Success Story: a vehicle for pastoral work among the indigenous peoples of the San Jose Diocese
For the past seven years Sister Anita has been working among the indigenous peoples of the diocese of San Jose, supporting them with wise counsel and ministering to their needs. She looks after the children in the primary schools, making sure they have enough to eat, helping them with their studies and teaching them the Catholic faith. She helps and advises the women and organises all kinds of different activities for the young people. „It is a joy and a blessing for me“, she says, speaking of her work.
But for some time there has been a problem. For she has to travel to visit the people in the villages where they live, and the distances in this mountainous region are considerable. The only transport, just twice a week, is a so-called „Jeepney“, a public minibus, that travels through the various villages and back into the city. But it is constantly impossibly overcrowded. People cram in, with their sacks of rice and cement and bulky cardboard boxes, and some passengers even have to sit on the roof. And the journeys take forever, because at every stop there are things to be offloaded and then onloaded onto the minibus, as some passengers get off and new ones get on. And if you miss one Jeepney, you have to wait three days for the next one. Needless to say, this made Sister Anita‘s work extremely difficult, and so she turned to ACN for help.
Now, thanks to the generosity of our kind benefactors, we have been able to provide 25,000 Euros for the purchase of a sturdy vehicle that can cope with the untarred roads and the rough and often muddy tracks. Sister Anita is overjoyed and writes, „Your help is a blessing and a great support for our apostolate among the native peoples. Many thanks! We are so happy! And now we are all the more eager and determined to go out to the faithful and serve the Church.“
