Rwanda: The Pallottine Sisters – fighting to help a suffering and traumatised population

Through Prayer, God helps the people of Rwanda to overcome their suffering. @ACN
Through Prayer, God helps the people of Rwanda to overcome their suffering. @ACN

Like their fellow Rwandans throughout the country, the people of Kibeho have been deeply traumatised by the consequences of the bloody Civil War between Hutu and Tutsi in the 1990s. Together with her 40 or more fellow Pallottine Sisters, Sister Marta is doing everything in her power to ease the suffering of the thousands of refugees, of sick and hungry people whose plight has been virtually forgotten by the Western world. And indeed, the presence of the Pallottine Sisters greatly helps to ease the burden of their daily lives.

Among other things the Sisters run a drop-in centre where teenage mothers, widows and orphans are treated, including for AIDS. Their injuries are treated and inoculations given; they receive antenatal care and give birth to their children here. For those who are too sick and weak to come to the centre, the Sisters visit them at home. For the weak and undernourished they give a special feed containing milk, oil, protein and vitamins, since malnutrition and undernourishment are a major problem in the region. "Again and again we have orphans knocking on our door, as well as mothers with their little children, who have nothing for them to eat", Sister Marta explains. All such children are included in the feeding programme of the Sisters, including little Kevin, who was given into their care at the age of nine months and thereby saved from almost certain starvation. "Kevin's mother had left her husband when he refused to accept his own son. In order to give him a chance of survival, she had worked as a cleaner for wealthier families. When she brought him to us, his weight was 60% below normal for his age. We were able to save his life and feed him up. Today he weighs 10 kg, and his mother thanked us with tears in her eyes", another of the Pallottine Sisters relates.

In most cases the parents of such undernourished children do not even have a house or a strip of fertile soil. Many have no work and so cannot support themselves. The Sisters endeavour to help the parents by teaching them how to prepare a balanced meal using local produce, how to grow vegetables and keep rabbits, pigs and chickens.

Another way in which the Sisters help is by supporting girls with their schooling and general education, and they strive with courage and dedication to raise subsidies, so that their charges can attend school. In their own schools in Kigali, in the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo, 80 girls are currently learning to read, write and sew. At the same time many young people, including the handicapped, are taught vocational skills.

Thanks to the generosity of its benefactors, ACN has been helping the Pallottine Sisters for many years now. When their Mother House in the DR Congo became too small and they wanted to extend their convent in Rwanda, ACN was able to provide an initial contribution for its extension – a major help for the Pallottine congregation in Kibeho. Today in fact, this convent in Rwanda now serves as the Mother House of the congregation.

To know about this and many other similar projects in favour of the pastoral needs of the suffering Church, please contact our national offices.