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Greetings!
October's eNews focused on the abysmal lack of
healthcare in S. Sudan.
Little did I know when I wrote about the challenges facing women and
children there that I myself would be diagnosed with cancer this month, have
major surgery, and embark on a personal adventure of recovery. I wish that all the women of Sudan could
benefit from the kind of excellent care that surrounds me! Spurred by the desire to lessen that gap,
Mercy Beyond Borders will soon be giving educational scholarships to young
Sudanese women eager to become nurses and doctors.
One supporter sent a check this week with the comment,
"I'm speeding your recovery by donating to MBB!" Of course I am grateful for that, especially
since my own speaking engagements and fundraising will be curtailed for a
while. If you are financially able, please consider making a gift to MBB---not
for my sake but to help us improve maternal and child health in Sudan. Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to begin this
Season of Thanksgiving?
Ever hopeful and ever grateful for all that YOU are
making possible in Sudan,
Sister Marilyn Lacey | |
Recommended Reading
In their excellent new book, Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl
WuDunn make a strong case for the well-being of any nation being dependent on
the extent to which its women are permitted opportunities to develop their
gifts and engage in society at all levels.
Those of us who have worked in S. Sudan certainly agree!
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Who Said That?
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Quoted in the book, Half the Sky, by Kristoff and WuDunn:
"What would men be without women?
Scarce, sir, mighty scarce."
-Mark Twain
"Progress is achieved through
women."
-Bernard Kouchner,
Founder
Doctors Without
Borders
"Investment in girls'
education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing
world. The question is not whether
countries can afford this investment, but whether countries can afford not to
educate more girls."
-Lawrence Summers
former chief economist
of the World Bank.
"Women's empowerment
helps raise economic productivity and reduce infant mortality. It contributes
to improved health and nutrition. It increases the chances of education for the
next generation."
-United Nations
Development Program
UNDP Annual Report,
2006
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| Read Our Blogs |
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Mercy Beyond Borders blog provides a weekly commentary from MBB's founder, Marilyn Lacey, rsm, on MBB activities at home and abroad.
Mercy in Sudan blog chronicles the experiences of Kathleen Connolly, rsm, who moved to Africa in Jan 2009. She is living at St Bakhita School in Sudan. |
Help us spread the word about MBB by forwarding this eNewsletter to friends who may be interested. Simply click on the above button. |
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It's free! It's easy! If you do not already subscribe
to our eNewsletter, click on the above button. |
Ambassador Of The Month
 Catherine Wilkinson enjoys the opportunity to use her personal warmth, creativity and energy for Mercy Beyond Borders. "I'm not ever likely to travel to those distant villages or meet the women of Sudan," she says, "but I absolutely love the fact that I can help them just by using my simple gifts here in California!" Catherine's gifts are impressive-she is an artist, a decorator, a designer and maker of jewelry-and equaled by her compassion. Recently Catherine linked up with a colleague who owns a small art gallery; the owner now displays Catherine's jewelry for sale, and 100% of the proceeds come directly to Mercy Beyond Borders. Notwithstanding the fact that most pieces sell for $5 - $25, Catherine's project has generated over $1,000 for MBB in its first few months. Amazing! Thank you, Catherine!
Ambassadors of MBB volunteer to raise $1,000 each year for Mercy Beyond Borders. To become an ambassador, contact Sr. Marilyn Lacey. |
Archived Newsletters
You can find previous issues of this newsletter in the below links.
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HIV+
Women Organize to Help Themselves
 The town of Nimule crouches along the
muddy bank of the Bahr-el-JebelRiver (the White Nile) separating northernmost Uganda from Southern Sudan. Nimule is known for its pungent dried-fish marketplace
and for its ferryboat service linking Uganda and Sudan. Being a border town,
it has seen its share of troubles from all sides: Ugandan rebels, Sudanese armies,
massive upheavals and refugee flows back and forth. All that traffic, with its
accompanying violence against women, has left in its troubled wake the scourge
of AIDS, which many other parts of Sudan, being largely
isolated from the rest of the world during the war, have not yet been exposed
to.
This month Mercy Beyond Borders began
a Micro-Enterprise program with a group of 15 of Nimule's women who are HIV
positive or have AIDS. Their disease
remains misunderstood and feared; many of the women themselves are rejected by
their own families and villages.
At their first session the women
agreed on ground rules for the program, elected leaders, set up minimum ($75)
and maximum ($300) amounts for the loans, established a peer approval/review
system, and determined to meet every Thursday morning.
This is stunning progress for a
group of women shunned for having a disease that was "done unto them" during
the war. The Mercy Beyond Borders Micro-Enterprise project is already lifting
their hope and their sense of self-worth.
In time, we hope it will also lift them from extreme poverty.
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Teacher In Service Training
"The first thing I do when I visit a school is determine how many of the teachers can read..." This offhand comment, from a colleague who has worked many years in Southern Sudan trying to establish and shore up its schools, reveals how education suffers in a wartime economy. With teachers killed or pulled into the military, massive population displacements, and few resources for children, schooling becomes haphazard at best. The Sudanese people, however, now recognize that education is their surest path to reconciliation, stability, and future peace. And there is increasing acceptance of the importance of educating girls-a huge and very positive cultural change!
St Bakhita School in Narus-the first all-girls school in Sudan-- is the flagship project of Mercy Beyond Borders. We are proud to be supporting its 830 girls in a number of ways and to be offering incentives to its faculty.
At the suggestion of Principal Sister Edvine Tumwesigye, we are now funding an in-service program aimed at bolstering the professional skills of the faculty, some of whom have never had the opportunity to receive formal teacher training. Thanks to your donations, Mercy Beyond Borders has been able to contract with Vincent Mapesa, a master teacher from Kenya, for a series of on-site workshops at St Bakhita School. He began last month by spending several weeks at the school, observing classes and establishing rapport with the faculty. He then presented workshops on lesson planning and a variety of instructional classroom methods. He will return to the school to give additional trainings at the end of each term during 2010. These simple interventions will ultimately benefit not just the teachers, of course, but all of the girls at the school as well.
Vincent Mapesa lecturing in classroom
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Postscript
Last month we described the health
promotion workshops that Mercy Beyond Borders is currently sponsoring in a
number of villages. Following the most
recent session with 55 women in Nacipo village, one of the Sudanese women
helping Sr Kathleen with the project remarked, "I am just so happy to be doing work that I truly enjoy doing and that I
know is helping others ~ and it is the first
program for women since I have been in Narus these past seven years that has
really gotten off the ground and is making a difference in the lives of the
women!"
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You're receiving this email because of your interest in MERCY BEYOND BORDERS. MBB was founded in 2008 by three colleagues-- a Sister of Mercy, a university professor, and a medical doctor--determined to improve the lives of displaced women and children living in extreme poverty. We are a 501(c)(3) registered in California and committed to linking U.S. resources with displaced women & children overseas. We are currently targeting Southern Sudan, which has one-quarter of the world's displaced peoples.
Please feel free to forward this to others who may be interested in hearing about us.
Sincerely,
Sister Marilyn Lacey
Executive Director
Donations to support the work of Mercy Beyond Borders can be made online by clicking on the button above or sent to Mercy Beyond Borders, 1885 De La Cruz Blvd #101, Santa Clara CA 95050-3000. |
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