I Started A Thing (or, Yes, this is part where we ask for assistance)

Promoted by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Salesian Sisters

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VIDES Accompaniment in Kenya

      

The MAZZARELLO FUND
“Go ahead with courage and without fear.” St. Maria Mazzarello

Mission

The MAZZARELLO FUND supports the education, development and social outreach projects of the Salesian Sisters in Makuyu, Kenya, for the benefit of WOMEN and YOUNG people in at-risk situations. Started by Mary Margaret Mason, it aims to unite members of the Makuyu family in Kenya and people here in the United States by forging connections between two different cultures, building friendships, awareness, and fostering solidarity.

Overview

The Salesian Sisters began the Mother Mazzarello Village community in Makuyu in 2006, and the sisters there work to support and educate the young from the surrounding area. The Mazzarello Fund supports the following:

Children’s Home – currently home to 21 young girls ages 5-15, and currently at capactiy! By enveloping the young girls in a loving community, the Salesian Sisters and international volunteers help the girls grow and learn important study and work habits, as well as provide them with a family-like community of support. As the girls often do not have a stable family life, this is very important to help them as they grow.

Youth Hostel – currently home to 42 young women ages 14-19, and also currently at capacity. The girls in the hostel study at the secondary school or technical school, some of them coming from very far to do their studies. The Salesian Sisters provide the girls with a stable environment and strong community where they can focus on their education and improve themselves as women of God.

Secondary School – Don Bosco Day Secondary School provides education services to over 200 students and the school is constantly growing. The secondary school works to provide a quality education to its students, but is constantly facing challenges in terms of funding for school supplies, teacher salaries, and physical space. Despite this, the Sisters work to always better their students’ opportunities for their future.

Sponsorship/Scholarship Program – Some of the students at the secondary school have been blessed to have sponsors in other countries for their education. However, there are always students that struggle to pay their school fees. The Sisters do their best to assist the students as they can, but forming a scholarship program for deserving students would greatly assist the Sisters in carrying out their mission t0 help and educate poor youth.

Current Projects

• Secondary School – The Sisters are attempting to raise funds for a television to be bought and installed in the school so that students will be able to gain awareness of national and international events, as well as watch educational videos to assist in lessons.

• Solar Panels – Solar panels have already been installed in one part of the Mazzarello Village compound for heating water and the Sisters would like to raise enough funds to add more and to repair a part that is broken. This will greatly reduce the use of electricity and lower the always high electrical bill, freeing funds for other uses.

Immediate Needs

• School supplies, especially books, and other educational tools that students cannot afford
• Firewood, as the secondary school provides lunch to all its students and the children’s home and hostel provide all meals to those who live there. Firewood is necessary to cook for the youth and it is always running low
• Add extra support to the sponsorship/scholarship program to ensure opportunities for poor youth to attend school and gain an education

Long Term Goals:

• Build a new classroom as the school is currently at capacity despite the growing number of students
• Have at least one textbook for every two students, working towards a future of one textbook per student

   

Thank You for being a part of the Mazzarello Fund

Donations may be tax-deductible. Send through VIDES+USA.                                                 
    

• Go to http://www.vides.us/donate.html
• Be sure to dedicate your gift to "Kenya-Mazzarello Fund."
 
• Use a credit card at PayPal or Network for Good on the VIDES+USA donate web page 

• Or mail a check made out to VIDES to:
 Sister Mary Gloria Mar 6019 Buena Vista Street, San Antonio, TX 78237 USA.

VIDES+USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in special consultative status with the

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Department of Public Information (DPI) of the

United Nations

Searching versus Welcoming (or, Here, have a picture of a flower)

I wake up every morning and go to morning Mass. Like, my body has stopped protesting and just switches on now, up and ready for the day.

(I start yawning around 6 o’clock at night though. However, that is irrelevant.)

Also, here, have a picture of an awesome flower

Anyway, this week there was an amazing homily given by the very talented Father Felice. And considering it was 6:30 in the morning, you can imagine it had to be pretty engaging if he wanted people to remain, you know, engaged.

So here is the question he posed to us: Do you welcome people or do you search for them?

Father Felice pointed out that there’s a difference. One is a lot easier than the other. It’s best to do both. Jesus welcomed the poor, the hated, the untouchables; more importantly, he searched for them. He went out into the streets and looked for the beggars, the blind, the Samaritans, the tax collectors. His was a walking ministry, searching for the least and welcoming those who looked for him.

For the Salesians in particular, Fr. Felice asked whether the sisters go out and search for the youth they are called to help. Let’s put that into perspective.

The Salesian sisters often work in areas that have great poverty and a strong possibility of violent outburst. When I was at orientation in San Antonio the sisters warned us not to go walking outside the convent without someone else. One of the women who worked at the house had been mugged recently. Someone had been shot on the street outside the gate. The site placement information for Dagoretti told me that I would not be allowed to walk around the area without accompaniment because security is an issue.

Welcoming people means staying in a safe place and waiting for them to come to you. It’s more comfortable. It does still mean you have to do some work. You have to make the environment safe, make the place available to everyone. But welcoming in a sense is synonymous with waiting.

And then there is searching. It means going out in to the world and physically making an effort to find people. It is a constant state of uncertainty regarding whether you will be able to find who you are looking for. Searching isn’t comfortable, isn’t pleasant, and isn’t easy.

For the Sisters, searching means walking into the slums and trying to convince street children to come to their schools. It requires walking through mire and muck. It brings with it the fear that someone will take issue with their work, and thus take issue with them. There are positives and negatives that come with very a habit. On the upside, people who are looking for help can easily identify you. On the downside, people are looking to cause trouble can easily identify you. So searching involves risks that a lot of people don’t think about for the sisters.

