30 August 2012
Young Syrian refugees walk through a camp in Anbar province west of Baghdad, Iraq, 19 August.
(photo: CNS/Ali al-Mashhadani, Reuters)
While violence and urest escalate in their homeland, many Syrians are seeking refuge in neighboring countries. Recently the Catholic News Service reported on the plight of women and children fleeing the violence in Syria:
“Families are trying desperately to stay together,” but not always succeeding, [Caroline] Brennan added. Sometimes, men “stay home trying to protect their land, or they’re fighting — or worse, they’ve been kidnapped. The women are left to lead the family. They think: What is happening to the people they love in this world?“
But she also told of a Syrian husband and father named Faizad.
“He came across the border, but his wife and (most of their) children weren’t allowed to make it. But then he has a son he has to care for. He (the son) cries at night, he misses his mom,” Brennan said. Workers can tell from the boy’s drawings that he has seen “people with guns killing innocent people,” she added.
“This is a humanitarian crisis at its heart,” she said.
There are “huge social needs of the people, especially children and mothers,” said Vivian Manneh, a 20-year CRS veteran currently serving as a regional program manager for the Middle East. “Kids are starting to think, ‘What is going to happen to us? Where are we going to be?’ There are lots of psychosocial needs, lots of basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter.”
For more, read Syrian Refugees Flood Neighboring Countries.
Tags: Syria Middle East Refugees Iraq War
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29 August 2012
Women and their children sign in at the lobby of the Mother of Mercy Clinic in Zerqa, Jordan. (photo: Greg Tarczynski)
The Mother of Mercy Clinic, run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, specializes in prenatal and postnatal care. The clinic offers impoverished mothers and babies health care during a crucial period for mother and child:
In an examining room at the Mother of Mercy Clinic in Zerqa, Jordan, Dr. Ibrahim Ghabeish puzzles over a patient’s condition. Somehow Salah, a 3-day-old infant, has contracted dysentery. The infection is relatively common among adults in Zerqa; usually it is contracted by consuming food that has been contaminated by dirty water. But how could an infant, whose only nourishment is his mother’s milk, get infected? After questioning the child’s 25-year-old mother, Maha, Dr. Ghabeish put together a likely scenario.
“The child’ mother was cutting up carrots washed in contaminated water,” he explained. “When Salah started to cry, she brought him to be nursed without washing her hands. She must have transferred the disease when she prepared to nurse him.”
Established in 1982, Mother of Mercy Clinic offers a wide range of general heath care services to thousands of patients — over 26,000 in 2008 — regardless of creed or origin. The clinic, however, specializes in prenatal and postnatal care, giving priority to needy mothers and their infants.
To learn more about the clinic, read our article in the May 2009 issue of ONE, Mothering Mercies. To learn how you can help support the work of the Mother of Mercy Clinic, visit our website.
Tags: Middle East Children Health Care Jordan
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28 August 2012
In this photo taken in 2000, two young girls play at a displaced persons camp outside Delle, Eritrea. (photo: Christian Molidor, R.S.M.)
Back in 2000, Brother Vincent Pelletier, F.S.C., CNEWA’s former regional director for Ethiopia and Eritrea, visited Eritrea following the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. He recorded his observations, which revealed the effects of war on a people:
We visited a camp for the displaced in the village of Delle, about 18 miles west of Barentu. With some 45,000 residents, it is one of the largest camps in Eritrea. More people are expected to enter the camp as those who fled to Sudan during active fighting continue to return. As we walked through the camp we noticed that many inhabitants had set up shop in their tents and were selling everything from soap powder to beer. Under a canvas, a makeshift school had been organized for the children. I was relieved to see that the children in the camp looked healthy. By contrast, some of the children from surrounding villages appeared malnourished. Some of these people have been in the camp for two years.
There was a bit of commotion outside the camp as a good number of Sudanese trucks drove by. We were told that the Eritrean government currently imports a large amount of grain from Sudan.
For more, read Eritrea in War’s Aftermath.
Tags: Ethiopia Children Africa War Eritrea
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27 August 2012
A first–year design student takes a break from studying at Notre Dame University in Lebanon. (photo: CNS/Nancy Wiechec)
In the current issue of the magazine, we profile the largest Catholic University in Lebanon, Notre Dame University. The school works to develop scholars and better world citizens:
“Our core mission,” says Dr. Eid, “is based on the premise of forming wise citizens in Lebanon. We need to cultivate certain conditions to provide learners with opportunities and spiritual values.”
”N.D.U. is as diverse as Lebanon,” declares Dr. Eid. Though the main campus’s student body is mostly Christian, the North Lebanon and Shouf campuses enroll significant numbers of Druze and Muslim students.
As part of N.D.U.’s mission, faculty and staff on all campuses promote dialogue among students of different religions and sects.
For more, read Where Dialogue Is on the Curriculum. And, take a look at our interviews with Notre Dame students in the video below!
