Comboni Lay Missionaries

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Africa

Letter to the confreres in situations of violence and war

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Superiores MCCJ 2014

Saturday, February 22, 2014
Some African nations are prey to violence and war, especially South Sudan and Central Africa. Our confreres who live in those nations have decided to stay with the people and share their life. A choice of courage that helps us to remember that St. Daniel Comboni continues to love and to make common cause with the poorest and most abandoned in Africa today through these confreres. The following is a letter of appreciation, encouragement and deep affection coming from the General Direction and the circumscriptions’ superiors to our confreres so that they may, in turn, console the people with whom they share their lives.

Comboni Missionaries
Via Luigi Lilio, 80
Roma

February 22th, 2014

 “Console my people, console them, says your God.”
(Isaiah 40:1)

Dearest Confreres, Sisters and Lay Missionaries
in South Sudan and the Central African Republic,

Heartfelt greetings in the name of Jesus, the Lord of the Harvest.

During these two weeks of Meetings, prayer and reflection that Provincial and Delegation Superiors have shared with the General Direction of our Institute, we have followed with the greatest of concern the situation of wanton violence afflicting the countries in which you live.

We cannot remain indifferent to your plight and so wish to address these words of communion and fraternity to you.

Pain and death continue to indelibly mark out the way of the Mission. The telling witness of your remaining on and sharing the lot of the people you are called to serve in the midst of such mindless violence serves to remind us that St. Daniel Comboni continues to love, and make common cause with, the poorest and most abandoned in Africa today. Your wonderful witness in such tragic circumstances makes the presence of Comboni very much alive and active.

We are also aware of the political and economic interests that have brought about such a profound crisis in your societies: placing the many ethnic and religious elements present in trenchant opposition to one another, and rendering evermore precarious the peaceful co-existence that has prevailed between such groups over many years. The humanitarian crisis that this has provoked is without precedent. We know that the doors of many of our Parishes and Houses of Formation have remained open to welcome, accompany and console thousands of those displaced by the fighting and often fleeing for their very lives. This is without doubt an integral part of our ministry of ‘consolation’ among peoples that earnestly seek peace. We wish to share the risks and the dangers that you are living, your solidarity and something of your wonderful courage.

We can but recall the words our Father and Founder wrote a week before he died: “Everything that God wishes comes about. God never abandons the one who trusts in Him. He is the protector of innocence and the vindicator of righteousness. I am happy in the Cross which, when borne willingly out of love for God, gives birth to victory and eternal life” (Writings, No. 7246), and the words he spoke on his death-bed, “Courage for the present, but above all, courage for the future”.

We earnestly pray for a complete cessation to all violence and to the violation of human rights, that justice, peace and reconciliation may break through the boundaries of what is humanly-speaking ‘impossible’ and find a home in the hearts of all men and women of goodwill in your countries.

We embrace you all with tenderness and affection; you are very much present in our thoughts and prayers. May St. Daniel Comboni protect each one of you and every one entrusted to your care.

The Superior-General and His Council,
Provincial and Delegation Superiors,
and the General Direction of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus

The Importance of the Land

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Land is fundamental to the lives of the people in this region because they survive fundamentally on what they produce in the machamba (the farm, or the land where they cultivate their harvest). Sadly, megaprojects come arriving claiming large areas of land that belong to the population. I say “belong to the population” since in Moçambique, in accordance with the constitution, the land belongs to the Republic, to benefit the people, and it´s because of this that the land which pertains to the state cannot be sold to or owned by a particular person or institution. These megaprojects can obtain a certificate to the approval and right to use this land for a determined period of time (DUAT).

In spite of the possibility of this documentation, customary right is also considered valid, where every national that makes use of the determined area for more than 10 years has the right to use the land and with guaranteed approval regarding its use. It so happens that with the lack of knowledge, the larger part of the population have been retired to their respective locations and the areas where they normally cultivate, by foreign businesses that arrive – the majority of times supported by the government or local authority.

By not knowing this right of theirs to the area, and for seeing that who arrives has “papers” that concedes the right of this land to that particular person, many times the population simply abandons the area and they are left without ways in which to react and without a place to work their sustenance. It´s because of that, in the past few years, the Diocese of Nacala, through the Commission of Justice and Peace, have developed a work of consciousitizing the population about the Law of the Land of 1997. Despite the antiquity of the law, so little is known or divulged about it, since there is no interest that the population of farmers knows their rights. Besides that, the Diocese also gives support in obtaining the community DUAT of the “regulados” (form of social organization of communities, where there is a local authority, namely the régulo, considered by the community to be the traditional person of responsibility in that area). This last Sunday, we were in one more community to present and explain to the population their rights about the land, with the presence of a Moçambican attorney to accompany the processes, to explain the way in which to obtain the document, as a major security for the customary right they already have to the land.

