A New Well for Carmelite Sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo Will you help these poor Carmelite Sisters drill their new well so they can continue in the lives of prayer and service in the Democratic Republic of Congo? They will forever remember you in their prayers. “We don’t know how we‘re going to survive,” write The Carmelite Sisters of the Glorious Saint Joseph to us, despairingly. These Carmelite Sisters in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, are suffering from a severe water shortage, and they are now becoming desperate. While they do have a well, for a year now it has not yielded any water. Since the public water supply is not functioning, even in the capital, they are entirely dependent on this well. However groundwater levels have fallen so much that the current well, which is only about 50 feet deep and which has provided the Sisters with drinking water for the past 34 years, will not yield any more water in the future. A new well will have to be drilled. Since their water supply has dried up, the Sisters’ host baking enterprise has also come to a halt. Still worse are the consequences for their vegetable garden and their livestock rearing – chickens, pigs and rabbits – which they had also built up in order to support their modest life. Normally the local women are happy to buy their produce and sell it on in the local markets, thereby providing the Sisters with a small source of income and at the same time also helping some of the poorer local women to earn a little money. But now they not only have no produce left to sell and even have to buy vegetables which they would otherwise have provided from their own garden. On top of this they can now no longer take in guests, who in the past have used the convent for retreat days, among other uses. The Sisters have turned to ACN, asking urgently for help. We have no intention of leaving them to struggle on and so we have promised them $18,600 so they can drill a new well. Will you help these poor Carmelite Sisters drill their new well so they can continue in the lives of prayer and service in the Democratic Republic of Congo? We are sure they will remember you in their grateful prayers.
Code: 115-06-19 Aid to the Church in Need commits to invest your funds where they will have the greatest impact for the Church that we serve. Funds donated to Aid to the Church in Need’s projects will be used towards the greatest need in our programs to help keep the Faith alive. |
|