Posted by ACN News on 27/4/2012, 8:59 am
Board Administrator

Papua New Guinea: Sisters struggle against forced marriage and child trafficking By Reinhard Backes “Forced marriage is a major problem in Papua New Guinea. Girls are sold when they are only 13 or 14 years old. We want to help to change this tradition.” This is how Sister Maria del Sagrario described the work of her Institute in the Diocese of Vanimo at a meeting with the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). In that remote and poorly-developed region in the north-west of Papua New Guinea, the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará (SSVM) operate a hostel for young women. According to Sister Maria del Sagrario, 19 girls between 13 and 19 years of age are living there at present. They were sent by their parents, who want to protect their daughters from the traditional form of forced marriage. ACN supports the initiative: the hostel in Vanimo is currently undergoing considerable enlargement because at the moment it does not offer sufficient space for either the girls or the sisters; up till now the sisters have only had one single room for their use. (Girls learning to sew at the "Lujan Home for Girls") In the words of Sister Maria del Sagrario, even today large areas of Papua New Guinea are little developed; ancient traditions remain alive, such as the custom of selling underage girls to men for marriage. Payment is often in the form of pigs or other domestic animals. This practice is also frequent among the faithful. “Although Christians are numerous, the culture of the country is still far away from the influence of the Gospels,” says Sister Maria. For the sisters there is only one answer to this: Christian education, especially for girls. (On the right: Sister Maria del Sagrario) The religious Institute, Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, was founded in Argentina in 1988. Some Matará sisters lead contemplative lives and devote themselves exclusively to prayer in order to support their fellow sisters who concern themselves with social, charitable and pastoral initiatives. Through their withdrawn lifestyle, entirely devoted to serving their neighbours, they seek to remember the women who accompanied Jesus Christ until His death and who kept vigil beneath the Cross. The sisters wear a crucifix on their breast which, alongside the figure of the crucified Christ, also displays numerous symbols. It was carved in the late 1500s by a member of the Matará tribe, native peoples in the north of Argentina in the vicinity of today’s city of Santiago del Estero, who were evangelized by the Jesuits. At present, 6 Matará sisters are working in Papua New Guinea. Editor’s Notes Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action. The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, Aid to the Church in Need’s Child’s Bible – God Speaks to his Children has been translated into 162 languages and 48 million copies have been distributed all over the world. While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material. For more information or to make a donation to help the work of Aid to the Church in Need, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. On Line donations can be made at www.aidtochurch.org