Ouagadougou, 22 January, 2020 / 1:17 am (ACI Africa).
Days after reports cited West African-based official of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) calling upon stakeholders in the African Sahel region to go beyond military intervention and address the root causes of the region’s conflict including “extreme poverty, high youth unemployment, a lack of education,” leaders of a religious congregation of nuns have shared about their initiative in providing a safe haven for victims of the conflict.
Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), the General Superior and the former General Superior of Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (SIC) have given an account of their humanitarian activities in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.
The General Superior of the congregation, Sr. Pauline and the former general superior Sr. Marie-Bernadette have been quoted as telling the pontifical charitable organization, ACN that members of their institute take in refugees on daily basis.
Most of the beneficiaries of this apostolate to refugees, the nuns said, are wives who have lost husbands during the crisis, especially because terrorists have usually targeted men. Other beneficiaries are children and the elderly.
Some of the needs the nuns provide to the refugees include “bread, water, a little soap, but also especially a sympathetic hearing, a gesture of gentleness, of being loved, even if only for a day, after what they have been through.”
