Mission in Action
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Sense of Security SISTER'S LOVE REACHES OUT TO STREET CHILDREN OF VIETNAM
AN AUSTRALIAN LORETO SISTER IS HELPING TO GIVE LOVE AND SHELTER TO THE HOMELESS CHILDREN OF HO CHI MINH CITY
HOMELESS children are a problem most poorer countries have to deal with -
and Vietnam is no exception.
In Ho Chi Minh City alone there are an estimated 25,000 children living on
the streets.
Many of these children get caught up in the underworld of drugs and
prostitution as they move into the bigger cities.
The Loreto Sisters, with the help of expatriates and supporters in
Australia, are helping these children.
They are working to change the lives of many of these children through the
Loreto Vietnam-Australia Program (LVAP).
Program founder and co-ordinator, Loreto Sister Trish Franklin, has been
involved in the rescue and education of underprivileged children in Vietnam
for eight years.
Sr Franklin was born in Ballarat and entered the Loreto Sisters in 1970,
teaching in a number of Australian Loreto schools and colleges for 15 years.
When the Australian provincial of the Loreto order sent her to work in
refugee camps in Thailand in 1985 she realised her dream to be among the
poor.
She was sent to Vietnam in 1997 where she started the Loreto
Vietnam-Australia Program.
She has a number of projects in the country including shelters for street
children, a school for the blind and a school for intellectually and
physically disabled children in Ho Chi Minh City and a number of rural
school projects.
The program helps to maintain schools, build classrooms and motivate
children to stay in school in rural and remote areas as well as supporting
scholarship programs.
She was in Australia recently to thank her many donors and visited Loreto
Mandeville Hall in Toorak, Victoria to brief senior students on how the
program had helped more than 2000 blind, disabled and street children since
it began operating in 1997.
She said poor and struggling families in rural and remote areas had low and
unstable incomes, resulting in a high number of school drop-outs as the
children were forced to look for work to feed their families.
She said the high unemployment and overpopulation in rural areas also forced
many families to migrate to the big cities, which caused the break-up of
families which, in turn, led to the absence of role models for the children.
In some cases children ended up being 'sold' or abandoned, she said.
'They sleep on the streets and become scavengers, beggars, shoe-shiners,
market labourers, carriers, dish washers and prostitutes,' Sr. Franklin
said.
'Apart from lacking self-esteem and security, they suffer from hunger and
poor health, receive no schooling and have few values.'
She said this made them more vulnerable to drugs, alcohol, crime, sexual
abuse and violence.
The program's two shelters for street children in Ho Chi Minh City, Sunrise
House for girls and Sunlight House for boys, takes in children from the
streets or unhappy family situations and provides them with a safe home.
The program helps to put these children into neighbouring schools to learn
to read and write or into vocational training centres, where they receive
training for future employment.
In the shelters the children experience a sense of security and receive
counselling about health issues such as drugs and sexual transmitted
diseases like HIV/AIDS.
Many of the children also suffer from the legacy of chemical warfare,
medical problems during pregnancy, hereditary traits and unhygienic living
conditions.
There are about 70,000 children who are blind in Vietnam and of the 5.2
million disabled people, many who have lost arms or legs or both to the
unexploded landmines left after the war, about 22,000 disabled children live
in Ho Chi Minh City.
LVAP is involved in the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School where more than 200 blind
children are taught English to help them increase their job prospects.
Sr Franklin said LVAP supplemented food, clothing, learning materials,
braille paper and a 'sound soccer' team for these children.
'The program also provides financial support for a music program and to
train teachers,' she said.
LVAP also supports the Sunrise Special School in Ho Chi Minh City to help
train teachers in theory-based disability studies, participatory approaches
for children's learning and community based rehabilitation.
To help the work of the Loreto Sisters in Vietnam write to Loreto
Vietnam-Australia Program, PO Box 74, Albert Park, Vic 3206.
Courtesy of Catholic Leader, Brisbane
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JAPANESE SEMINARIANS LEARN DIFFERENT SIDE OF LIFE
FOUR SEMINARIANS FROM JAPAN ARE TAKING INSPIRING IMAGES OF POOR PEOPLE LAUGHING, DANCING, PRAYING AND EATING TOGETHER HOME WITH THEM AFTER A MONTH IN THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES.
On their return journey to Saitama diocese northwest of Tokyo, Yoshikawa Takamasa, Noma Atsushi, John Fujita Megumi and Joachim Nguyen Quoc Dinh recalled their days in Makilala parish, Kidapawan diocese, where they stayed for most of their exposure visit.
Embracing the faith
During a stop in Davao City, Yoshikawa said the aim of the program was for the seminarians to see how Filipinos embrace and live their faith. Such exposure, the 32-year-old seminarian said, will better prepare them for their future ministry in Saitama, where a large percentage of churchgoers are Filipino entertainers and other migrant workers.
Yoshikawa recalled how the four climbed up Mount Apo to reach the home of their host parishioner in Batasan village, eight kilometers from the parish centre. “It was really steep, but it was worth the effort,” he said.
His seminary mate Fujita, a philosophy student, said he was relieved there were no snakes as they scaled the slope, grabbing onto roots and vines.
Unfamiliar territory
Mosquitoes, the lack of toilet facilities and local toilet habits were some features of rural life the seminarians were not used to. Uniformed army and police in the neighborhood were another unfamiliar sight, prompting Dinh to imagine that danger threatened amid the laughter and kindness.
Military men, the ethnic Vietnamese seminarian said, are only common in Japan during times of “serious trouble.” Locals told the seminarians the patrols were on the lookout for guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Communist-led New Peoples’ Army who camp in the hinterlands.
Sense of faith
Fujita said the people’s “deep sense of Catholic faith” awed him. “Many children go to Mass after school,” he noted.
“In Japan”, Noma added, “people are too busy with worldly concerns. They enjoy a lot more comforts, but these come with many pressures and much stress,” he said. The group’s “entertainer”, he was popular in Makilala for his version of jivey Philippine dances like “Otso-Otso” and “Spaghetti”. “Young and old begged him to dance and he gave in with so much enjoyment,” his companions teased.
Community spirit
Yoshikawa observed that “Filipinos say a lot of prayers, and when they pray, they express the light in their hearts.” Dinh was moved that in “any barrio (the smallest administrative unit) in Kidapawan, parishioners walked long distances to church, even when the weather was poor.”
The four noted the presence of Small Christian Communities which are uncommon in their own diocese. Batasan village’s 20 families have formed two Small Christian Communities. When the seminarians visited the mountain community, they observed the groups’ Bible-sharing sessions, Catechism lessons and monthly Mass. WM
UCAN