Tags: Lebanon Education ONE magazine Dialogue
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24 August 2012
A child reads Braille at the Shashemene School for the Blind in Shashemene, Ethiopia.
(photo: Nile Sprague)
The work of CNEWA is diverse and varies throughout the regions we serve. But one thing that has been consistent in almost every country is our support for the disabled. Below are five institutions for the disabled in five different countries, all supported by CNEWA:
Shashemene School for the Blind, Ethiopia. The Shashemene School for the Blind in Ethiopia is run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. In the May 2006 issue of ONE we wrote about the Shashemene school:
“Three days after she was born, Meseret was struck blind. She spent much of her early childhood locked in her room; her parents did not know what to do with her. But a few years ago, Meseret&rsuqo;s family found out about the Shashemene School for the Blind, run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, and decided that Meseret would be happier there than at home.
The school lies within a large, gated compound — a sanctuary in Shashemene, a bustling Ethiopian town of 50,000. It was here that Meseret, now 12, learned Braille. And it was here that she first came to understand that her life, like those of the other 120 blind students enrolled in the school, could be meaningful.”
St. Anthony’s Dayssadan, India. St. Anthony’s Dayssdan is a home for children with physical disabilities run by the Preshitharam Sisters. During his pastoral visit to India, Msgr. John Kozar visited the home and was moved by the children he met:
“The drama began the instant we arrived, when we were welcomed by all the children gathered at the front entrance to greet me with singing and clapping. Now, what I did not know was that about 80 percent of these beautiful children are not able to walk. They assembled there under their own incredible efforts. When the welcome ended they proceeded to crawl inside the building, down a long corridor (with the marble floor immaculately clean), then up a flight of stairs. I had tears watching them, as they demonstrated how they have overcome their disabilities. As I would easily discern, it is the result of the loving patience of the sisters, their devotion to teach these little ones how to overcome and to share with them the love of God for each of them.”
Franciscan Sisters of the Cross Hospital, Lebanon. Founded in 1933, this hospital houses and cares for some 280 mentally and physically disabled patients. Last winter, Msgr. Kozar visited the hospital and met with the Franciscan sisters and patients they care for:
“Our most memorable visit was in an area for profoundly mentally challenged boys and men, some of whom have severely physical handicaps. There was a remarkable sister who had a God-given ability to discern in the moans, groans or unabashed sounds of these patients ranging in age from 6 to 45 years a need for some type of attention. She calmly reached out and gave them a little hug, a pat on the check, a little touch on the head, and their anxieties or fears went away. She did it so instinctively and so calmly it might not have been noticed — she did it with love.”
Ephpheta Institute, Palestine. The Ephpheta Institute, in Bethlehem, is a school for the speech and hearing impaired which has long been supported by CNEWA. During his first pastoral trip to the Holy Land, Msgr. Kozar paid the sisters and students at Ephpheta a visit:
“Of course, the highlight was being with the children, all 125 of them. The very youngest receive wonderful one-on-one training and speech therapy, rendered in a most loving way. After a few years of such intense instruction and training, the children are ready to begin primary school education. It was so edifying to see the progression of the children as they learned first to repeat sounds, then words, then to speak in sentences. The biggest surprise was the upper level kids who were actually bi-lingual, speaking in Arabic and English. I was so proud of each and every one of them.”
Santa Lucia’s Home for the Blind, Egypt. The Santa Lucia Home for the Blind in Egypt, run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross, has cared for blind children since the 1980s. We profiled this pioneering project in the May 2010 issue of ONE:
“Having a blind parent or sibling, however, does not safeguard a blind child from abuse or neglect. One such child is 7-year-old Bishoi. His father is blind and never attended a day of school. Before coming to Santa Lucia, Bishoi spent most of his days on the street in a village in Upper Egypt.
‘His mom and dad stayed at home, and just left him in the street, where he cursed and roughhoused with other children,’ says Sister Hoda. ‘This is what happened to him because there was no one to take care of him. He did not even go to school.’
Many parents, such as Bishoi’s, are simply at a loss as to what to do with a disabled child. Lucky for Bishoi’s parents, their dilemma was resolved when they learned about Santa Lucia from a Franciscan priest who visited their local parish. His parents called Sister Souad that day and soon after, they put Bishoi on a train to Alexandria.”
Visit our website to learn how you can help support these institutions and others.
Tags: CNEWA Children Disabilities
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24 August 2012
In this photo from 1998, novices of the Bethany community pray in their chapel near Kottayam, India. (photo: Sean Sprague)
Sisters are often the people on the ground carrying out the work CNEWA supports. With tireless effort and loving dedication, these women give the sick and poor the care they desperately need. Earlier this year, Msgr. John Kozar met a group of dedicated sisters in India — the Bethany Sisters. Sean Sprague also wrote about the Bethany congregation for the May/June 1998 issue of the magazine:
The Bethany Sisters’ motherhouse in Kottayam is a spiritual powerhouse where temporarily professed sisters spend a few years in prayer, study and work before taking their final vows. Pure and virtuous, the sisters are nevertheless wholeheartedly human and very Indian. They are fully aware of the outside world and eager to go and serve the poor and sick.
