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NEWS 5: 1. Sr. Evelyn Visits Ghana 2. Sr. Evelyn in Nigeria » PHOTO GALLERY
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| Sr. Evelyn Visits Ghana |
| Evelyn, what was the purpose of your visit to Ghana? |
| This visit to Ghana, from 14th January to 1st February 2011, had a similar purpose to my visit to Nigeria a few months previously. I went to Cape Coast in Ghana with Sr. Goretti Butler of the Daughters of Charity to give workshops in Child Protection Policy to the leaders of religious orders, male and female and help them to work on drawing up their own policy documents. On this occasion the trip was organized by Sr. Uainín Clarke of the St. Louis Sisters and, once again, we went with the financial assistance of Misean Cara, the Irish development organisation which supports the work of missionaries around the world. |
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| Ghana showing Cape Coast |
Srs. Evelyn and Goretti |
Participants and directors |
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Participants
There were twenty-six participants from eight different congregations: St. Louis Sisters, Society of the Infant Jesus, Our Lady of the Apostles (OLA), Daughters of Charity, Daughters of Mary and Joseph, Holy Rosary and two male orders, the Presentation and Patrician Brothers. The participants included provincials, leadership team members, diocesan health co-ordinators, school principals, formators, nurses, teachers and some youth workers. All of the congregations were founded from Ireland. The participants were African-born, with the exception of Sr. Anne Courtney, a Holy Rosary Sister from Larne, two other sisters born in England and Canada and two Patrician brothers from India. English was the second language of the majority.
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Venue
The venue was the OLA Provincialate in Adisadel, Cape Coast, where they also have a novitiate. The sisters initially moved out to a green-field bush site in Cape Coast, had it cleared and brought electricity and water to it for the first time. They were followed by thousands of shanty-town dwellers to the area. |
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| Presentation of Certificates |
Gifts for Uainín, Goretti and Evelyn |
Br. Andrew admires the transformation! |
| What would be your main memories and impressions of this experience? |
I was struck by the eagerness of the participants to learn and how receptive they were to the message. One key learning for me was that since Ireland and Ghana were both under UK rule at stages in their history, the Ghanaian law is very similar to Irish law. Both countries followed the 1908 Childcare Act and all subsequent legislation arises from that. While Ghana signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of Children two years ahead of Ireland, they fall far short of us in implementation.
I was bowled over with their vibrant liturgies, beautiful singing, wonderful music which seemed to emanate from the core of their beings in a seemingly effortless manner and also the colour and pageantry of their celebrations, particularly their fascinating offertory processions. You could not escape paying your contribution because the whole congregation processed up row by row. It did not appear to matter what you put into the basket but everyone did put something in, including the children. |
| Was there time for visits and sight-seeing? |
| The highlight was visiting Ahotokurom (Fante for "place of serenity"), a leprosy centre run by the DMJs. It has resident care for over 30 children 0-18 (including toddler quads!) and also for some 20 elderly people with many disabilities from the leprosy they suffered. It also has a multi-faceted training centre for the physically and mentally challenged and a special needs centre for children.
 They have outreach services to a wide area, especially to Enyindakurom (Fante for "The village we did not expect"). where over 80 former leprosy sufferers, not welcome back to their own villages, have had houses built to replace their mud huts. This was made possible through funding from the Friends of Ahotokurom and the houses were built by the residents themselves, giving them a great sense of dignity and self-worth. An English couple provided the funds to build a village market area from donations received when their son died in an accident.
[Photo: entrance to Enyindakurom village]
Two DMJs are co-directors: Sr. Monica (a very gifted nurse from The Coombe!) and Sr. Pat from England. Their chaplain, Fr. Philip Addo, was paralysed in an accident just before diaconate ordination and Sr. Monica was largely responsible for nursing him back to some degree of health. He was ordained in 2007. five years after his accident and he is the first paralysed person to receive ordination in Ghana. The website for this centre is www.ahoto.org and it is well worth a visit.
