Greetings everyone here present. I shall begin with a short song:
“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren that you so do unto me. When I was hungry, you gave me to eat, when I was thirsty you gave me to drink. Now enter into the home of my Father.”
The Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of Cameroon, Africa, is a group of Consecrated women founded in 1963 whose main purpose is to glorify God through our lives in the service of his Church. We were founded mainly to raise the status of women and those living on society’s margins. This we do through our apostolates of health services, education at all levels, and socio-pastoral care.
At this moment in our history and the history of my country Cameroon, there is an ongoing political crisis that started in 2016 and has caused so many lives (about 6,000 have lost their lives as of July 2023), many have been displaced (about 638,400 internally to the Frenchspeaking regions of the country), and 64,000 to neighboring Nigeria. All these statistics can be verified on the Human Rights Watch website. I personally watched people’s houses being burnt down, people being shot dead, schools closed down, and hospitals burned down.
Many displaced young people have resorted to prostitution as the easy way out to survive. Four years ago, the sisters took the bull by the horns and rented a shelter in one of the Frenchspeaking towns where they gathered some girls, and mothers with babies and tried to provide feeding and education for the young. So far, about 5 girls have graduated from high school already. Two of these girls lost their parents during the crisis and have nowhere to go.
Our vision is to construct a bigger shelter that can accommodate at least 100 and begin some training in skill acquisition such as poultry, fish farming, weaving of baskets, dressmaking, etc which can benefit everyone. We managed to purchase land and now need about $285,000 for construction. To keep a child in the shelter for one year costs $250. To send a child to school for one whole year costs $266.
Every one cent donation will be very much appreciated and well accounted for, and will go a long way to relieve the suffering of these beloved children of God and put smiles once more on their beautiful faces distorted by so much suffering.
God bless you all.
Thank you,
Sister Vera Ndifoin, SST
For more information, please visit their website: sevfoundation.org