Fr. Felice asked if we welcome or search. Do we do the easy or the difficult? We'll have to decide ourselves which one we pursue.

Interesting Stories of the Week:

• I got to go back to Mazzarello for a few days (more like a day and a half, but still) and it was awesome! Except apparently the electricity did some sort of surge thing and literally melted basically everything that was connected to a port when it happened. Which meant that the kids had no power from Saturday until yesterday when the electricians were able to come and get the problem under control. So we got to break out the kerosene lamps!

The girls set those lamps on fire!

And then used them to eat dinner and study

• You know what, I just really like taking pictures of flowers.

So this is the rose Day 1, 9:00 am

Rose Day 1, 6:00 pm

Rose Day 2, 9:00 am

Rose Day 2, 3:00 pm

Rose Day 2, 6:30 pm

• I also downloaded the Hamilton soundtrack for one of the sisters here (she’s Spanish!). She is totally into musicals and we talked about the Tony’s and the different musicals we’ve seen and it just made me really happy!

Project Update

I have created a fund! Perfect timing considering the unexpected expenses that have just been piled on Mazzarello Village after the electrical surge destroyed a significant number of lights and appliances. So please, follow the instructions below to donate to Mazzarello Village! I’ll post more about what the fund will be going towards in my next post, but the information is all in the link below as well!

Donations may be tax-deductible. Send through VIDES+USA.                                                 
               

Go to http://www.vides.us/donate.html

Be sure to dedicate your gift to "Kenya-Mazzarello Fund."


(1) Use a credit card at PayPal or Network for Good on the VIDES+USA donate web page 


(2) Or mail a check made out to VIDES to: Sister Mary Gloria Mar 6019 Buena Vista Street, San Antonio, TX 78237 USA.

Kwaheri na Asante! (Goodbye and Thank you!)

Editing the Chronicles (or, Well, grad school's coming in handy)

To mark two months here in Kenya, I have returned to where I began. Literally. I’m back in Nairobi at the Provincial house to assist Sr. Susan in some projects. You remember that chronicle I was writing and editing for the Makuyu community? Yeah, now I’m editing all the chronicles from all the communities.

One of them was 76 pages. Ugh.

I do have an officemate though!

But seriously, it’s actually really interesting getting to read the chronicles from different communities because I’m gaining a better understanding of what the sisters here in Kenya actually do. And not every community focuses on the same type of work.

For instance, in the Makuyu community that I’ve been in, the sisters run the dispensary, the secondary school, and a children’s home. There’s a lot of interaction with the other FMA (Salesian Sisters) community that runs the technical school as well as the Salesian brothers and priests that live next door. The focus is very much on educating older youth and preparing them for the next stage of their lives. On the other hand, we also have the North Horr community, located much farther north near the border of Ethiopia. The sisters there are still in the first stages of evangelization and education. They are not only trying to bring the Catholic Faith to the area, but also educate the locals about the dangers of some of their cultural practices, particularly FGM, or female genital mutilation. (Don’t look up pictures – trust me on this.)

What maybe goes unnoticed is this constant and never-ending work to change things for the better. For the Salesian sisters here in Kenya, there is more to their mission than just evangelizing or just providing services. For the sisters in North Horr, they are trying to teach an entire people that women should be respected, that children should be able to go to school rather than grazing animals. And as one sister told me, they cannot come in as outsiders and demand this change. They have to try and teach the young people, who can then return home and influence a change in their own culture.

The girls and boys in Makuyu mostly have had some education about Catholicism and the parents already want their children to be working for an education. The area is closer to Nairobi and colonizing influence from the British. There is still a lot of corruption though and the students accept it as part of their culture. I was talking with a student who asked me what the biggest difference was between Kenya and the United States. I said it depended on where you are, but that in the United States I could leave my laptop in a classroom or library and it would still be there. However, I said, if I did that in Makuyu, it could be stolen. Then the student corrected me: it would be stolen. No could about it.

All the sisters know that they won’t see their work completed in their lifetime. Each day is a step, but each step is only part of a longer journey that must ultimately be undertaken by the people who they serve. You cannot force a culture to change and you cannot force a people to take advantage of education. But by working everyday to provide the opportunity for schooling, to offer your time and energy and heart to the people in your community, you open the door to a different way of thinking and living.

So even though I’m editing hundreds of pages of chronicles, I’m glad. I’m learning more about the realities of the sisters’ missions and my respect for them only continues to grow.

Also, there are some entries that are just straight up entertaining. For example:

“Monday: The girls from Romero went back to school very happy to see their teachers and friends. Their joy did not last because the following day all the teachers went on strike.”

Ouch.

“Thursday: Today Sr. Catherine U. gave the news to the community that there is a new Provincial of AFE and she will take over in due time. The news was taken in many different ways.”

What does ‘many different ways’ even mean?

Interesting Stories of the Week:

• This was a busy week in Makuyu as there were two birthdays and a new sister joined the community. So I have some pictures for all of you!

Our fry cook hard at work

Making delicious samosas! (they're kind of like pierogis!)

Hugs all around!

CAAAAAAAKE

Cut the cake! Cut the cake!

Om nom nom

A gift of new shoes for Sr. Shanty

Sr. Laurenzia opening her shawl 

And a gift to welcome Sr. Eusebia!

• Apparently the mosque is located very close to the community house, so we can always hear the call to prayer. The first day I was here, the call started at 4:00pm and Sr. Lucy said, “Ah, it’s time for rosary.” No joke, the call to prayer also functions as a reminder to the sisters to pray the rosary. Different faiths helping each other out! 

• Also, this is what laundry looks like when most people are wearing white habits. 

That's...a lot of white

Kiswahili phrase of the week:

• Nakula gideri kwa kijiko na sahani – I eat gideri with a spoon and plate (dinner time with the girls is very educational)

Kwaheri!