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 The Cape Coast was the centre of the infamous slave trade in West Africa and it was sobering to visit the city and see the huge slave castle, giving a stark reminder of those dark days when slaves were imprisoned before being shipped from their homeland forever. [Picture left]
We also visited the 900-student residential teacher training college run by the OLA sisters, their commercial college and boarding school in Cape Coast, which was their first community house in Ghana, with boarding for 200 children aged 4-18 whose parents mainly work overseas.
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| The opportunity to give this programme and visit Ghana was a wonderful privilege even though it was a demanding challenge also at times! The temperature was a constant 38c with harmattan winds, which leave sand and dust from the Sahara everywhere!
Like Nigeria, the religious congregations in Ghana have many candidates, novices and young professed members and it was very encouraging to see and meet with so many young enthusiastic religious.
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| 2. Sr. Evelyn Visits Nigeria |
| Evelyn, what was the reason for your trip to Nigeria? |
| Sr. Goretti Butler of the Daughters of Charity and I went to Nigeria to give workshops in Child Protection Policy to the leaders of religious orders, male and female. It was an initiative of the Daughters of Charity and we went under the auspices of Misean Cara, the Irish development organisation which supports the work of missionaries around the world. The first week's training took place in a retreat house on the outskirts of the capital Abuja, owned by the Daughters of Divine Love - some will remember Sr. Eifechukwu and Rapuluchukwu who stayed with us in Glasnevin and St. Mary's Road while studying medicine here in Ireland. The second week's training took place in Port Harcourt. |
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| Participants - Week 1 |
Sr. Evelyn conducts workshop |
Participants - Week 2 |
| There were twenty-six participants on the first course from fourteen congregations. Thirty-three attended the second course from thirteen different orders, including six Daughters of Charity novices. Congregations represented included the Medical Missionaries, St. Louis Sisters, Irish Sisters of Charity, Mercy Sisters, Daughters of Charity, Our Lady of the Apostles, Vincentians, Carmelites, Redemptorists, Kiltegan Fathers, Society of African Missionaries and many others. All the participants were native born, except for three, but they were all members of congregations founded from Ireland. |
What would be your main memories and impressions of this experience? |
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I was struck by the overwhelming poverty in many areas and the enormous shanty towns. The pictures of the roads, schools and clinics show that in some circumstances the resources are not even basic - but in spite of these difficulties, great work is being done by all the religious congregations. We visited several projects, including schools, creches, clinics for AIDS victims, a refuge for women with psychiatric complaints and a training centre, where vestments, altar linens and religious habits were made. One school we visited is being rebuilt from the ruins of the Biafran war.
The most memorable project of all that we visited was the De Marillac Drop-in Centre for Street Children in Port Harcourt which was set up by the Daughters of Charity in 2006. They requested training in street work from Street Child Africa as they were noticing that the numbers of children in street situations in the city was constantly increasing. Currently they have 350 children on the register at their drop-in centre, and 31 children in residence, most of whom are attending school or skills training.
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| Creche |
School classroom |
Hospital clinic |
| I was left with a great admiration for the Irish missionaries who give their lives to work in very difficult circumstances. All the church liturgies were spectacular, with wonderful singing, music on traditional instruments and pageantry, such as dancing during the Offertory Procession. The people too, both male and female, appear for Sunday Mass dressed in the most vibrant colours, in spite of their basic living conditions. Having bought their food in the outdoor markets, they cook their meals on an open fire in front of their houses, as electrical supplies, where they exist, would not be dependable. |
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| Sharing group during Workshop |
Hand-made vestments |
Sunday style! |
On the Sunday before we returned to Ireland, fourteen young men were ordained for the Diocese of Port Harcourt. Each religious congregation has many candidates, novices and young professed members and it was very refreshing to meet all these young enthusiastic religious.
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