The interest is huge. It appears as though the populations are each time around more and more worried with the situations that are coming to pass. There were close to 190 people present, amongst them Christians, Muslims, and those of traditional religions. After all, these meetings are for the whole population, since everyone has a right to the land. And so, that community was given the first steps with which to follow through with the process. We will pray for all the people who suffer from the lack of land for their sustenance, and for that reality in our Brasil, and for those experiencing the same in several other countries. We will seek work so that the land can be used to benefit the people, and not just for the interests of a particular few. We are together, united in prayer and in mission! A huge embrace since Mozambique!

By Flávio Schmidt Brasiliam CLM in Mozambique

From Silence

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Retreat Centre

Maggie and I took time away recently for a 10 day silent prayer retreat at Galilee Retreat Centre, which is set on the edge of a volcanic crater lake in the highlands of Ethiopia.  We not only remained in silence from other people; Maggie and I were accommodated in separate cabins at opposite ends of the property, in silence even from each other.  This was to be my first ‘directed’ retreat of such length where I would break silence just once each day for a 30 minute meeting with a spiritual director who would help guide the movements percolating within my own prayer.

On day one, my spiritual director, Fr. Wolde Meskel, an Ethiopian priest, asked me what my aspirations were for the retreat time and I shared a few things all related to wanting to be closer to Jesus.  Next he completely caught me off guard – he asked me to pack away for the rest of the retreat all the spiritual books which I had brought. What? Not even glance at them?  He assured me that even if the books I had brought were filled with great insights, busying my mind cerebrally reading about God is not the same as getting to know God, from experiencing him at work within me.  Instead Fr. Wolde would give me a very short biblical text so that I might simply sit in silence with God.

I left our meeting wondering how I could sit for 10 days in silence with only a few words from the bible. For two days I was squirmy and restless and swung some punches into the air of silence.  I guess I had a pre-conceived notion about what my time with God was going to be like – I was dictating the terms.  I came to realize how much I felt the ‘need’ to feel productive even in my prayer time.  By the third day I was able to detach myself from my previous retreat plans and I finally surrendered.  And so my real retreat began.

What did I do those days? Practically, I did nothing. My silent days unfolded by following a routine of one hour meditations throughout the day based on only a few verses at a time, the beatitudes of St. Matthew’s Gospel consuming most of the week.  I found that I am quite uncomfortable with silence.  I am cultured to the craziness and busy pace of our modern society and accustomed to the noise, sensory stimulation and distraction, but in this background it is very difficult to hear the gentle voice of God whispering.  I am afraid to be so alone because it forces me to confront whether I truly love and accept the person I am spending all my time with.  It forces me to confront my weaknesses and past, and sit exposed before God in a way where I cannot hide my greatest faults or the ways I lack faith.

In the first days I really had to fight my need to be more productive and efficient, but then this need somehow melted.   After a few days, I was savoring every moment of solitude.  In reality what I did those days was simply waste time with Jesus – to learn about his life in those few verses; to ponder his personality; to contemplate his interactions with people; to soak up his words; to perceive the way he loved.   In gazing on him and letting my preoccupations with myself go, I was able to enter that place within me where God resides and to where he is inviting me to come, to stay and to be with him.

What happened that retreat week was actually indicative of a change that has been brewing in me during these last years.  Silence is slowly transforming me.  More and more now I crave it, because what I want is Jesus – close and unfiltered.  In silence, I find him, revealing himself to me.  Life here in Ethiopia is busy and most of my days feel just as demanding as life back in Toronto.  But slowly, I am becoming a hermit, right in the middle of the world.   I am still focused on carrying out the hectic work of each day, but I cherish the times when I follow the voice of God and sit with him in all his splendor, even for a moment.

– Mark

Maggie, Mark and Emebet Banga, Comboni Lay Missionaries, Awassa, Ethiopia

Nomadic Healthcare

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croppedThe mission of Dadim is located in the remote Borana zone in the far south of Ethiopia, near the border of Kenya. The name Dadim comes from “dakkaa diimaa” which means red stone and the origin is obvious after placing your foot on the bright red soil of Dadim for the first time.  The road from Awassa until the turn off for the mission is relatively good because it is the main asphalt road that connects Ethiopia to Kenya. But the final 11 km to the mission takes 1 hour in a good 4-wheel drive during the dry season and becomes impassible in the rainy season.  There are two priests here, Fr. Boniface from Kenya and Fr. Iede, from the Netherlands, and 3 religious sisters, Anila, Annie and Shirley, from India who together operate a parish, school, community centre and clinic.  Fr. Iede has spent the better part of his life here in Dadim – he arrived in 1973 upon the request of the Borana Elders to establish the first education services in the region. He slept the first two years in a tent.  Despite the Borana elders lack of formal education, they identified education as a priority and hoped that a higher educational level would prepare their children to cope better with the changes affecting the pastoralists as a group. After establishing the first school, the focus shifted to health and in 1981 the first healthcare services began.  Dadim’s location was selected since it was in a “no-man’s” land located between the grazing areas and major water points of three pastoralists ethnic groups: Borana, Guji and Ghabra. This would mean that all three groups would peacefully have access to educational and health services with school children remaining in their surroundings and therefore in touch with their indigenous pastoralist life style.

