Babelfish Translation 
SOLIDARITY NEWSLETTER #2/2006
FOR
RNDMs, Associates, Friends and Sponsors
‘No one is so rich that
they have nothing to receive, and no one is so poor
that they have nothing to give.?
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RNDM Mission Solidarity
News is published four times each year – March, June, September and
December. RNDM Mission Solidarity is the RNDM office that promotes mission solidarity in communications and in funding For the missionary works of the 900 Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions in 20 countries world wide. ALL are invited to contribute to our RNDM mission solidarity funds. |
Our picture
The little picture above shows a group of water pots with water flowing from one to the other, in spite of the brokenness of at least one of the pots. Alongside, the text in blue together with a moment of prayer, will help us to grow in our understanding of the interconnectedness of each of us, rich or poor, with the Life of the Spirit flowing through us.
June 2006
Report from Papua New Guinea
Photo
(R-L):Sisters Rose Mary Harbinson - British Isles, Marie Lawlor – British Isles,
and Carmel Looby – British Isles welcome Sister Anna Regina- Kenya, in the heart
of the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Our three Sisters in Papua New Guinea only meet together two or three times a year, because their missions are so far apart. So it was a special day when they met with a newcomer amongst them - Sister Anna Regina, a young Kenyan who has come to join Sister Marie for 12 months in her mission in Mendi – working amongst the local people and supporting a new congregation of local PNG Sisters in their religious life and parish ministry. Read also Solidarity News 2003 #3.
The local Sisters and the people are thrilled to see amongst them an RNDM Sister ‘olsem wan kain skin bilong mipela’, from another part of the world. Pray for them all.
Report from Vietnam <Sister M Vianney>
Associates on RNDM Mission
Our Sisters in Vietnam have organized an extensive Associate programme – many lay people are involved in the mission works of the Sisters in various dioceses, and their children are encouraged to to join the Junior Associate programme. There is a formation programme for both groups, and the members are committed to active work for the poor, prayer, and faith formation .
In 2004 RNDM Solidarity made a contribution towards the cost of these programs and that funding helped with the travel to the Montagnard villages each Sunday, and with their catechism, gospel sharing, prayer and First Communion activities.
This has inspired one group of Associates to sort rubbish twice a month in order to help fund their program for street children.
Sister M Vianney (right) and Associates with their street children’s First Communion celebration in DaLat.
Young workers and university students are welcomed by our Cu Chi community for Gospel sharing every week. Quite large groups of Associates – men and women - are welcomed by our Thu Duc community for annual seminars in scripture and in RNDM spirituality.
The Associate program and activities are also helping some members to turn their own lives around, to free themselves from addictions like alcohol, and to give their time to others in greater need than themselves. See also Vietnam
Thanks to RNDM Solidarity - your dollars are well invested in our Associate Program in Vietnam.
Report from India Central <by Sister Jaya>
RNDM Mission in Bihar, North India
Bihar is among the least developed states of India and has a per capita income of $94 a year against India's average of $255. A total of 42.6% live below the poverty line against India's average of 26.1%. Out of the 27 States of India, Bihar has the lowest % of education and where our Sisters work the women’s literacy rate is 15%.
Our Sisters have been working in Bihar
since 1986; their goal there is to empower women who live on the edge of human
society, through non-formal education, womens’groups, self-help groups and
income generation activities. See also an earlier
report in Solidarity News 2003-#2.
They provide non-formal education in literacy centres in 7 villages. Sometimes at night with the help of oil lamps, sometimes in the late afternoon in the shade of a tree or some building, the women and children gather in groups to begin learning their reading writing and arithmetic. The Sisters train local instructors from the community to teach in the local language; this teaching is also the medium for introducing awareness of women’s social rights, and justice.
Photos (left) Mothers and children learn out of doors
(right) Sister Lily Joseph teaching a mother who has her child in her arms.
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Our Sisters find that the
village |
Snakebite treatment Centre
Our
dispensary at Kanti offers snakebite treatment to the poorest of the poor who
come with simple hope and trust to the Sisters, who offer the only primary
health care in their area. The living and working conditions of these people
ensure that snakebites are a common event.
A specially prepared, medicated substance made out of herbal ingredients by traditional doctors, and called a snake stone, is applied to the bite. With this treatment, along with a homeo medicine and in serious cases the very expensive anti-venom, the Sisters are achieving a very high success rate.
On one occasion a pregnant mother came in for treatment, and before she was fully recovered the Sisters also delivered her baby boy – to the joy of all her family and friends.
Photo: The snakebite’ stone’ being applied by Sister Suja
RNDM Solidarity funds are a great help in this mercy work. But do keep the Sisters and the people in your prayers.
Your Solidarity donations, big or small, can be handed to
any Sister of Our Lady of the Missions.
The Sisters keep all our benefactors in our daily prayers.
For further information contact:
COORDINATOR RNDM MISSION SOLIDARITY, Sister Mary Rose Holderness RNDM, Via di Bravetta 628, 00164 Rome
Email: fundraiser@rndmgen.org