The tree planting project in Nouakchott (Mauritania)
July 11 was the launch of tree planting by the Islamic-Christian group (ICG), in collaboration with the Association ‘Children of the Sun’ in the suburbs of Arafat. Sr.Celina, who is the initiator of the « One tree per family » project, is also the head of the Islamic-Christian group.
On the first day of the tree planting, Sr Celina with Victorine, Fr Victor the chaplain of the group, Sr.Marie Jesus, Daughter of Charity, four other members and a young Christian man joined the ‘Children of the Sun’ group to participate in the work of land preparation. . Lire la suite →
Videos: The Difference Makers
The MSOLA from the Netherlands have made a series of videos titled “The difference makers”. Dialogue between young and old. One or two MSOLA engaged in conversation with young people who have the same passion for a particular theme or field.
The videos are in Dutch with English subtitles.
Lire la suite →
Beginning of a transformation at Kinteko (Butare – Rwanda)
Kinteko, a subparish of the cathedral, is not far from our Butare community. Despite being close to the town, its population is very peripheral, with plenty of unemployed young people and many young single mothers. They are known to be very difficult and very poor materially, humanly and spiritually. Material poverty adds a heavy burden to the difficulties of family life which sometimes becomes hell. Read more.
Participating in the life of disadvantaged people at Bunamwaya (Kampala) in Uganda
Throughout the year Theopista and the prepostulants have participated regularly in praying the Rosary, the Way of the Cross and in other celebrations and activities in two special places in our area : at Namugongo Bunamwaya and Lost City (two disadvantaged areas). These are the places where people, especially youth, addicted to drugs and alcohol, live with their families.
Read more.
Solidarity in Delwende (Burkina Faso) during Covid-19
In Delwende (Ouagadougou) Sr Vickness Nangogo Muleya, director of the Delwende Center in Sakoula, asked to stay at the center during the pandemic, in order to accompany the rejected women accused of witchcraft and to ensure their protection against Covid-19.
The Delwende center welcomes mostly women, but there is also a few men who have been chased from their villages accused of witchcraft.
Sr Vickness shares her experience: « I saw their faces light up and at the same time they were surprised that I came to stay with them at this difficult time. Read more.
Declaration: “Africa, Remember Who You Are” for Africa’s Liberation and Restoration
The Coalition for Africa’s Liberation and Restoration (CALAR), urges Africans on the continent, in the diasporas, and friends of Africa all over the world to wake up and claim their rights and dignity and protect their heritage from organized criminal agents. The Declaration “Africa, Remember Who You Are” calls on all to work to put an end to practices that bleed Africa, and subjected Africans to all forms of indignities at home and abroad over the past five hundred years, while their heritage is turned over to strangers.
Read and SIGN the DECLARATION, and download the Africa Renewal Prayer.
Sharing how the MSOLA live JPIC
A series of short witnesses of how the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA) live the Missionary Orientations of the congregation: Encounter and Dialogue with other cultures and religions; Fight against Human trafficking; Migration; Care for Creation and fighting climate change.
The MSOLA also create awareness in society on these realities.
Read more.
Pope Francis: Free women from the slavery of prostitution
Pope Francis contributes the preface to a new book on human trafficking, entitled « Women crucified”, by Fr Aldo Buonaiuto, a priest of the Pope John XXIII Community. The shame of human trafficking as told from the street ».
In the preface, Pope Francis recalls one of his Mercy Friday visits to a house run by the Pope John XXIII Community for victims of human trafficking. “I did not think I would find such humiliated, afflicted and suffering women there”, writes the Pope. “Truly, women crucified”. Read more.
Season of Creation (1st Sept. to 4th October)
Each year from September 1 to October 4, the Christian family unites for this worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home.
As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common role as stewards of God’s creation. We see that our well being is interwoven with its well being. We rejoice in this opportunity to care for our common home and the sisters and brothers who share it. This year, the theme for the season is biodiversity, God’s web of life. We invite you to consider the unique value of each creature in God’s wondrously complex web of life.
Clic to download a Guide with proposals for Prayer and Action to do with your community.
Visit the website http://seasonofcreation.org to register your event.
