Once a year the Liebfrauenschule in Nottuln transfers a certain amount of money to Jecua, Mozambique, to support the project Christo Rei. This year, they collected an amount of 16,000 euros. 10,000 euros were the result of the so-called Day for Africa. There were sponsored runs for the fifth to seventh-grade students and the eighth to ninth-grade students helped with the work. 6,000 euros resulted from the sale of Advent calendars and donations. Heinrich Willenborg, principal, Michael Nieborg and Christiane Schabos, organizers of the Day for Africa, and Christiane Gutbier, in charge of the Advent calendars, thank the students for their great engagement and the parents, friends, companies, and donators for their generosity.
The Liebfrauenschule is in constant contact with the Sisters of Notre Dame in Mozambique because Susana Martins, teacher, is Portuguese and can help with translations.
The home for girls called Cristo Rei, run by the Sisters of Notre Dame, is an institution which promotes a humanitarian and religious education with special regards to competence and citizens’ rights. Currently, there are 84 girls in the boarding-school. They are between 12 and 21 years old and come from distant communities. Most of them are orphans or live with their grandparents or aunts/uncles. These families live in extreme poverty. By helping these girls, we also help their families. It even makes a difference in the whole of Mozambique because the country can count on a group of women who have acquired important basic competences for the job market.
In Cristo Rei the students attend grades 8 to 12. Here they can live and study and they are promoted. Holistic education distinguishes this school from other schools. Courses such as computer science, embroidery, housekeeping, or farming enable the girls to acquire important competences for future job prospects.
With the donated money, the kitchen shall be improved and properly equipped. A greenhouse has also been planned so that they can grow vegetables in winter. Moreover, surveillance cameras have become necessary to guarantee the safety of the mission compound. The workshops also need equipment.
To ensure the livelihoods of many students is another issue, because the boarding school preferentially admits girls from families without any financial means.
A further building site is the renovation of the first-aid rooms for natural medicine.
Sr. Liana Freitas writes that the local people are very open to natural healing, because access to pharmaceutical products is difficult and because the healers also use medicinal plants. Even the government recognizes medicinal plants as important, life-saving remedies. People are looking for healing regarding malaria, HIV/AIDS, the flu, acne, headache, sickness, diarrhea, anemia, or stomach ache.
Abbreviated report by Sr. Josefa Maria Bergmann
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