Advent is here. This week begins the Season of Advent and we wait and prepare for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. This year we decided that each Sunday of Advent we would share with you a word that embodies the season and that is also at the heart of our projects located throughout the developing world.
This First Sunday of Advent we start with the word HOPE.
We know that HOPE is the desire of obtaining a future good that is often times difficult to attain. This future good draws out a person's volition and desire to succeed. HOPE is the opposite of despair, it's an opening to the future, of what is to come.
This is what our project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is all about – giving HOPE to the community of Kolwezi.
For the residents of Kolwezi, poverty, hunger, disease and the dangerous mining industry are a fact of life. However, thanks to the work of our Good Shepherd Sisters and the local community members things have started to slowly change. They turned an unused structure into first, a community meeting place to discuss their problems and ideas, and later into an "informal" primary school with hundreds of children enrolled. The Sisters also spearheaded a women’s outreach and protection program, as well as a development project - the Maisha Farm Cooperative - that makes the residents less dependent on the mining industry for economic survival. To learn more about the project click here.
All of this has given the community HOPE for a better, more sustainable future.
You can see what is happening in Kolwezi by watching our new documentary film called “Maisha: A New Life Outside the Mines" that premiered in Rome in October. The 30-minute film shows the dangers of the mining industry, the blatant exploitation of women and children but also our project that is helping the most at-risk by giving an alternative to the mines and a chance a better life.
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