Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales MISSION Development Office Newsletter No.3 December 2018 www.msfstoday.org
Introduction! My dear Sisters and Brothers, Friends and Benefactors! Cordial greetings from Rome! We are coming closer to the end of an eventful year 2018 and getting ready to celebrate the great feast of Christmas and to welcome the New Year 2019. We thank God and we thank every one of you for everything we could do in our various missions and projects. Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales is an international congregation which was founded in Annecy, France by Fr. Peter Mermier 180 year ago. Today we work in 29 countries with about 1650 members. Besides traditional missionary works we are engaged in many human/social development projects such as education and formation of the youth, projects for the integral development of persons who live in vulnerable situations, and other projects like women empowerment, saving the environment and providing safe water. We stand and work for sustainable development. In our 151 schools in three continents we educate and train over 150,000 children. Out of them over 50,000are from the marginalized sections of the society. This year we faced some very hard emergency situations in our missions. On May 25 th, in Arunachal Pradesh, a state based at the foot of Himalaya Mountains, bordering to China, one of our mission stations called Tatto was completely burned down to ashes. The boarding of the boys was also swallowed by fire. Thank God, no one lost life. Since the road to this place was destroyed by too much rains, it was hard to reach the venue. In the middle of August, the states of Kerala and some parts of Karnataka were paralyzed by dangerous floods and landslides which took the life of over 150 people and destroyed over 20,000 homes and other infrastructure. Even now many people live there in camps. Again, two weeks back, the state of Tamilnadu in southern India was hit by Gaja cyclone killing many people and destroying a lot of properties. In all these miserable situations, our Mission Development Office (MDO) in Rome together with the MDOs in the provinces, supported the confreres to help the affected people and did enormous rescue and relief ministries. With your support we are sponsoring the studies of over 600 orphan and poor children in Africa and India. We are involved in projects of providing safe drinking water to the poor villages especially in Africa. We thank you for being part of our mission of promoting dignity of human life. With your prayers and support we want to do more for this world.you are most welcome to part with us! In this latest edition of the MDO Newsletter, we are presenting you five stories from our missions which we are totally engaged in. These missions are situated in the most underdeveloped areas of Tanzania, Mozambique and India.These are some of the great examples of our mission of human empowerment. Fr. Thomas Varghese MSFS Director, MSFS-MDO, Rome
St. Francis de Sales Tech, Isaka, Tanzania: A School for Skill Development Fr. Thomas Njue MSFS The basic aim of Starting St. Francis de Sales Vocational Training Center was to impart vocational skills to the youth which match to career opportunities supplied by the labor market. This is the ground for preparing Young Tanzanians for realities of earning a living, bearing in mind the escalating number of poor people especially in this Region. So as MSFS, we are aware that, it is vital to ensure that Young People of Tanzania, gain the best possible Vocational qualifications, in order to provide them with a realistic chance of succeeding in today s competitive Job market. Most of the students of this school are from very poor back grounds. So this school offers them a possibility to become self-reliant citizens of Tanzania. So SFS Vocational training centre over the years has become a center for supporting Youth entrepreneurship. We give Youths and Young Adults both men and women in Tanzania an opportunity to obtain training or improve their skills in Technical subjects. This has helped in increasing employability and entrepreneurial potential. Due to cheap Education, the SFS institute has therefore become a weapon of fighting illiteracy, hence poverty reduction. The various courses offered by SFS are: Carpentry, Motor Vehicle Mechanic, Secretarial course, Computer Course, Electrical Engineering and Driving. We hope in the near future to have more trades like tailoring, plumbing, wiring, masonry just to mention but a few. (One student of this school can sponsored with 20 Euros per month for two years)
Goals of our Children s Homes in T.N, India Fr. Arockiasamy Selvaraj MSFS In our province there three children s homes where altogether 115 children are living. The objectives of these homes are to: select abandoned, orphans, semi-orphans from remote rural areas of Tamil Nadu and to give them new life through proper education that will enable them to enter the main stream of society and live with human dignity; give an opportunity to the students for their physical, psychological, emotional, social, educational and holistic human development; give formal academic and technical education; take care of the physically handicapped children and rehabilitate them We have been imparting free education to our students since 2011 with the support of benefactors, foreign donors and well-wishers. Our institutions are well known among the rural population for its service. There are an increasing number of enrolments of students in our institutions. We have no other option but to accommodate all and to give educational support to everyone. We are willing to support many of the children from the rural background, in carrying out this educational mission among the deprived children. (We have hundreds of children in Africa and India waiting for support. One child can be sponsored with 10 Euros per month for at least ten years)
FASCE India: An MSFS-NGO to promote Integral Human Development Fr. Saji George MSFS Fransalian Agency for Social Care and Education in India (FAsCE India) is a non-profit, non-governmental, secular, voluntary organization started in 1975 to foster integrated development of individuals and communities. It is the organized and explicit expression of the MSFS Northeast India Province towards the social, economic and educational empowering of individuals and communities, particularly the underprivileged and needy in the rural and urban, tribe and non-tribe conglomerations of the Northeastern States of India, through integral development and education. The vision of FAsCE India articulates: Creation of a just and equitable, peaceful and prosperous society, rooted in the firm faith and collective conviction in the capacity of persons towards socio-economic development and individual well-being of all, particularly the underprivileged. Its mission is Ensuring personal empowerment and social development of the marginalised rural and urban, tribal and non-tribal population of the Northeast India, by creating awareness, transforming attitudes, availing opportunities and initiating activities. FAsCE India organizes various women empowerment programmes in over 100 Self Help Groups.