Laudato Si’ Generation in Africa
Young People committed for the care of our common home meets in Nairobi on the forth anniversary of the Encyclyclical Letter Laudato Si’ and celebrating its fifth anniversary, at the Conference « Laudato Si’ Generation: young people caring for our common home », from 15-16 July, 2019.
Approximately 270 people participated in the gathering, coming from about fifty countries – mainly from Africa. The event had a special focus on the African continent, although there were also speakers from other continents. Many of them were young people (many of them members of CYNESA) often involved in the management of ecological projects (farms, forestation, energy saving and use of solar energy, …) in their respective dioceses or congregations. Read more.
Taking care of the Earth and all it contains
Document presenting the needed ecological conversion of the MSOLA and to every person willing to take care of creation and everything it contains. Faced with the human-made destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems that threatens the future of humanity, we have to fight climate change whose consequences are already being experienced all over the Earth and specially in Africa. Climate change is an opportunity to deepen our way of thinking, living and acting to better care for the Earth and all it contains. Read more.
Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking
The Vatican has issued a new document regarding “Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking”, with the aim of “understanding, recognizing, preventing, and eradicating the plague of the trafficking of persons, protecting the victims, and promoting the recovery of survivors.”
This booklet expresses the “enormous importance” Pope Francis attaches to the “plight of the millions of men, women, and children who are trafficked and enslaved.”
The purpose of the document is “to provide a reading of Human Trafficking and an understanding that motivate and sustain the much-needed long-term struggle.”
The Pastoral Orientations are the result of extensive consultations with “Church leaders, scholars, and experienced practitioners and partner organizations working in the field.” Download the Pastoral Orientations.
Sisters support Nigeria’s migrants traumatized by trafficking
Sr. Bibiana Emenaha of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul speaks to students in February at a rural school in Edo on the dangers of trafficking. (Courtesy of the Committee for the Support of Dignity of Women)
Sr. Bibiana Emenaha of Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul is the current coordinator at the Committee for the Support of Dignity of Women(COSUDOW), where she leads the advocacy and campaigns in fighting human trafficking in Nigeria. Founded in 1999 by the Nigerian Conference of Women Religious, the committee collaborates with other anti-trafficking organizations. Six local nongovernmental organizations have joined COSUDOW in the fight against trafficking, too.
Since 2017, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) has flown home more than 10,000 Nigerians who could not get to Europe after being in countries like Libya, Mali and Niger. Read more.
Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking
The Migration and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the Service for Integral Human Development has published the document “Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking”, with the aim of understanding, recognizing, preventing, and eradicating the plague of the trafficking of persons, protecting the victims, and promoting the recovery of survivors. Read and dowload the document.
The Missionnary Sisters of O. L. of Africa meet Pope Francis
Sr. Fides Mbabaremporedu from Burundi, followed by Sr. Marie Kanyoni and Zawadi Barungu from D.R. Congo and Sr. Daphne Alphonso from the U.K.
« Where the Lord has sent you, may you be able to contribute to making the culture of encounter grow, to be at the service of a dialogue that, in respect of the differences, is able to draw richness from others’ diversity. » said Pope Francis « …you know that the proclamation of the Gospel isn’t synonymous with proselytism; it is that dynamic that leads to making oneself close to others to share the gift received, the encounter of love that has changed your life and has led you to choose to consecrate your life to the Lord Jesus. It is the Gospel for the life and for the salvation of the world. » Lire plus.
September 8 all in the street for the climate
Pope Francis called for urgent collective action to repair our common house. On September 8, 2018, a week before the World Climate Action Summit, thousands of people will gather in cities and towns around the world to call on our leaders to take bold action on climate change and to commit to for a Zero Fossil world. Local action is leading the way — BE PART OF THIS MOVEMENT that’s ending the era of fossil fuels and building 100% renewable energy for all. Bring your friends, neighbours, believers group, or worshipers to your place of worship, and join or host an event as part of RISE FOR CLIMATE . FIND AN EVENT; Each meeting will help to evolve momentum for action.. Read more.
