women arrive at the mission and are taken in hand (Fr. R. Collart, p.143). On 10 June of that same year, on the eve of Pentecost, they celebrate the first solemn baptism in Buhonga. It is of a little girl freed by the military station.
It is in 1907 that Brother Egide builds the definitive mission house of the sisters. The diary of March 1907 points out that Brother had obtained a very fine white limestone by heating shells picked up at the lake shore. The house was blessed on 29 November. In 1908, a boys’ school is opened, and the one for the girls is entrusted to the sisters. The sisters and the fathers already have the possibility of treating the sick: they have built two dispensaries in the surrounding areas.
That same year, the sisters open a homecraft centre for the women and the girls. They teach many things among which is sewing. The women learn to handle a needle to make clothes for themselves and also to sew for their husbands. However, we are told by Father Claudius Rabeyrin, “There is a competition going on between the traditional dress made of ficus, and that of the Arabs and the Indians.” The sisters also opened a welcoming centre for small children, and an orphanage for the slaves freed by the local authorities. “After many setbacks, we decided to entrust them to serious families so that they would stay in their own milieu,” writes Father Claudius Raybeyrin.
In 1923, Mgr Gorgu will go “visit the green nest of Buhonga” as he put it! After a visit to Bujumbura, he comes to say goodbye “to the excellent sisters” in Buhonga and writes: “Truly, I have not spoken enough of the sisters, and even though they have not asked me to do so, I shall. ‘Monsignor,” one of them was telling me, “when I was sent from another station to here, I was much afraid seeing the high mountains, and I was asking myself: ‘My God, how shall I manage to go up and down them?’ The good sister adjusted herself. She had only to do like her superior who for twenty years never missed the weekly visit to the children and the sick. ‘My legs can no longer manage, Monsignor.’ But, while waiting, they continue to carry her high up the peaks or down below. And, the following day, the sister will imprison herself in the midst of all these children’s heads who fill up the too small hall and up to midday will manage the reading lessons and the catechism. ‘How do you hold on, Mother? - But, Monsignor, I find that we do nothing. - So, then, just continue!” A good old sister, who believes she is doing nothing. Well, at the time of her death, Our Lord will tell her she has worked well and she will find it funny” (Cf. Zigzagging through Urundi, p.66).
To conclude this historical narrative of the arrival of our sisters in Burundi, let us listen to Mother Marie Salome, the first Superior General of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. She addresses the sisters of the first caravan leaving in 1905 for Equatorial Africa, and whom she had accompanied to Marseille:
“You are embarking for those faraway countries where the mercy of God calls our small congregation. The first thing I recommend to you, is that you never forget that you belong to God, that by your religious profession you belong to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep in your hearts, as your only treasure, the love of Jesus, a love strong and generous....”
“My heart overflows with gratitude at the thought that Our Lord has deigned to chose our so small society to go make Him known and loved by these peoples of Africa. He thus bestows on us the honour of being part of the foundation of this newly born Church... Seek ever in Jesus strength in your difficulties, patience in your trials, light in your confusions, consolation in your sadness, generosity in you deprivations. May He alone suffice! Rest in his Love, in his goodness, in his mercy.”
“Keep in your hearts, as your only treasure, the love of Jesus, a love strong and generous.... My heart overflows with gratitude at the thought that Our Lord has deigned to chose our so small society to go make Him known and loved by these peoples of Africa.”
Gyslaine Dubé, Nairobi
Did you know that?
A MSOLA honoured for her continuous action towards African women in distress
On 3rd December 2006, the German ZASS Foundation (“Foundation Future for Work and Social Welfare”) set up by the Catholic Workers Association (KAB) has awarded the Ketteler Prize for the first time. Prizewinner is Lea Ackermann. Cardinal Karl Lehmann, Bishop of Mainz and chairman of the German Bishops Conference have held the eulogy.
The prize is named after the legendary “Workers’ Bishop of Mainz” Wilhem Emmanuel von Ketteler (1811-1877) who, through his passionate support for the workers, founded catholic social politics. It was due to Ketteler’s encouragement – e.g. via his rousing preaching on social issues in the cathedral of Mainz – that in 1848, the catholic workers’ organizations were founded, which later became the KAB. Today the KAB, with its 200,000 members, is the strongest workers’ organization in Germany after the trade unions.
The ZASS foundation will award the prize to “personalities who are committed to ensuring the future of work and/or social welfare. Lea received this prize doted at 10,000 Euros, because she fights for improving the situation of women from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Middle and Eastern Europe, who experience distress either in Germany or in their home countries”.
Echo Province of Europe, December 2006
Seventh World Social Forum (WSF)
The seventh World Social Forum took place in Nairobi, Kenya, from 20 to 25 January 2007. Begoña Iñarra took part on the basis of her responsibility within the AEFJN (Africa, Europe, Faith and Justice Network).
The WSF is an annual alternative world forum, which normally takes place in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In 2004, however, it was held in India. In 2006, it was divided among several places and took place in, among other places, Bamako, Mali. (See PTA, April 2006, p.44) The WSF acts as a social alternative to the World Economic Forum, which is held in January every year in Davos, Switzerland. Its aim is to bring together the citizens’ organisations of the world in order to develop a plan for the social transformation of the world. It has as a motto “ Another world is possible”.
This latest WSF brought the whole world to Africa for “five days of cultural resistance and celebration”. The social movements in the eastern region of Africa were responsible for organising it.
Source:Internet
A Tanzanian - Deputy UN Secretary General
Tanzanian Foriegn Minister, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, has been appointed the new Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Organization. Dr Migiro was appointed on January 5 in accordance with the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's pladge to name a woman to the N° 2 UN post, the UN said.
Dr Migiro replaces Mark Malloch Brown. She becomes the second high-ranking Tanzanian woman
at the UN after Dr Anna Tabaijuka, head of the Nairobi-based UN human settlement agency, Habitat.
The Tanzanian Foreign Minister is amongst six women ministers in President Jakaya Kikwete's governmanet and the first-ever female foreign minister after serving in the Community Development, Gender and Children dockets in the previous government.
Migiro will only be the third person to hold the job at the UN after Louise Frechette of Canada and Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton following the creation of the post by immediate former secretary general, Koffi Annan.
Ban, the former South Korean foriegn Minister who became the world body's eighth secretary-general, called Migiro a "highly respected leader" who has championed the cause of developing countries and displayed "outstanding management skills".
Ms Migiro was born in July 9 1956 in Songea, Ruvuma Region. She obtained a Bachelor of Law and her Masters of Law from the University of Dar es Salaam and her Ph.D in 1992 from the University of Konstanz in Germany. She was a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, before entering politics.
Source: Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA) n° 813, January 9, 2007
