How COVID-19 Restrictions Have Affected the Apostolate of Niger-Based Order of Nuns

To ensure that the children receive the nutrients they need, the leadership at the Center gave the mothers nutritional flour to last them three weeks.

“We plan to reopen the Center because there are malnourished children who are currently in a situation of great suffering,” the nun in-charge of the center, Sr. Andre told ACN.

The nuns are helping people in distress by providing the 500 women attending their nutrition Center with kits consisting of a bucket made by local workers, as well as masks and soaps, which the nuns have made.

To show solidarity with people in villages without access to water, the nuns decided to distribute water for free from their borehole in Dan Bako from which they usually generate some income used to maintain the borehole and to pay employees.

“May the power of the Risen Lord eradicate this pandemic that is disturbing all humanity and may the Holy Spirit direct hearts to more humanity, justice and peace,” Sr.  Marie Catherine implored.

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Niger has recorded at least 932 cases of COVID-19; 764 have recovered from the disease. The West African country has reported 60 deaths related to the pandemic.

The country is dominantly Muslim who account for 96 percent of the 22.4 million people. The number of Catholics is estimated to be 25,000, spread across the Archdiocese of Niamey and the Diocese of Maradi.

Churches in the country have remained closed since March 19, as a precautionary measure to control the spread of the pandemic.

According to Bishop Ambroise Ouédraogo of Maradi, headquartered in the country’s second largest city, though the government is making “admirable efforts” to sensitize the public about COVID-19, it is proving to be “extremely difficult” for people to avoid gatherings “because the markets are vital to people’s daily survival, which results in big crowds and facilitates the spread of the virus.”

“Our country’s economy has come to a standstill. In addition to the health problems, we are very concerned about the small households whose livelihood activities have been stopped,” the Archbishop of Niamey, Djalwana Laurent Lompo told ACN adding, “We are worried about people living in rural areas who may not have food in the next few weeks.”

The initiatives undertaken by the members of the Fraternity of the Servants of Christ toward the hundreds of malnourished children as well as women who attend their nutrition Center go a long way in giving hope to the people of God in the two regions the nuns are present: Tibiri and Dan Bako communities.