The
MSOLA work with WOMEN
and WOMEN GROUPS | | | | | | | |
 | Sr.
Diana Martel, MSOLA. After having worked in Africa,
Sr. Diane dedicated some
years of her life to prepare
birth atendants in the northern part of Canada.
Here we see Sr. Diane with an inouit woman,
happy with her child.
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Today
women are called to unite in an effort to bring about the integral liberation
of the human person and to break down all unjust structures. Together
with other women, the MSOLA work to free themselves from all images that prevent
them from putting their qualities at the service of society. United
to many other women the MSOLA participate in all the efforts to make the world
more human.
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 | | | | Sr.
Agnes Madai with a group of women in Chad | | | |
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A
Peul among the Peul womenSr.
Agnès Madai comes from the D. R. of Congo. She has worked in Chad and is
now working at Dori, a small town in the Sahel part of Burkina Faso. She does
her ministry among the Peul women. The
'Peul' milieu is very closed, and it does take time before one can be welcomed
into a village. I needed to be introduced to a family by an acquaintance. That
indeterminate period before I could make cordial visits was the hardest to live.
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I
felt useless, without a precise activity. I lived that for more than a year in
the first village, before a few women expressed their expectations: to learn embroidery,
to improve the house and to earn some money. Things went somewhat faster in the
other villages for they had already heard about me. I
accepted to teach the women embroidery, and that gave me an opportunity for making
myself better known in the villages, even to being considered almost as one of
them. I
discovered the importance of being with the people, of getting to know them from
within and of being present at their daily activities. Now
I am not just someone coming to teach them embroidery or anything else, but one
of them who comes to spend the morning with her own, visiting with them and working
together. It took time and patience to hold on and to respect the rhythm of these
people, to accept to be useless and even, at times, to be rejected.
The fact that the milieu is completely Muslim gives rise to many questions: "Why
remain celibate? What makes you love everyone, Muslim or not? How can 'black'
and 'white' live together under the same roof, eat together, and yet, we see that
you are happy and united ?"
This mission has enabled me to let go of certain negative ideas that I had about
the 'Peul'. Today I almost feel like "a
Peul among the Peul ".
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Dollycraft a women's workshop in Kangemi (Kenya) | | | | | | | |
I
was in Kangemi, a very poor slum area outside Nairobi. In community we saw that
many women heads of family did not have any incomeone, so there was a need of
creating jobs for these women. So many of them were coming to our door asking
for work!!!
We thought that a handicraft work could give them some money, but we had to see
"what to do"... Reading the newspapers the idea came out: to do dolls
with the attire of the different tribes of Kenya... Tourists would like it surely
if they were well done. So we have found the original product and the name of
the project "dollicraft".
The women learnt how to saw, how to dress them, and the tourists liked them! It
was difficult but little by little the project became more important. Another
workshop to do Liturgical vestments was added.
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The
women of the dollycraft Centre of
Kangemi (Nairobi) with Sr. Cecile Peloquin
and Fr. Rodrigo Mejia s.j. who is wearing
one of the vestment made by the
women.
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African
clothes and drawings were chosen and the quality was taken care of. Priests from
different countries bought them... And the women were able to send their children
to school and to improve their living. Today the Centre goes on producing dolls
and vestments. Sr.
Cecile Peloquin, MSOLA
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 | | Sr.
Lucie Pruvost (left) with a friend | |
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Lawyer
and writer at the service of women Sr.
Lucie Pruvost, is
a MSOLA, born in Algeria where she is working at present. She
dedicates a large part of her time and activities to women in Islam countries.
In
Algiers, the MSOLA together with other religious, priests and lay men and women,
are involved in the work of a library for people doing research, and another for
university students. This professional milieu provides Lucie with very diverse
contacts and,
more particularly, with women who are professors at the
Algerian University and who reflect on the status of the woman in Algeria.
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The presence at the library
allows her at times, to give assistance to students who
are doing a study on the woman, to participate in seminars or to present
my findings on the rights of women and their children. She
particularly appreciates the reflection/sharing group
with professional women, where, with they challenge the writings that
each one produces according to her speciality (sociology, psychology, philosophy,
law, pedagogy, history), to enrich and improve them, before publication. Sr.
