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Greetings!
Mercy Beyond Borders joins the world in grieving for the suffering people of Haiti as they pick through the rubble of their lives and begin the immense task of rebuilding. I spent two weeks in Haiti, as an official observer to the 1994 elections, when the Ton Tons Macoutes (death squads) still terrorized the countryside. I saw how the forests had been leveled, how erosion had washed away the arable topsoil, how sections of the coastline had been poisoned by toxic waste dumps - all to bankroll the ruling Duvaliers. Now, of course, the earthquake has left this destitute country even more desperate.
The people of Southern Sudan would not suffer much if a similar earthquake hit them - there are no tall buildings to fall, no dams to break, no paved roads to buckle, no electric grid to be interrupted. There are few hospitals or schools to collapse. While Mercy Beyond Borders stands with the displaced poor in Southern Sudan, we encourage you to donate this month to one of these fine agencies who have a solid record of working effectively in Haiti:
Doctors Without Borders
www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate
International Rescue Committee
www.theirc.org
Catholic Relief Services
www.crs.org
Sisters of Mercy
Sr. Karen Schneider, MD, a pediatrician and Sister of Mercy working at Johns Hopkins University, has been taking medical teams to Haiti for many years, and is there now in a tent hospital. She was interviewed on CNN shortly after the quake. Donations to support her work in Haiti may be sent to Sisters of Mercy, 515 Montgomery Avenue, Merion, PA19066. Put "Haiti relief" on the check (payable to Sisters of Mercy).
Thank you,
Sister Marilyn Lacey
P.S. Many thanks for all the kind expressions of support I received after my recent surgery. My medical prognosis now is entirely hopeful - so good, in fact, that I do not even need chemotherapy. I am delighted to be back fulltime with MBB. | |
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Did You Know? |
Over 300,000 Sudanese refugees have returned to their home villages in Sudan from camps in neighboring countries, often to areas where farming and grazing of cattle are restricted by the presence of landmines.
As of 2009, S. Sudan has 556 confirmed landmine minefields and suspected hazardous areas covering a total of 107 square kilometers of land.
Landmine removal is dangerous and painstakingly slow work. During 2008 only 4 kilometers of land in S. Sudan were cleared of landmines. |
| 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. |
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Archived Newsletters
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Why is this girl smiling?
 Natalie is always grinning. She's happy because she is in Kindergarten at St. Bakhita School in Narus, Sudan. She loves learning the alphabet. She loves singing. She loves the bowl of ugali that the school serves every day. It does not matter to Natalie that she sits on the floor of the simple classroom crowded with 109 other girls. She loves it! But we know the attrition rate is high - of those 110 kindergarten girls, only 25 to 30 girls will reach 7th grade.
Natalie has a chance to become an educated woman - but only a small chance. Currently girls in Sudan have a statistically greater chance of dying in childbirth than of completing 5 yrs of formal education. Only 1 in 7 girls completes more schooling than that. It is surely not for lack of motivation! No, it is due to the cultural custom of early marriage. Parents consider girls to have value only insofar as they bring a dowry of cattle to the family. By providing scholarships to girls at the elementary, secondary and college levels, Mercy Beyond Borders contributes to changing the culture, nudging it in the direction of gender parity, enabling girls to stay in school to the highest level of which they are academically capable.
Thanks to the generosity of our many donors, this year MBB has placed 27 girls into high schools and 2 into Nursing Colleges on full scholarships. This is in addition to Natalie and her 800 fellow students whom we support at St Bakhita Primary. We will profile some of these girls in future eNews issues. Meanwhile we rely on your continued donations so that Natalie, along with all her peers, can stay in school too. |
The future of Southern Sudan
A key provision in the political agreement that ended the Sudanese civil war in 2005 is a referendum scheduled for 2011 in which the South will decide whether to remain part of Sudan or to opt for independence. Northern Arabic speakers have long treated Southerners as inferior, referring to them derisively as "black" or "abd" ("slave"). There is a long history of Northern "janjaweed" raiders destroying villages and kidnapping children. Most Southerners want separation, but the vote itself could very well trigger war again.
Few observers trust that Khartoum (the North) would ever allow the South to break away, since the South has the water, oil and arable land that the North lacks. The voter registration taking place now in the South suffers from widespread flaws and there is mounting evidence that Khartoum has already funneled arms to certain tribes in the South to foster inter-tribal divisions and increase the sense of pervasive instability. |
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Ambassador Of The Month
 When the Class of 2011 at Mercy High in Burlingame, CA received their school rings, it was a joyful day not only for them but also for the girls at St Bakhita Primary School in Narus, Sudan. Why? Because these amazing Juniors raised $1,849 and donated it to Mercy Beyond Borders for the purchase of 6 KINDLE eReaders! Those KINDLES, stocked with 300 books each and coupled with solar rechargers, will be hand-delivered to the girls in Sudan in April--an instant library for the school! Thank you, Junior Class, for your global caring!
Ambassadors volunteer to raise $1,000 each year for Mercy Beyond Borders. For more information, or to become an Ambassador, contact Marilyn Lacey at mercybeyondborders@yahoo.com |
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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