OCEANIA/PAPUA NEW GUINEA - The commitment of the sisters of the Cavanis Community Jesus Good Shepherd against Illiteracy

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Internet

Bereina (Agenzia Fides) - In Papua New Guinea illiteracy is rampant, child mortality is very high, as well as AIDS incidence data. A few years ago, the sisters of the Cavanis Community Jesus Good Shepherd, a congregation of secular consecrated sisters, born in 2000 with the charisma to educate the mind and heart of younger generations, arrived in this remote place of the world and immediately saw that education was important for this population.
"I felt I was living in the past centuries" says sister Caterina Gasparotto in a note sent to Fides. "In villages, people still lived in a primitive way. Papua is an abandoned and poor land, education, primary needs for personal hygiene and the ability to relate without violence, unfortunately always present in everyday life, were our priorities", the nun continues.
It is in the village of Bereina, a mission in the heart of the forest, that the nuns started some educational activities, succeeding in building an elementary school that today accommodates many children. After building the school they set up a typography for the production of texts.
Thus Sister Caterina tells us: "When we started we did not have anything, we were teaching children under the trees. Then with the help of some young people we built a small elementary school. But here schools do not have books or notebooks; the few texts available are imported from Australia and have very high costs. So we thought of producing and printing them ourselves. We learned how to make a book. Work has been challenging and long, but with an amazing result. "
The diocese of Bereina has 17 parishes, 20 priests, 38 lay religious, 4 seminarians, and 2890 baptized. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 29/11/2017)


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