Against forced migration – Sabine Dakouo – Ghana
I am part of the Advocacy Committee against Youth Migration and Trafficking in Northern Ghana, which encourages and supports communities in their efforts to reduce the number of young people heading south. To continue the work done last May during the advocacy campaign of the Conference of Major Superiors we have revisited the three village communities where migration of young people to the south is the biggest.… Lire la suite
Christmas with prisoners – Julia Alonso – Burkina F.
On Christmas day, Archbishop Paul Ouedraogo of Bobo Dioulasso, came to celebrate the Eucharist at the prison, much to the delight of all the Catholic prisoners and those who accompany them every week. Muslim and Protestant communities were invited to participate in our celebration.
For me it was a real Christmas celebration with the little and forgotten ones.… Lire la suite
Hospital volunteer – Amparo Cuesta – Spain
For some years I have belonged to the group of volunteers at the Jiménez Diaz Foundation, one of the social security hospitals of Madrid. Our job is to visit patients in their rooms on different floors according to their medical condition. I find that my fellow volunteers have great human qualities, because they have the vocation and love for the sick, as well as great discretion and delicacy…. Read more.
Interreligous encounter a necessity – Odile Payen – France
Interreligious encounter at Villeurbanne (Lyon-France).
As part of « Welcome to Villeurbanne »,the theme for the year in the city of Villeurbanne (Lyon), the local elected officials together with the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities organized an encounter and sharing in the Community Life Cutural Center on the afternoon of November 25th. Almost 500 people including numerous families and children eagerly attended.
« Welcoming our religious traditions » was presented by the young Rabbi of the Keren Or synagogue, by Fr. Damien Guyot (pastor of our parish) and by the imam… Read more…
Struggle against trafficking – Begoña Iñarra – Spain
On my arrival in Madrid in September, I began looking for a commitment to fight against human trafficking. I already knew the Sisters Adoratrices and their « Project Hope » which accompanies women victims of trafficking in their reconstruction and their integration into the society where they live. The Sisters invited me to collaborate with them in the shelter they run for women in the first stages of their journey. I spend the night there once a week. There are women of every nationality and continent. At present most are Africans. We spend a good time together preparing the supper we will share and then doing the dishes and cleaning up. … Lire la suite
Helping to believe in life – Nicole Robion – France
I am in my 7th year at the Association of the Fields of Boaz, which welcomes and accompanies single women seeking asylum in France. At the beginning of the year I received a text message from one of them: « Thank you for giving us hope and for believing in life. I am grateful to you. Thank you to God for the grace He has given me to cross your path and for His light in you which enlightens everyone who approaches you…Lire la suite
« Karibu » at the service of African migrants – MSOLA Spain
The pharmacy at Karibu
Ever since the foundation of the « Karibu » Association for the welcome of African migrants in Madrid, the MSOLA have been committed to it. Celsa Jimeno was one of the first volunteers and she collaborated there for years, until her death. She knew the Africans who passed through the Center and many had become her friends. Gradually, other Sisters who returned to Spain definitively or who spent time in Madrid, followed her example. Currently 4 MSOLA are collaborating there. … Lire la suite
Awareness of Human Trafficking – Angela Kapitingana – Burkina Faso
In my commitment against human trafficking, I see the importance of beginning by raising peoples’ awareness. Sessions to make this reality known are the means used by the team of Talitha Kum Burkina. In November Sr Yvonne (Good Shepherd Sister) and myself animated a workshop on human trafficking. On December 3rd we gave a session in Banfora to raise awareness about human trafficking. … Lire la suite
Danuta Kmieciak with Maruja Peral at Oran (Algeria)
The day after Christmas we welcomed 22 women, including 4 younger ones, around the lit Christmas tree. It was an encounter full of joy and the witness of friendship. At the moment of introductions, we recalled the names of the Sisters at the origin of this friendship. This was a strong link between the present and the past. Among others : Marguerite Tortel (RIP), Maria Peral Del Pozo (Maruja), Danuta Kmieciak, Valérie Kabore, Beatrice Wêndpouiré,… Lire la suite
Ghislaine welcomes students to the session « Sharing the way » with migrants ».
