Refugee Relief
A
TREMENDOUS CHALLENGE – SIGNS OF HOPE
Over
the past seven or eight years I’ve been working with a project in Kenya
very dear to my heart. After an exploratory trip to war ravaged
Southern Sudan in April 1990, I spent several days in Kakuma, a large
camp inside Kenya not far from the Sudanese border. There I found
tens of thousands of uprooted, frightened, hungry and sick victims of
the horrors perpetrated by the Khartoum government in Sudan. How
could I possibly help in some little but significant way to ease the
pain so unjustly forced on these brothers and sisters?
I found my inspiration in the dedication
of a German Dominican Sister, Luise Radlmeier, O.P , sometimes referred
to as “Mother of Sudanese Refugees”.. Over the past 25 years
Sister Luise has provided education for hundreds of primary and
secondary school children, some of whom were eventually repatriated,
while for others she was able to facilitate their emigration to a third
country. Through the generosity of many relatives and friends I am
blessed to help Sister provide for the needs of so many poor children.
Our
work has progressed far beyond Sister Luise’s original vision. In
addition to the Sudanese refugees still schooling in Kenya, we also care
for 260 Aids-afflicted children in two orphanages and 18 abandoned
children, rescued from the roadside by the police when they were only
three to five days old. Another 90 Aids orphans still live with
their grandmammas. All these children depend on us for food,
shelter, education, clothing and medical care. For $0.60 a day we
can manage to care adequately for a child in primary school, while a
secondary school child requires at least $1.00 per day.
The most urgent need just now is to
assist escaped former child soldiers, who suffered so much brutality at
the hands of various rebel leaders back in their native lands.
These children, captured and forced into military service as early as
eight years of age, were stripped of all human dignity, their childhood
and adolescence stolen from them, some having been forced to kill their
own parents and siblings as part of their savage indoctrination. After
spending months and years in active combat, those who survived are now
too old for formal education, but we do provide them with trauma
counseling and skills-training programs. (To learn more about the
plight of child soldiers in Africa, I highly recommend the book, A
Long Way Gone, in which the author, Ishmael Beah, writes graphically
about his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.).
St. Kizito Technical Institute, staffed
by missionaries from Italy, offers courses in mechanics, carpentry,
tailoring, plumbing, electrical, and welding. All these skills
will be in high demand in rebuilding their war-torn country once these
young men are free to return home. Each year we enroll 50 new
former child soldiers for a two-year program. so there are always 100
boys in training. Having escaped with nothing, they must be provided
with everything: tuition fees, tools, clothing, medical care and
subsistence allowance. Provided with such skills, they are
gradually enabled to rediscover their own human dignity and ever so
noticeably their trauma abates. These young men are the most
vulnerable and are most in need of our support. You can help us to
bring them hope and new life.
Two parishes in Germany provide some
financial assistance but never enough to cover all the costs for the
rehabilitation of these orphans, Aids victims, abandoned children and
ex-child soldiers. We are firmly convinced that only with
education will the cycle of poverty enslaving them be broken, so that
once again they can learn to enjoy the freedom which is their right as
children of God.
Why are we so committed to this
ministry? We are challenged by the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
“Whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters you do for
me.” We have no other option. We must respond in faith to
that challenge. It is your challenge as well! Please join
with us in doing this work of God. Our country is presently
experiencing difficult economic times, which only means that your
sacrifice will be greater, but so will your reward! God is never
outdone in generosity.
Please make your
generous check payable to C.O.S.S.
and send it to:
fr. Bert Ebben, O.P.
Dominican Friars
304 East Park Drive
Raleigh, NC 27605.
*C.O.S.S. stands for Christ Our Suffering
Servant, which is the umbrella name for the group of development
projects of our mission to Kenya.
