Ghana: a host baking machine for the Holy Child Sisters
The „Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus“ are a congregation of women religious, founded in Nigeria. They work in healthcare and education, caring for the poor and disadvantaged and especially for women and girls, as well as working in various other social and pastoral fields.
The congregation is attracting many new vocations, especially in Ghana, and as a result a novice house was built in 1983 in the diocese of Sunyani in central western Ghana. It is here that the young sisters receive their training before taking their first vows. Obviously, it is important to provide these sisters with the best possible formation, but on account of the difficult economic situation it is not easy for a young native congregation to provide the necessary financial resources to achieve this. And so to help cover their costs, the sisters also make hosts for several of the dioceses in the country. At the same time they see this as a service to the Church and as part of their apostolate, for clearly, without hosts there is no Eucharist.
The demand is high, for the number of Catholics is growing and many also attend Holy Mass during the week as well. All of which adds up to a monthly demand for 1.5 million small hosts for the laity and 15,000 larger hosts for the priests. But with their twenty-five-year-old and frequently malfunctioning machine, the sisters could not manage to supply more than 15% of this demand, since the whole process of mixing the dough, cutting and baking the hosts was a long and painstaking one. And also quite dangerous, since the worn and damaged electrical cables posed a constant danger of electrocution.
So the sisters turned to ACN for help and, thanks to the generosity of our benefactors, we did not disappoint them. We provided 21,000 Euros for modern machinery, so that the sisters can now considerably increase their production. It also means more money available to provide a better formation for the young aspirants and postulants. Sister Christina, the novice mistresses, has expressed her heartfelt thanks to all our benefactors and writes, „May God bless you all!“
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