Presentation Sisters Union North East Ireland Union of Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Working for change to sustain people and earth
International Presentation Association
Our mission is to speak and act in partnership with others for global justice from a contemplative stance in a spirit of oneness with the whole of creation. ( 2017 IPA Assembly)
See: http://internationalpresentationassociation.org/about/
As Presentation people we have become aware that we live in a global world. We are aware that everything is connected and that what happens locally affects the whole world just as what happens globally affects the local situation. Our foundress Nano Nagle had a global vision at a time when people were only beginning to discover the extent of the world’s boundaries. We know that to carry out the mission of Jesus in the spirit of Nano Nagle in today’s global context we need to think globally and act globally and locally in partnership with others.
The International Presentation Association is accredited with the United Nation’s Department of Public Information (DPI) from 1997 and with the Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) from 2000. Guided by the UN Charter, ECOSOC is the one UN body that has established rights for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to observe and contribute to its work.
The IPA NGO Representative at the UN connects the grass roots and the UN by bringing in the experiences of local communities to the UN and facilitating grass root participation at UN events.
Women of Courage
The 58th UN Commission for Social Development has just come to an end on Friday 19th February in New York. #CSocD58 This World Summit for Social Development was initiated to address emerging societal challenges to the implementation of 2030 Agenda. #SDG #UNCSOCD58
Among the global participation was Sr. Ann Marie Quinn, pbvm International Presentation Association (IPA Executive Director), with Dr Despoina Afroditi Milaki who is the full-time IPA NGO Representative at the UN, based in New York, and Sr. Mary Therese Krueger, pbvm the IPA Program Action Leader at this Ministerial Forum: (the 58th session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD58) taking place from 10 to 19 February 2020. See Link to IPA UN involvement
UNANIMA International were also actively present at #CSocD58, presenting their research which shows that women and children/girls, globally, are vulnerable to the personal and familial circumstances, and structural/systemic causes of Family Homelessness. As they said: “These are just two of the faces we will be advocating for!”
This summit and its panel discussions provides a way to educate and influence policy makers at the global level and work for systemic change to achieve a more just world.
The Award for Courage
L-r: Sr. Ann Marie Quinn, Executive Director (IPA), Ms. Mary McAleese (former President of Ireland) with Sr. Jean Quinn, DW and Barbara Spears, SNJM UNANIMA Board..
Annually UNANIMA International presents an Award named The Woman of Courage Award. Beginning in 2008.
On Wednesday 12th February former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese received the UNANIMA International Woman of Courage Award at the United Nations in New York from Jean Quinn, DW – Executive Director of UNANIMA International. In her keynote address at the UN Commission for Social Development in New York, Mrs McAleese said “in the month before the national election held last week, for the first time, the homelessness figures showed a slight drop”.
Former president Mary McAleese told the UN conference that “it is hard to credit” that homelessness in Ireland grew by 150 per cent in the four year period that followed a 2013 pledge by the then government to resolve the problem.
However, she said “it would be a brave person who would claim as in 2013, that we are now on top of the situation and can look forward soon to an end to homelessness”.
Mrs McAleese said she took heart from the fact that during the election campaign “successive opinion polls showed that the public sees the provision of affordable and adequate housing along with the ending of homelessness as top priorities for government action”.
Woman of Courage 2019 Recipient, Former President Mary McAleese and UNANIMA International’s Executive Director Jean Quinn, DW were both speaking at #CSocD58‘s High-level panel discussion on the priority theme: “Affordable Housing and Social Protection Systems for all to address Homelessness” on Monday the 10th of February
See International Presentation Association (IPA) Facebook Link to follow activity @internationalpresentationassociation HERE
Note: UNANIMA International is a Non –Governmental Organisation (NGO) advocating on behalf of Women and Children, Homeless and Displaced, Migrants and Refugees, and the Environment primarily at the United Nations.
“Together we can create a world where Women and Children who live in extreme poverty will be empowered to achieve a better quality of life”. ~ UNANIMA International.
See https://unanima-international.org/woman-of-courage/
A window on life in Zambia
Sr. Josephine with a team of bricklayers
Sr. Josephine Murphy was part of the Manchester community when she joined the English Province Mission in Zambia in January 1984. This Province had two houses in Zambia’s Western Province—Kaoma and Mongu. Mongu Cheshire Home had recently opened and there were only six girls resident there at first. Josephine taught in Holy Cross Secondary school across the road from the Cheshire Home. She remained in Zambia until 2010 and returned again recently this year to monitor some of the Misean Cara Projects there. This is part of her experience of then and now.
