MSC World Projects Appeal 2021: OLSH Global Outreach
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) are a vital part of our Sacred Heart Family, working all over the world, often in partnership with MSCs, under our shared motto:
“May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved.”
CARING FOR THE ELDERLY IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
In Papua New Guinea, a community of 86 OLSH Sisters provide dedicated hands-on care for vulnerable individuals and families, from young children to the elderly. In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial assistance from the Irish Province allowed the OLSH Sisters in Papua New Guinea to provide extra safety measures in the Hartzer Centre, an aged-care centre attached to the main convent in Port Moresby, the country’s capital, where the Sisters care for elderly OLSH Sisters and MSC missionary priests who have devoted their lives to serving the people of Papua New Guinea.
As we all know, hygiene is one of the most vital defences against the coronavirus, and our mission friends in Ireland and the UK have already helped to provide extra sinks for improved safety measures. The Hartzer Centre has eight rooms for their elderly residents, but the centre does not have a dedicated laundry area of its own, and this creates significant difficulties surrounding hygiene as the centre’s nurses must bring all dirty laundry through the convent dining room to reach the communal washing area.
Sr Relida, Provincial of the OLSH Sisters in Papua New Guinea, has sent her “deep gratitude” for the changes we have already helped to make, and now asks if our mission friends in the Irish Province could please help the Sisters to build a small laundry area for the Hartzer Centre, to ensure the continued safety and care of vulnerable elderly residents.
In a time where good hygiene can quite literally save lives, especially in the case of the elderly and infirm, can you help us to help the Hartzer Centre?
A donation of €235 will buy a washing machine for the centre, while the new laundry room will cost €7,100 in total.
SOWING SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE IN SOUTH SUDAN
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart recently marked 25 years of service in South Sudan, where they have been involved in everything from education and nursing to general pastoral work.Most recently, the Sisters have been working to build gardens which will help to provide a stable and sustainable source of food and water to families in the region who have very little.
The gardens contain bores which are drilled and fitted with a pump, a tank, and a watering system.
These gardens are used to grow a variety of vegetables, and, when cultivated to their full potential, will be hugely beneficial in the long-term provision of nutritious food supplies to local families, who are up against a daily struggle to afford to feed their children.
The gardens are an investment which will provide years upon years of profit to local communities, from being a source of nutritious food to providing local students who tend to the crops with the physical and mental benefits of gardening.
CAN YOU HELP THE OLSH SISTERS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
MSC World Projects Appeal 2020: OLSH GLobal Outreach
The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) are a vital part of our Sacred Heart Family, working all over the world, often in partnership with MSCs, under our shared motto:
“May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved.”
OLSH in Brazil
Helping a children’s choir
The municipality of Mirinzal is a small, remote region in Maranhão, Brazil. Sr Maria José dos Santos Lira runs a children’s choir in the area, which gives local children great motivation and inspiration to be part of something bigger. The OLSH Sisters teach the children about music and liturgy, and choir regularly performs during special liturgical events in the parish.
Families in the region have very little, and the OLSH Sisters are doing their best to keep the choir going with the extremely limited resources available to them. The choir are currently raising funds for new equipment, including two microphones, a cajon (a local musical instrument), and a keyboard stand.
The cost of these items is low: €21.50 will buy a microphone, €43 will pay for their new cajon, and a new keyboard stand costs just €21.50. A small donation will make a truly great difference to these children as they create bright and beautiful music in a life dogged by hardship and poverty.
A centre for the elderlyÂ
In the convent in São Paulo, Brazil, Sr Maria da Paricida leads the sisters in local social work. Twice a week, elderly people from the area attend workshops that provide lessons in different life skills, such as technology classes, yoga sessions, English classes, embroidery lessons, and choir practise, among other things. The main aim of the Sisters’ work here is to help these elderly people feel part of the wider community, fighting in the face of loneliness and the depression brought about by extended solitude.
