Salesian Sisters Provide an Oasis amid War in Khartoum
(ANS – Khartoum, Sudan – July 17, 2023) – The war that began on April 15 in Khartoum, capital of Sudan, between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is about to reach its 100th day. The streets are deserted and inaccessible to the population due to the ongoing fighting. There is no public transport, electricity is almost absent, and water is becoming a scarce and precious commodity. A Salesian missionary lives with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) in Shajara, 4 miles from Khartoum. There, despite having to close elementary school, the Salesian Family serves the poorest and neediest population through informal classes, giving food and shelter to several hundred people, and also caring for the injured.
The war has spread
to many other cities in Sudan. Little is known about the conflict, however, “because
of the limited movement of people,” explains a Salesian missionary. “In most
areas the [electrical] current has been interrupted for several weeks and
temperatures are always above 104º. In addition, running water has become a
luxury in most areas of Khartoum, and the supply also has been drastically
reduced. Some shops have been looted, and many others have run out of supplies,”
explains the Salesian.
The Salesians have
two presences in Khartoum – the vocational school and the parish of St. Joseph
– and another in the city of El Obeid, 300 miles from Khartoum. “All three have
been closed due to insecurity and the dangers that lie ahead,” he says. The
Salesians from these communities have left the country, with the exception of
the director of the vocational school, who has moved to the FMA residence in
Shajara, where he collaborates in the initiatives that are carried out to help
the needy.
The FMAs opened
their presence in Shajara in 1989. There are 5 sisters who run an elementary
school for poor children and also have a center for the promotion of women.
They are currently the only representatives of the Catholic Church in the
vicinity of the Sudanese capital. The sisters’ residence is surrounded by poor
families living in metal shacks. Because of the insecurity caused by the war,
the FMAs closed the elementary school and the women’s center, but focused their
service on supporting hundreds of poor people.
The sisters opened
their classrooms and their residence for the poor and transformed the space
into a house of prayer. The work has become a playground for poor children
where they can play during the day and a safe haven where they can sleep at
night. Every day about 80 poor children of different ages, together with their
mothers, live in the sisters’ complex, a number that rises to more than 150
people a night. The sisters provide food during the day to all whom they host
and offer breakfast daily to about 300 poor children and other people who live
around their residence.
The sisters gather
the children in a classroom during the day and teach them English and
mathematics and give drama lessons. They sing, encourage the children with
board games, and offer religious meetings. And because stray bullets injure
many people living around Shajara every day, and most hospitals in Khartoum
have no medicine or doctors to turn to, the FMAs have also begun an apostolate
with the sick and injured. “Every day, between 15 and 20 injured patients come
to the sisters’ residence for medical help,” they say from the home.
For the poor of
Shajara, the house and the FMA complex have become an oasis for finding
spiritual and material nourishment and hoping for some medical assistance. With
faith and hope, the religious and all the staff who animate them ask to pray
for peace to come to Sudan, “while in the meantime we try to keep life more or
less normal,” they explain.
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