Posted by Information Report on 25/7/2012, 2:08 pm
Board Administrator

ACN Information Report, Wednesday, 25th July 2012 – CAMEROON “Without your hands we could not live” – The Carmelites sisters of Dimako in Cameroon By Reinhard Backes All over the world, religious sisters work to help others and to bring hope. They live within convent walls or in corrugated iron huts. They run old people’s homes in middle-class suburbs, or welfare centres in run-down districts. Religious sisters are at home in almost every culture. Most people appreciate them, although they are sometimes subject to mockery – which hardly bothers the sisters because they expect no applause for their service. Their lives are devoted entirely to prayer or to helping the poorest of the poor. One such example is the Carmelites of the Child Jesus in Dimako in Cameroon, who have been active in Africa – including Burundi and Ruanda among other countries – for 30 years. The religious community was founded in Poland in 1921 and came to Dimako in 2003. Jan Ozga, the Bishop of Doumé-Abong’ Mbang – who also comes from Poland – had asked the sisters to take over a missionary station in the town that been abandoned for 17 years. The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) helped in the building’s renovation. Today, the station has its own vegetable garden and a well. But this is not the only way in which the Carmelites have brought new life to the place. Here, all are welcomed “who seek to live as children of God”, as the sisters emphasise, regardless of which tribe or religion they adhere to. (Carmelite Sister Ilona Firszt with one of her pupils) Dimako is a small town in the south-east of Cameroon with some 32,000 inhabitants. Poverty is tangible here, and the number of children per family is high. Cameroon is a young country; two-thirds of the population are under 25 years of age. In Dimako, which belongs to the Diocese of Doumé-Abong’ Mbang, many people depend principally on what they themselves can grow. As a rule, their modest means are insufficient to ensure their own health and that of their family as well as their children’s education. The people are helped by the Carmelites of the Child Jesus. Five sisters and an aspirant are currently living in Dimako. Three sisters come from Poland, and one each from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the aspirant is a Cameroonian. Two of the Carmelites are trained nurses and they care for some 30 patients every day. They are practically always on call. In addition to the clinic, the Carmelites also run a kindergarten and a primary school. Currently, both facilities are regularly attended by well over two hundred children, who are not only looked after but are also given food there. One of them expressed their thanks by saying “without your hands we could not live”, as Sister Jacqueline Tshibangu from the Democratic Republic of the Congo recalled during a visit to the international headquarters of ACN. As well as caring for sick people and children, the sisters also carry out pastoral work among the youth. They lead catechisms for children and young people, and prepare them for first communion and confirmation. As well as helping the poor and needy, the Carmelites are particularly concerned with strengthening the position of women. “We encourage them to finish their education and only later to marry,” emphasises Sister Ilona Firszt from Poland. “Of course we also tell them about sexual education and natural family planning,” Sister Tshibangu adds. Access to education is of immense importance, particularly for women, because it can transform their situation in the long-term. ACN fosters women’s religious communities around the world. Since 1994 alone, it has supported 17,451 projects initiated by religious sisters, including those of the Carmelites of the Child Jesus in Dimako. (Pupils of the primary school of the Carmelite Sisters in Dimako, Cameroon) 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 7246 Baulkham Hills NSW 2153. On Line donations can be made at www.aidtochurch.org