Lucie also teaches Arabic and is responsible for the ongoing formation of Christians
studying Islamology, either in Algeria or at the Pontifical Institute of Islamic
and Arabic Studies (PISAI) at Rome, where she has been teaching since 1982. She
has just published a
book, on "The situation of the woman
according to the code of the Algerian Family" where she touches
only on that which concerns the woman. She presents different proposals in answer
to three questions: Where does the code it come from? What does it contain? Where
are we going or where should we be going?
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Sowing Hope in MaliIn
Kalabankura, a district of Bamako that ismainly Muslim, a community of Missionary
Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA) gives a witness of universal love. The sisters
work with the most destitute, rendering little services by offering their "know-how"
and by living with respect for other religions and cultures. They participate
also in the life of the small Christian community. When
in 1996, we, Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, arrived in Kalabankura,
a new section of Bamako, we had not foreseen any definite projects. The Congregation
was sending us with the mission to "fully live the joy of belonging to
Jesus and to be a sign of hope amidst the people around us". We wanted
our service to begin with the needs of the population. To discover these needs,
we had to live with the people and to listen to them with open heart and
mind.
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Sr.
Agathe Mukamuligo (in the middle) teaching sewing to women in
Kalabankura,
a suburb of Bamako, the capital of Mali. | |
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Little
by little, it became evident that certain groups and their needs were to be priorities.
First,
there were the women... those who remain at home and do not know how to occupy
themselves, while others spend the whole day at the market trying to sell a few
tomatoes or onions.
Then there were the young girls, many of them illiterate, for they had
no schooling or had left school prematurely... and there were those little
vendors who roamed the streets all day long, offering matches, fruits, or
clay for making "pottery". There
were also the young children, always an easy prey for prostitution… and
finally the students who often transferred to higher classes without having attained
the proper knowledge for the next level.
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Finita Martinez with a group of women | |
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is these groups that caught our attention and challenged us. We recognised in
them the "little ones" of this society, those towards whom Jesus was
sending us to extend a helping hand. Their needs were there, very evident before
us. They were perhaps not the ones that we would have liked to find, or those
we would have liked to respond to, but they were the ones in need.Life
is to be sharedStarting
with very simple means, we offered these groups a way to a human and spiritual
growth, while respecting their beliefs. We started with a literacy programme
in their own language and with handworks: crocheting, sewing, embroidery... Their
products are sold and the small profits stimulate interest. We find that we often
go against the mentality when people ask them: "What good can reading and
writing bring you? What use can your crocheting have?
We have been able to
offer a small library to the students, with a few dictionaries, some basic books
and the possibility of studying. All of that, of course, is not easy. Most of
those who come to us are Muslims. At the beginning, they were reticent, thinking
that we wanted to convert them. Before such reactions, it is only life that can
reveal the truth. Our best witnesses are those who meet with us, who discover,
little by little, our way of acting, our respect for their faith and they in turn
inform others.
We share our common faith with the small group of Christians.
The Christian community is organised and we enter into it to support its religious
education, its liturgy and the study of the Bible. While waiting to have enough
funds to build a chapel, it is in our house that we meet every Sunday for a Celebration
of the Word, and once a month, for the Eucharist. Finally,
in the midst of a society or of groups where the "poor" are victims
of discrimination, it is good for them to discover that others have regard for
them, that they have worth. Then hope can develop in them as well as the certitude
that God loves each one of us, male and female, whether Christian or Muslim. Therein
lies our mission today, our way of being witnesses. Finita
Martinez (Spain)
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| Sr.
Brigitta teaching embroidery | |
An Artist of the Needle
" If Jesus-Christ
had not sent us,
none of us would be in Mauritania. "Brigitta
Altmeyer is an artist of the needle. She does beautiful embroidery work. In her
workshop young women learn the art of embroidering patterns from their own culture.
The girls follow a three-year course. The sale of their products enables them
to earn a little money.
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"In
October, all the young people of the workshop were delighted to begin their embroidery
work again.
The 16 young women of the 2nd and 3rd years have come back.
That really means something! They all want to get on with the work to earn a little
money. To obtain the materials and to prepare the work and the art patterns require
a lot of time. My days are often too short..
I accepted six new beginners. There were so many applications that I decided to
do something different. I asked the help of one of my fellow-workers from the
Social Services, who is very good at sewing.
An exhibit room will soon be opened in town where the women will be able to show
their products. I am hoping that this will be a good means for selling what they
have produced with so much enthusiasm." Brigitta
Altmeyer (German)
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