About Zambia then
In 1984 Zambia was still a one party state following independence, but in 1989 President Kaunda allowed other parties to come into being and he handed over peacefully when defeated in the elections. The population of Zambia was relatively small and life was simple with most people living in rural areas, but the move to urban areas was beginning. The country was still dependent on donor funding to build up its health and education services and Irish and Indian sisters were still needed as teachers in secondary schools.
The reality of HIV and AIDS
HIV and AIDS came in the 1980s and devastated the population. Every family was affected by sickness and death of relatives, leading to poverty and great strain on the extended family which would normally look after the orphan children. Sr. Vianney who had nursed for many years in Kaoma hospital started a community orphanage to help relieve the situation. The sisters were also involved in education to raise awareness of HIV infection and programmes like Adventure Unlimited and Behaviour Change had a big influence for good.
Presentation Life and Ministry
In 1989 the Presentation Sisters in the six houses in Zambia (who belonged to the English, Northern and Indian Provinces) and who had been meeting regularly, formed the Zambian Presentation Vice Province. Josephine spent two years in the Sichili Mission where the sisters ran the hospital and out-clinics on behalf of the Diocese and she taught in the community secondary school. Communication was provided by the Capuchin Fathers’ radio twice a day or by the hospital radio, which was linked to the Presentation house in Livingstone. Sr. Zinha oversaw the Leprosy Welfare Centre and Sr. Prema ran the Homecraft Centre. A formation programme for Zambian women who wanted to become Presentation Sisters started in the 1990s. Before Josephine left in 2010 the Zambian sisters were trained teachers and nurses and in full-time ministries.
Josephine spent her last ten years in Zambia in Livingstone, helping in the novitiate and doing pastoral care of the sick before she got involved in a Diocesan project to set up a skills training centre for older orphans. This Youth Community Training Centre still caters for vulnerable youth from all denominations and offers them a way to find employment to support their families.
The present day
HIV is still a problem in Zambia with many new infections but Anti Retroviral Drugs slow down the progression of the disease and parents live to see their children grow up. The education system in the country has expanded but children still learn in overcrowded classrooms and there is high youth unemployment. The country’s infrastructure is improving with better roads and bridges. If there is better rainfall this season it is hoped to overcome the problems caused by this year’s severe drought. Josephine adds however, that the population has now almost trebled since her arrival in 1984.
A return visit in 2019
Lusaka has developed and is on the surface more like a South African city. But there is poverty and unemployment in the compounds. One of our projects run by Sr. Mary Brennan (the community school in Chipata Compound) was celebrating its 25 years, when she was there. As she recounts:
The road west to Kaoma is now much busier as people move to villages near the main road. In Kaoma, Sr. Mbololwa works in the Government hospital and Ireen and Peggy in the school. In 2014, Presentation Sisters took over the community school, providing for many students who could not find secondary school places, and helped to add on six senior secondary classes. It is the first Presentation School in Zambia. A Grant Aided school whereby the government pays the teachers but the infrastructure is the responsibility of the Presentation Sisters.
The Secondary School Project
Both teachers and students have had training in Child Safeguarding and on the SDGs over the years. Classes take responsibility for growing fruit and vegetables in the Production Unit, which along with the chickens and the cassava they harvest in Kalukundwe, the Presentation farm, are sold to provide income for school expenses. Some of the primary school buildings were originally part of Sr. Vianney’s orphanage which has now been phased out. Other orphanage buildings are on rent to provide income for the further education of the orphans and to provide accommodation for those students who have no extended families and one of the buildings is now a guesthouse run by the Friends of Nano to raise income for their charities.
Nano Farm, a demonstration farm in Kaoma was started by Srs. Inez and Virginia and shows people methods of organic farming and fish farming. Sr. Bella and Sr. Lucy Sebastian live on the farm.
The Cheshire Home Mongu
Sr. Numba teaches in the Training College and lives in Cheshire Home (Mongu) as well as being on the Leadership Team. Srs. Cathy and Stella run the Cheshire Home which had 62 children in July, some of whom were recovering from corrective surgery and all of them had regular physiotherapy. The government has seconded four teachers and the children are in classes according to their ability. There is a great spirit in the Home between children and staff, and children help each other to move about, with various activities including football and group table games in the evening. Local people support the Home also with visits and gifts.
The Income Generating Activities for Mongu Cheshire Home are Liseli Lodge, which has a restaurant, take away and various types of accommodation and is a commercial success, and Rhino Block products which is at an early stage, as it is having problems with constant power cuts.
I was happy also to spend a few days in Pemba in Southern Province where Sr. Mary Lucey has helped local people with building up three villages with each household having a good portion of land. Judith is teaching in the local school as well as being on the Unit Leadership Team. I also spent a few days in Livingstone and I went back to the Youth Community Training Centre which is now run by Baptistine sisters on behalf of the Diocese, giving skills training to young people.