“Bethany is the church within the church,” Sister Philomena explained. “Its role within the Syro-Malankara Church is like that of the heart in the body. Its charism is the spiritual renovation of the Syro-Malankara Church, particularly through its apostolic activities. One of our main apostolates is education.”
Today the Bethany community operates some 100 lower and upper primary schools, 65 nursery schools, 28 secondary schools, 3 university colleges, a teacher-training college and several other vocational training centers. Mar Ivanios University in Trivandrum is one of the premiere institutions of higher learning in Kerala, educating more than 3,000 students per year.
Ecumenical activities, family visits, catechism, preaching, mission work, care for the sick (the Bethany community runs several hospitals, leprosy eradication projects and preventive health care programs) and care for the handicapped, the elderly and orphaned children are all important apostolates.
For more, read Following Christ in an Indian Way.
Tags: India Sisters Kerala
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23 August 2012
In this 2006 image, Patriarch Paulos and bishops assemble during a celebration of the feast of Mary of Zion in Aksum. (photo: Sean Sprague)
Last week we shared the sad news of Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch Abune Paulos’ death. Today, he was laid to rest in Addis Ababa:
Thousands of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians gathered on Thursday at the St. Trinity Cathedral Church in Addis Ababa to pay their last respects to the late patriarch, Abune Paulos who died last week at 76.
Representatives from various countries, bishops and heads of churches including Coptic Church of Egypt, Syria and India, General Secretary of World Churches, representatives of the Vatican and the Greek Orthodox Church attended the funeral ceremony.
Msgr. John E. Kozar met the patriarch in April and shared his impressions of him on the blog.
Tags: Ethiopia Africa Ethiopian Orthodox Church Aksum Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch Abune Paulos
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22 August 2012
Girls wearing traditional dress participate in an Easter celebration in Jakubany, a village in northern Slovakia. (photo: Father Damian Saraka)
In the current issue of ONE, we profile the Slovak Greek Catholic Church and look at some of its rich religious history.
In the celebration of the sacraments, Slovak Greek Catholic parish communities use Slovak and its Latin alphabet as well as Church Slavonic and its Cyrillic alphabet. And its territory is restricted to parish communities in the Slovak Republic.
Yet the church’s origins and development are synonymous with the various Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic churches of Central Europe. Together, the ancestors of these Catholics received the Christian faith from Sts. Cyril and Methodius in the late ninth century. And they professed their full communion with the bishop of Rome in the chapel of the castle of Uzhorod in April 1646, centuries after the Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) churches had drifted apart.
You can get a sense of the tradition and culture that continue to enliven Slovakia in the images below, accompanied by a beautiful Carpathian chant.
Tags: Slovakia ONE magazine Greek Catholic Church Eastern Catholics Slovak Catholic Church
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21 August 2012
A resident of a home for girls hugs a sister from the Verbo Encarnado (Incarnate Word) community, which runs the child care facility near Alexandria, Egypt.
(photo: Mohammed El-Dakhakhny)
In the November 2004 edition of ONE, we featured a story about the work of the Verbo Encarnado sisters in the Dekhela neighborhood of Alexandria, Egypt. The sisters established homes for girls escaping turbulent and unstable homes for the comfort and security offered by the congregation:
The national average daily income is just over $10 a day. About 23 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Due to overpopulation, a weak economy and high unemployment, the challenges facing Egypt’s youth are daunting.
Sister María Guadalupe, the superior of the community in Egypt, says the situation in Dekhela is especially bad. The town is poor; there are few social services.
“These girls were living with their families in one room,” she says. “No bathroom, no kitchen, just one room. Sometimes there would be a bed and that’s all. So the girls were spending all their time in the street.”
For more, read Building a Brighter Future.
Tags: Middle East Egypt Sisters Africa
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20 August 2012
A resident of the Divine House in Zahle, Lebanon, takes a break from playtime.
(photo: Gabriel Delmonaco)
CNEWA has been helping children in Lebanon for many years, primarily through our needy child sponsorship program. During his pastoral visit to Lebanon last winter, Msgr. John Kozar met some children who have benefited from CNEWA’s support at the Blessed Sacrament Orphanage:
We were warmly greeted by the present superior, Mother Francoise Doueihy, and a number of the other sisters. As we tried to meet everyone present, the grand entrance into the hall filled with singing, smiling and happy girls between the ages of 5 and 16. They welcomed us with some songs and dances, dressed patriotically in the colors of Lebanon: red, white and green, especially green, representing the famous cedars of Lebanon.
What a loving and lovable group of young ladies. I shared with them that the children of North America sent them their love and their prayers and they offered the same to all of our children back home. We had some real fun taking photos with all of them. Their radiant faces truly expressed the presence of Jesus on their faces and in their hearts. What a wonderful visit.
Interested in sponsoring a child? Visit our website for more information.
Tags: Lebanon Children Education Orphans/Orphanages
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