The majority of people who come to these workshops are very poor, and have no other opportunities to meet and mix with others. However, the hall where they currently gathering is in poor condition and is currently in need of repair to create a comfortable space for these elderly people to gather together to learn. The Sisters here are raising funds to buy paint as part of the hall restoration.
A donation of just €110 will provide paint for the entire hall, and will help to provide a bright, comfortable space for elderly people who have nowhere else to go.
Residents’ Association Stove
The area of Morumbinho, on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, is home to approximate 800 families. The majority of these families are migrants who are living in extreme poverty. The local Residents’ Association have appealed to the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for funds to purchase a professional stove, which will allow them to cook for the families who are unable to provide meals for themselves.
Just €175 will cover the cost of the new stove and provide desperately needed meals for families who have no other way to feed themselves.
OLSH in Cameroon
As a result of social and political unrest in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, many children have been displaced from their homes and families, and are seeking shelter with extended family in the towns of Baffusam, Yaounde, and Douala. Many of these children are suffering greatly as a result of malnutrition and poor hygiene, and the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the locality are doing their best to help.
Regional leader Sr Marie Solange OKO is raising funds for an aid project which will assist 50 internally displaced children in the Yaounde region, providing food, essential medication, and basic hygiene products.
Just €125 will support one of these children for five months.
CAN YOU HELP THE OLSH SISTERS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
OLSH in Papua New Guinea
A safe Novitiate Chapel
The OLSH Novitiate in Papua New Guinea is located on Yule Island, where the first MSCs and OLSH Sisters began their mission over 130 years ago. Since then, the OLSH Sisters in the region have set up schools and health centres to help local communities, and today, there are 86 Sisters currently working in the area.
Recently, the Sisters’ novitiate chapel had to be demolished following an infestation by white ants. They are sorely feeling the lack of this sacred space, and are raising funds to rebuild the chapel at a total cost of €4,800.
Daru School Library Books
The region of Daru in Papua New Guinea is an extremely isolated one, which takes five days to reach by boat, or a flight in a small place followed by another journey on land. This area is plagued by poverty and hardship, and two OLSH Sisters are currently teaching in the school there. The conditions are very basic, and the school’s library facilities are extremely limited. The books are old and in poor condition, and students must share books between them during their classes.
The Sisters in the Daru school are appealing for help, at a cost of €1,330 to purchase the books that the school so desperately needs. Education is the only hope for many of these children, and the gift of a book can make all the difference to their future.
OLSH in the Philippines
Sr Precy Peralta is principal of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Integrated School, an OLSH-run pre-school in the Philippines that currently accommodates 54 children. The majority of these children come from backgrounds of extreme poverty, and resources are very limited within the school.
The school is currently in need of a steel cabinet to store important documents safely, at a cost of €300, and a TV for classroom use, at a cost of €250. These small additions will make a great difference to the quality of education and administration for the staff and children at the school.
OLSH in South Sudan
The region of Mapuordit is currently home to four OLSH Sisters, two from Australia and two from Indonesia, who minister to the two groups living in the area, the Dinka and the Jur. Children from both groups attend the OLSH primary and secondary schools there, with 1,400 primary school pupils and 440 secondary school students.
In recent years, the OLSH Sisters have been trying to make the best possible use of the land around the schools by cultivating it for growth. The Sisters currently grow vegetables such as sweet potatoes and green vegetables for consumption by local families, using the natural resources available to provide a much-needed food source. The land in the region is extremely fertile, but with six months of regular rain and a six-month dry season, the garden is in need of a simple irrigation system to allow it to be used on a year-round basis.
The Sisters here are appealing for the funds to successfully establish and maintain two gardens. With a borehole fitted with a hand pump costing €8,000, the cost of each garden will total just over €10,000 – an investment which will provide years upon years of profit to local communities, from being a source of nutritious food to providing students with the physical and mental benefits of gardening.