The impact of Climate
It is clear that climate still has a huge impact on the quality of life of the people. Since the rainy season last year was very poor, I saw everywhere the effects of drought in the Western and Southern Provinces. There was no grass for the animals and the price of the staple food, mealie meal was increasing daily, so hunger in the rural areas especially is a big problem. People were depending more on cassava which is a drought resistant crop but less nutritious than maize.
Relief efforts were starting on a small scale from churches and government just as I was leaving.
Sr. Josephine Murphy
Some useful links:
For more information: on Misean Cara: https://www.miseancara.ie/
For information on the drought situaton: Food situation in Zambia on the verge of crisis
Living with those ‘kept poor’
Sr. Helen Lenehan shares some of her experiences
Sr. Helen Lenehan, pbvm
Sr. Helen Lenehan returned to Ireland (to the North East Province) in 2018 after twenty-seven years of life on mission in the Philippines. Helen hails originally from Co. Kilkenny. “When I arrived in the Philippines, in September 1991, there were six Irish Sisters there along with seven Filipina Sisters. Having studied the language, I got my first assignment in June 1992″.
Indeed, my first venture into adult literacy was met with opposition. I had gone out to a barrio (a local area) with a young Filipina student and was warmly welcomed. However, when I arrived, as arranged, on the following Saturday to set up the classes only a handful turned up, and the students with me learned that the military had been informed that I had been in the area. The fear of the military was still strong and these poorly educated people had been told that I was a communist, and they were not to attend the sessions. The college, administered by the Sisters in the town of Binalbagan, was well known for its effort at education for systemic change, and the Sisters had even been called communist from the altar.
Those ‘kept poor’
Helen went on to share the day to day reality of living there with the people, naming, addressing and challenging where possible those systems and structures that maintained a poverty of life and livelihood for families and individuals within the communities she got to know well.
She gave a very practical example of the disconnect that often existed between appearance and reality, where in the Haciendas (large plantations) owned by exceedingly wealthy (and often remote) landlords, their employees did not receive a fair wage for their labour. But yet these same landowners were at the forefront funding and sponsoring large and important international meetings and projects that raised their profile on the world stage. It is not just the absentee landlords but also business magnates with extensive wealth (e.g. some with an estimated wealth of $9 billion) and also of those politicians who while in receipt of congressional funding for development in their local areas, were thought by the locals to be providing scholarships ‘out of their own pockets’. She cites figures from 2013 where 75% of lawmakers in the Philippines were drawn from political dynasties; 42% of lawmakers in Thailand and correspondingly 22% in Ireland.
No social welfare system exists so this means in real terms that if a family member gets sick, the cost of paying for treatment and medication can decimate families, as it takes all their limited funds or even the ability or capacity of the bread-winner to continue to work.
Working conditions
A worker on a sugar cane plantation
Helen also gave an example of the experience of workers on the sugar cane plantations which produce the main food crop of the Philippines. There is a six month growing season and a six month harvest period. During this growing season (called ’The Dead Season’ due to massive unemployment) labour is reduced and people are not paid. The school attendance period also happens to coincide with this growing season, so promissory notes are a big thing – seeking permission to pay later when employment starts again.
The book of the same title: ‘The Dead Season’ published in 1986 by US Journalist, Alan Berlow accurately describes the plantation lifestyle of the hacienderos and the oppression that goes with it, as well as the collusion of the military with the landed gentry. “It offers a gripping investigation into a savage murder on the Philippine island of Negros. Alan, in his investigation of the murder discovers that the ultimate cause is imbedded in the history and culture of a society locked into cyclones of violent conflict, behind a façade of democratic government”.
The cost of empowerment
Working conditions in the factories are all geared towards maximum production. Again, Helen shared the example of a doll factory that produced really high class expensive dolls for export. The factory makes the elaborate and beautiful clothes for these dolls. On the factory floor, the backs of the chairs of the seamstresses have been removed so they cannot sit back with ease and potentially produce less. One woman Helen knew who worked there, was forced to purchase from her already small wages the clothes she had produced, as she had pricked her finger on a needle which had bled onto the material so the item could not be sold. This woman was supported to recognise the injustice of this and to say it to her employer – but as a result lost her job.
Helen has shared in the lived experience of the people in their communities, and she cites a comment made to her by a South American man, to highlight the problems and the challenges of empowering the poor, such as peasant farmers to assert their lives, he said: “Religious are lucky and privileged, since if their lives are in danger, they can be taken out of the country by their Order, but the poor have no redress”. They (the peasant farmers) are the people who are being killed by the hired killers of the landlords.
What does justice look like for those ‘kept poor’ by systems and structures that could be interpreted as a measure of success on the global stage?
Sr. Helen Lenehan, pbvm