Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Luena (Fides Service) - Just back from Angola, where she visited with the General Bursar Sr Candida Aspesi, Sr Rosangela Giorgi in charge of programmes for development and economy with solidarity, sent Fides a report on what she did in Angola.
The visit to Angola marked an important experience of family for the new area of mission (which the Salesian Sisters call Visitatoria) Regina della Pace in Luanda. On 16 February the school was opened in Luena, and this was the realisation of a dream born in 2001 which involved the entire family and Institute of the FMA, on the occasion of the feast of THANKS! “Light a Lamp in Africa” was the slogan and, the waiting for the “light of education”, involved Salesian Communities all over the world.
“It was a significant moment of gratitude to the Institute- Sr Rosangela told Fides - of presence and marked belonging. Among those present, children, parents, future teachers and staff, as well as the Bishop, Mgr Gabriel Mbilingui, Salesians, and representatives of the local authorities, Spanish Cooperation and NGO ‘Giovani Terzo Mondo’. Education is the main road for justice and peace, progress and solidarity, so needed in this land. The centre was built with local young people and workers, even the bricks were locally made . Besides education we hope, when all is ready, to start activity of micro-economy such as involving the young builders themselves in construction co-operatives.
Our visited continued - the Sister said- to Benguela, an area recently affected by serious floods which destroyed more than 850 homes of the poorest people. The lessons were suspended to offer shelter and provide food and other basic necessities for homeless women and children. Despite the local situation, government disinterest and the dire poverty of the people, there is hope and the horizon is open.
After that we visited the community of Kakuako in Luanda, overcrowded with little ones, adolescents, lay helpers and numerous catechists who teach catechism and primary education in the many chapels to large numbers of people, more than 6,000 in one parish alone in central Luanda.
However the most serious consequences of war, violence and poverty affect in particular the children and the women who bear the heaviest burden of daily labour.
The new Visitatoria in Angola is lighting lamps of education, alternative life with the same passion as our Saints don Bosco and Maria Domenica Mazzarello. Its 24 Sisters, like and extended family, share everything, from the fruits of the earth to whatever Divine Providence sends, including educational intuitions to make a new culture of life and solidarity flourish even there amidst cultural, social and political diversities.
Angola - Sr Rosangela concluded- draws many volunteers, some young some not so young, present also in our Visitatoria and it also calls everyone to live solidarity with the creativity of charity which keeps us in touch and impels us to be builders of justice and peace with the world as our horizon.” (AP) (14/3/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:44; Parole:554)