S a v e t h e C h i l d i n N e e d : M a k i n g a c h i l d t o B l o s s o m Fr Emile Paulin Amougou Amougou, msfs The Missionaries of Saint Francis de Sales (MSFS or Fransalians) in Chad-Cameroon strongly believe in the power of education. Through combine efforts, we are able to follow up various programs in favour of the less privileged children. One of the most promising programs in the field of education is the sponsor a child program. Since few years now, sponsor a child program in Chad-Cameroon is being writing a lovely story of a difference in the lives of many boys and girls. It is a story of life changing experience not only for the child sponsored but for his entire family which can smile anew, cherishing the dream of a different child for a better future. Dear friends and benefactors, by empowering children through quality education you are enabling them to break the cycle of poverty into which they are born. It is the story of the defeat of poverty. By stretching your hand to help a child in dare need, you build new lives and doing so you are defeating indifference in the hearts of those whose love grow colder. In our lives, it is the story of light when darkness draws nearer. In our cities and villages, you write down a story of hope where despair has taken the main seat. Without the help of our sponsors, the children supported by the program would have little hope of securing a genuine smile. Thank you for the difference you all make in our lives. Showers of blessings from the Lord. (In Chad and Cameroon, we are sponsoring 120 children, there are many more on the waiting list. One child cane sponsored with 10 Euros per month for at least seven years)
Thank you for the safe drinking water: Fr. Ranjit Tirkey, msfs Dear Father, Here we are pleased to send you the Thank You Letter and the financial report of the Drinking Water Project which you have helped us to facilitate the people in Mozambique. Thank you for the help and the support that you gave us. The Delegation of Mozambique is very happy and wants to thank you with heartfelt gratitude to you all. We opened two bore wells in St. Anthony Parish, Mavila, where we are working from the year 2007 which was totally abandoned by the civil war. The Parish has 27 sub-centers/out-stations. And right now 3 msfs fathers are rendering services in that parish. Even though that money was not sufficient but it was a great help for the mission of Mozambique and very especially in the place of Mavila and Zandamela, where the 2 bore wells are opened. Surely the poor people will be benefited with your kind gesture and help. Still we are in need, to put the hand pump/motor, also the water tank, which is yet to be made, bought and fixed. Hope we will get some more help in the future to open many more bore wells with the hand pump to facilitate the drinking water for the poor people of Mozambique. Many other communities/sub-centers too required your same help. Africa thirsts. We can help them with safe drinking water if we dig a borehole with 5000 Euros or buying a Sim Tank of 10,000 Ltrs of rain water with 1000 Euros.
Support a Seminarian to respond to the call of God and to become a missionary with 50 Euros per month at least for four years. A Missionary is not only a priest who celebrates Mass every day, but also a social worker, counselor, educator, leader and a developer. You can also support us by providing Mass Stipends or Used stamps. Many children wait for a sponsor and in many places they need safe drinking water. Your prayers and support can work wonders in the lives of many! Published for private circulation by: Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales (MSFS/Fransalian) Mission Development Office Via del Mascherino 46/2 00193 Rome, Italy Phone: +39 366 110 2383 Mail. amisalesrome@outlook.com/ tomanywhere@gmail.com www.msfstoday.org/amisales.org Our Bank Account in Italy Associazione Missionaria di Sales Onlus Banco Posta, Roma IBAN: IT38X07601032 0000000 8596744 BIC(SWIFT CODE): BPPIITRRXXX Our Bank Account in USA In the US we can be contacted and supported through: Living Waters International, Inc. - Aid for African Catholic Missions - P.O. Box 614 Antigo, WI 54409 Phone: 715.627.4782 Toll Free: 866.220.8981 Web: www.livingwatersinternational.org Email: livingh2o@livingwatersinternational.org