Walking into the Dadim Clinic today, after 30 years of development, we were quite impressed with the polished setup. We were however surprised to see that only 15 patients will come for treatment on any given day despite it being the main health centre in the area serving approximately 27,000 people.  This is because the Borana people are largely pastoralists (semi-nomadic animal herders) and especially now during the dry season they are moving from place to place in search of food and water for their animals.

Cattle and camels are fundamental to their way of life. In the dry season the whole concentration of the Borana centers on water and grass – two vital resources for the maintenance of their herds and consequently their livelihood. The Borana have developed complex management systems and societal rules for the access rights, control and sustainable development of the two precious resources of grass and water. As the dry season causes sources to vanish, they pack up their simple grass houses and few possessions, and simply move closer to the last valuable sources like water bore holes and hand-dug wells.  The Borana diet revolves mainly around milk – from cows, camels and goats.  The annual cycle of rainy and then dry seasons can be seen in the physical appearance (and underlying health) of both the people and their herds.  Both go from plump to withered, from vibrant to emaciated as the seasons roll on.

Given the pastoralist lifestyle, health care delivery is a challenge to say the least.  The Dadim clinic remains as the central treatment hub, but the health care program involves a massive outward deployment into community based health care.  For this reason three days a week the staff go out to find the Borana wherever they are – delivering anti natal care, vaccinations, and some limited acute patient care truly in the middle of nowhere!  Actually, it is not in the middle of nowhere for the Borana (the clinic has a set of 15 health posts with a network of community health workers who mobilize people to the posts), but it sure feels like it is.

When we were visiting Dadim, we accompanied the sisters and staff out to one of these remote outreach health posts.  It was an adventure to find the road (or rather make our own road) through the thorny acacia tree covered savannah.  Nausea was the theme of the trip as the 4WD lurched up and down over the water-chiseled landscape. When it does rain here on the savannah, it rains hard – so hard that the parched ground instantly becomes a flood zone and this violent flow of water scars the land.  On the drive we saw gigantic hares, tiny dik dik gazelles (the size of small dogs), beautiful zebras and of course lots of camels.

Finally we spotted our destination – a small collection of mud huts on the crest of a hill. We parked the car under the shade of a tree and began to unload little tables, chairs, record books, a cooler storing the vaccines and other supplies. We could see woman and children converging, ascending the hill from all directions. When some older children saw the Sisters they affectionately called out “Yoya!” which means I embrace you.  There was one vacant mud hut which seemed suitable for children’s vaccinations, another hut for ante-natal care and the acute patient care would be provided from the back of the truck.

The Borana people here are completely different from the Sidama ethnic group with whom we work and live in Awassa.  The Borana women wear vibrant clothes and large beaded necklaces, and have their sleepy sweaty-faced babies tightly wrapped in colourful fabrics.

The women came from both near and far and stayed most of the day under the shade of the tree, laughing and chatting with one another. There was a public health nurse, a local Borana man, with us and at an opportune moment when all were gathered together he gave an ‘awareness creation’ lesson on HIV/AIDS which included sharing the benefits of voluntarily getting tested.  Throughout the day, upwards of 150 women arrived for this ‘mobile’ clinic.

This kind of health care delivery is not without serious challenges, both practical, financial and clinical. Sometimes the sisters and staff end up travelling on very bad roads for up to 90 km, and then work in the heat all day, without proper lunch. Also, the costs of fuel, trucks and bonuses paid to staff make these trips very expensive. The health care quality offered through the remote outreach posts is low without a proper place to perform patient exams, limited equipment and without laboratory facilities.   The Dadim clinic is working to evolve the health care model by training a network of health extension workers (such as Traditional Birth Attendants) who actually live in the Borana communities. They are also strengthening the services offered through the central clinic. Now after decades of supporting the local people to achieve higher education in healthcare, 20 of the 22 clinic staff are local Borana.  That means that local Borana are serving their fellow people to work together to build stronger society. So as the pastoralist lifestyle inevitably changes, the Borana will be better equipped not only to navigate the change but help plot its course.

– Maggie, Mark and Emebet Banga, Comboni Lay Missionaries, Awassa, Ethiopia