Development and Peace, the Catholic organisation in Quebec for promoting development, invited us to participate in the « Share the Way » campaign so as to help us experience through role-playing what migrants, who are forced to leave their countries and endure unbearable situations, must go through…… Lire la suite
UN agrees first-ever Global Compact on migration
UN Photo/Mark Garten
special event for the approval of text for a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, at UN Headquarters in New York, 13 July 2018.
For the first time ever, United Nations Member States have agreed an all-encompassing Global Compact to better manage international migration, address its challenges, strengthen migrant rights and contribute to sustainable development.
After more than a year of discussions and consultations among Member States, local officials, civil society and migrants themselves, the text of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was finalized on Friday. Read more.
“I thank you for coming and HEARTILY LISTEN to the increasingly much stronger desperate cry of the Earth and of the Poor… for coming to respond to the urgent call to ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION called for by the Encyclical, and take concrete steps inspired on the fact that ALL ARE INTERCONNECTED which is the heart of INTEGRAL ECOLOGY.” This was how Pope Francis addressed the participants of the International Conference on Climate at the Vatican the 5-6th July 2018. This shouldn’t be just another meeting but an instance of open heartedly, listening together to the cry of God from the creation and respond with concrete actions towards ecological conversion. Read more.
CAMPAIGN: Sowing Hope for the Plantet – Everything is interconnected
Pope Francis urged us to heed the call for an ecological conversion “to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and to discover what each of us can do about it.” (LS #19)
For this reason, the UISG (Union of International Sisters Board have decided to promote the UISG Campaign, Sowing Hope for the Planet. You are invited to become involved in Sowing Hope for the Planet (2018-2019). You and the members of your community are encouraged to reflect more deeply on Laudato Si and to consider ways to make Pope Francis’ message a reality, both personally and within your communities. We will put regularly information on this website on various ways in which you can actively participate.
Documents regarding the campaign Sowing Hope for the Planet:
You can read and download the brochure.
And the presentation of the campaign Hope for the Planet. Everything is interconnected.
May 16, International Day of « Living Together in Peace »
The celebration of this day expresses the desire fro peace of persons of all religions, as well as non-believers. It is a step to see our world change. Living together in peace is all about accepting differences and having the ability to listen, to recognize, to respect and to appreciate others, as well as living in a peaceful and united way.
Organize a gathering, an encounter with people from other religions, other cultures, other …. , to do something together and above all to celebrate the joy of ‘Living together in peace’.
LISTEN to this songc sung by children from Jewish, Muslim, Christian relgions and those withou religion who live Mercy, what means unconditional Love. Read more.
Sharing of the sisters – 1st Term 2018
See how the MSOLA sisters live their commitment to Justice, Peace, integrity of Creation, Encounter and Dialogue with other religions and cultures in their daily life. These are the sharings you will find from this term: Restoring wounded children; Living with different cultures and traditions; My road with Samira; Calais: My LIFE with refugees; Sr Simone’s presence at « Episol »; Remembering « COLWOD »; Lea Ackerman presents « Solwodi »; Recollection « We too, we are migrants »; Living JPIC-RD in the communities of Germany; Interreligious Dialogue at Lyon; 83 years old, time to start something new; Session on Trafficking of persons in Burkina Faso; Attentive to girls during my internships; International Women’s Day in Bukavu.
Way of the cross with the victims of human trafficking
By celebrating the Stations of the Cross, we symbolically live the passion of Jesus and his painful path to the cross.
We aregoing to walk this way of the cross meeting our brothers and sisters who, like Jesus on his way to the cross, are deprived of freedom, considered as objects and forced to do what they do not want.
Today Jesus lives his passion again in these children, these women and these men who are victims of forced migration and human trafficking.
May this Way of the Cross be for us too, a path of hope and of commitment so that these sisters and brothers may live the resurrection of a new beginning, and that we may consider a world without slavery, without human trafficking. Download the Way of the Cross for READING . Download the Way of the Cross for PRINTING.
8 February 2018 Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Trafficking in persons
MIGRATION WITHOUT TRAFFICKING : say yes to Freedom and no to slavery
The theme for the International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Trafficking in persons 2018 highlights the situation of human trafficking among people on the move: migrants, refugees and internal displaced people.
