School Sisters of Notre Dame Province of Africa 1303
*Appeal Weekend of August 2nd & 3rd
Will be at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church (Downey) || Parish Website - Check for Mass Times
The School Sisters of Notre Dame is an international congregation of women religious founded in 1833 in Germany by Mother Theresa of Jesus Gerhardinger. By 1847 Sisters were sent to the United States to help educate children of the German immigrants. Currently, there are over 1800 Sisters ministering in 28 countries around the world.
In the early 1970s several bishops in Africa requested School Sisters of Notre Dame to come to their dioceses to help improve the quality of life and the level of education for the girls and women. Sisters were sent to begin ministries in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 1990 Sisters from the Polish province began two missions in The Gambia.
Our charism calls us to education in its broadest sense, helping all people to reach the fullness of their potential. Education of the girls in Africa lags far behind that of the boys. Because of this, Sisters works in many secondary schools for girls in rural areas where the girls have little opportunity for education. We also have Sisters teaching in already established primary and secondary schools as well as on the tertiary level in the newly begun Catholic University in Sierra Leone and at Tangaza College in Kenya.
SSND has a clinic with maternity facilities in Ghana which caters especially to the poor women and children but treats all who come, whether they can fully pay or not. In that same area a Sister is director of the Orthopedic Training Centre to provide physical rehabilitation for children and adults maimed due to accidents.
In 2010 at the urging of the Bishop of Home Bay Diocese in Kenya, we began an outreach program to some of the 8,000 children orphaned by AIDs. This is in a very rural area near Nyalienga. The Sisters care for approximately 200 young people and their guardians.
We are blessed with many vocations in Africa. We have a postulancy in Kisumi, Kenya and our African novices participate in our International Novitiate in Rome. Currently we have twelve postulants and seven novices. Because many of these young women enter the congregation without advanced education, each year a number of Sisters work toward either a degree or certification for a lifetime of ministry.
The Sisters in Africa do a great deal of ministry beyond their primary work. Many of them work with youth groups or parish organizations. Often those working in schools also mentor the younger teachers to improve the quality of teaching. Those Sisters who work as nurses do much teaching of the patients concerning how to prevent disease, how to give the children good nutrition using the local foods and what proper sanitation can do for the families.
There are 95 School Sisters of Notre Dame ministering in our African Province. Of these Sisters 85 are African women. These Sisters touth the lives of thousands of men, women and children each day through the schools, clinics and hospitals and the parishes. Lives truly are transformed!
The Province is in process of building two schools: one in Abuga Archdiocese in Nigeria and one in Nyalieng'a Kenya. Emphasis is focused on early childhood education. Construction costs are very high.
We cannot do it alone. We need your prayer and generous support for the upkeep of the Sisters as well as for their ministries. Particularly in this time of the upset of the global economy, we welcome your support.
To learn more about the Sisters of Notre Dame - Province of Africa, visit our YouTube channel here. Or visit our websitehere.
Support the School Sisters of Notre Dame Province of Africa 1303
You can support the School Sisters of Notre Dame Province of Africa #1303 through your prayers and monetary donation by making a check payable to THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH, 3424 Wilshire Blvd 3rd Fl., Los Angeles CA 90010, memo #1303. You may also donate online by clicking the donate button. When making an online donation, reference #1303 in the Memo box. Your donation is tax-deductible as allowed by law.