We are invited to enkindle a light against human trafficking for these brothers and sisters of ours. Let us enkindle our hearts and lives, so as to be a welcoming light of hope and encounter. Find the guidelines for the preparation of the prayer vigil. Read more.
« We cannot remain silent » says the Pope to Davos Economic Forum
Pope Francis with the homeless from France at Fratello 2016 in Rome.
“We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of millions of people whose dignity is wounded, nor can we continue to move forward as if the spread of poverty and injustice has no cause.” Pope Francis
Migrants en Tunisie et Caritas
La Caritas Tunisie fait route avec les personnes migrantes. Caritas présente le nouveau phénomène de la migration dans le pays, et l’action que l’association entreprend pour accueillir et accompagner ces personnes en situation de migration, faciliter leur séjour temporaire dans le Tunisie, un pays de passage pour la plupart d’entre eux et faciliter la rencontre des deux communautés: ceux et celles qui viennent d’ailleurs et le peuple tunisien. Voir la présentation.
Ecological Challenges for Religions
The development that is most changing Humanity’s current consciousness is “the new cosmology” of cosmic and natural sciences. For the first time, we have a scientific view of the Universe: its origins, its dimensions, its evolution, the galaxies, stars, planets, and life. This means we have a very different vision than that which we previously held.
In this new “revelatory experience,” the divine element of reality is manifesting itself to us in a new way. Religions need to feel the ecological kairos of this hour and return towards the cosmos and nature, overcoming the current divorce between science and spirituality, between religion and reality. Accepting the challenge of ecology does not mean including “the care of nature,” as one more moral imperative. It is something more: it is a complete “ecological reconversion” of religion itself. Read more.
Meeting the other as visitation
Presentation on Meeting the other as visitation.
It is a reflection on the interreligious and intercultural encounter based on Mary’s Visitation to Elizabeth. Look at the slides presentation inspired by Kam Sié Mathias’ in « African Tradition of Hospitality and Interreligious Dialogue: Reflection ». See the presentation.
Ubuntu, an African Philosophy : I am because we are
“ A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. ” Desmond Tutu 1999
The Zulu proverb « a person is a person through other persons » defines the individual in terms of their several relationships with others. Those who uphold the principle of ubuntu throughout their lives will, in death, achieve a unity with those still living. Read more.
From « A Journey together: Building mutual respect, understanding and cooperating »
Interreligious or interfaith dialogue, is about people of different faiths coming to a mutual understanding and respect that allows them to live and cooperate with each other in spite of their differences. Each party remains true to their own beliefs while respecting the right of the other to practise their faith freely.
Interfaith dialogue includes human interaction and relation-ships. It can take place between individuals and communi-ties and on many levels. Today often Muslims and Chris-tians live on the same streets; use the same shops, buses and schools, coming into daily contact with each other. Dialogue is part of daily life during which different cultural and religious groups interact with each other directly, and where tensions between them are the most tangible.
2017 Annual General Meeting of AEFJN
Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN), formed by forty-eight religious Congregations working for economic justice between Africa and Europe, held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 10th November, 2017 in Rome. Thirty Religious men and women from around twenty member-Congregations, among them 3 Missionnary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, gathered together to listen to reports from the Secretariat in Brussels and the Executive Committee, and to enhance the work of AEFJN.
The Secretariat reported some success stories. In Koudiadiène, Senegal, a mine of phosphate is destroying the environment and ignoring the socio-economic rights of the local people. For three years, research, dialogue, and advocacy work done in collaboration with the Madrid Antenna, and the civil society of Senegal have brought the promise by the mining company to provide clean water, medicines, an ambulance, and training for young people and women. We need to follow it up… Read more.
Meaning of JPIC-ED
Meaning of Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation, Encounter and Dialogue (JPIC-ED) Justice Conscious of the weight of injustice, deprivation and insecurity that condition the lives of so many of our contemporaries, we try to « feel with the poor. » Together with … Read more
JPIC-ED in the MSOLA Documents
You will find the spirit of Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation and Encounter and Dialogue (JPIC-ED) that animates the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA), through some of the main passages on JPIC-ED issus found in the documents of the MSOLA sisters, classified par date and event.
Réseau Justice, Paix, Intégrité de la Création, Rencontre et Dialogue des SMNDA 