Mar 10, 2022 | NEWS
Something good… what?
Recently, I had the opportunity to do my novice internship at the Center for Women of the PoMoc Association in Katowice, run by Sr. Anna, Sr. Barbara and Sr. Karolina. Amidst the time of prayer together, accompanying the women and their children at the Center, and many creative activities, I have discovered that the house is full of the abbreviation BCD.
What does that mean? I started to wonder. Of course, the Sisters rushed to help.
We are building something good. Is it just a building erected at the Center? Is it just an action to raise funds for the next stages of construction? No!
There is something much more behind this shortcut! BCD is a community that, for the glory of God, wants to build something good. Something? World! This world that is available to each of us, the world we are a part of, because it is the place where God has placed us. The goal is to oppose evil, physical and psychological violence, wounds, and torn relationships. How to do it? You have to start with the basics. That is, from building the right relationships for which we are created, because it is natural that we are simply drawn to another It is in families that good is born, acceptance of man, acceptance of him. Based on lasting intergenerational relations, we can create a society filled with a sense of security and mutual support, and make that the chain of misunderstanding and conflict will be broken.
And this is the destiny of the St. Joseph at the PoMoc Association and the priority of the whole community # building good to create healthy relationships in families.
And the most interesting thing is that it is already happening! The BCD team does not wait for the “headquarters” in the Center, where the workshops and meetings will be held, to be ready. They meet today – mothers who exchange experiences, fathers who want to experience their parenthood better, and a multitude of volunteers who not only work for the Center, but bring to this community all that they have the most valuable – themselves.
Each of us can become part of the #budujemycosdobrego team. Not only with real cooperation in Katowice with my sisters, but where we are – in our families, in our communities, in our workplaces. Because the point is that the good that we can pass on goes with us everywhere.
Sr. Justyna Wijatyk (novice)
Feb 12, 2022 | NEWS
In the Philippines, since February, we have the 2nd degree of epidemiological threat, which is already much milder. However, children still do not go to school, there is still distance learning. From February 10, after two years, the borders of the Philippines have also opened for tourists, and although people still suffer from Covid, everything returns to normal in small steps, but not like in Europe.
On February 1, we started the monthly “FEEDING PROGRAM” – feeding children in the Payatas district. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Manila, only a few minutes from our home. Unfortunately, due to Covid it is not yet possible to keep the normal Feeding program as it was before; that is, the children have joint educational activities, catechesis, games and a meal. Every day, from Monday to Friday, the mothers of these children prepare a warm, wholesome meal for their children, and we supervise the work. At noon, children receive a cup of milk or cocoa, a hot meal and fruit. The mothers of these children learn how to properly nourish their children.
There are 50 children enrolled in the feeding program, but in fact many more come, often around 80. We try to ensure that there is enough food for all children, because it is difficult to refuse a hungry child a bowl of rice. We received funds for feeding our children from the parish of the Philippines Fathers in Chioggia, Italy. As soon as we come to Payatas, the children run up to us, greet us and put our hands to their foreheads saying “sister bless” which means “bless me”. Through those children we already know, we get to know their families and their problems. We visit them every now and then, and if necessary, we help as far as possible. Sometimes this help is simply giving children intestinal worm medicine or other medications. We also convince parents of the importance of taking care of their health and healing themselves. Some people here are afraid of going to the doctor mainly because of the cost of treatment, which is very high here. Even though almost all of them are Catholic, most people in Payatas do not practice their faith. They don’t go to church; they don’t take the sacraments. Bearing this in mind, we always try to encourage all families to participate in the Sunday Mass, to pray the rosary in the family and the need for closeness with God in everyday difficult life.
We also often help in completing the formalities related to the sacrament of children’s baptism. In January, we helped six preschool and school children to be baptized. Many children do not have a birth certificate and therefore do not go to school. The procedures for obtaining a birth certificate are quite complicated, and the parents of these children are often illiterate. We help them with these procedures as much as possible. We make parents aware that education is important and thus children have a chance for a better future. The restrictions related to the pandemic limit us in our actions, but we trust that with God’s help this pandemic will end and we ask God for this in our prayers. In closing, I am asking you to pray for us and for our missions here in the Philippines, so that we may develop the work of our Founder here and that we may have many vocations. With heartfelt greetings and prayers for all those who support us spiritually and materially.
S.M. Agata Sobczyk
Feb 7, 2022 | NEWS
Finally, the long-awaited day has finally arrived. It is many years since the name Schneider began to be heard on the African continent, especially in Tanzania.
When we thank God for the great things He does for us in life we have every reason to say a word of thanks to all who made this Schneider name continue to be heard in every corner of the soil of our Region of Tanzania.
It is a great pleasure and joy to reach the climax and the very day to be able to bless our new and wonderful John Schneider English Medium Pre & Primary school, which many have dedicated their efforts up to this point.
To this day the joy that has reigned in our hearts is thanks to God for the congregation and all who in one way or another has been the reason for the existence of this school.
First of all, thanks to the leaders of the congregation, previous Mother General Sr. Alma Białek and her Council, the superiors of all our Provinces as well as our Region of Tanzania for their great efforts to ensure that Schneider School is built in Mwanga.
Thank you very much Mother General Sr. Sybilla Kołtan on behalf of all the superiors of the congregation who made their contribution by providing us with this great school support. Secondly sincere thanks to the economist of the congregation Sr. Luka who has always been at the forefront of helping us economically in the construction of this school. God bless you always.
When we thank God for the gift of school, it is our only opportunity to thank and congratulate the school leadership, all the staff and John Schneider’s students for their professional, ethical, and heroic efforts in their school formation, and especially in their examinations. The first fourth grade since the school started, have been able to do wonders in their performance, with the achievement of grade A, thus gaining first place District, first in the Region and within Same diocese are the only successful Catholic school. very nice. We thank God for that.
This joy of good performance has led to our school being awarded the Certificate of Excellence in the Diocese by the Rev. Father Bishop Rogath Kimaryo and the entire district Education department.
For us it is a great pleasure for our John Schneider school, our Region of Tanzania and the congregation as a whole. God bless all those who support us economically and in other ways until we can shine like this and today on.04.02.2022 we were able by the grace of God to bless and officially open our school.
Thanks to all the Sisters wherever they are and in every corner of the world where you are for your prayers and sacrifices that you offer always for us and especially for the construction of our John Schneider school in Mwanga
Special thanks also to all the donors of our congregation who support and enable us. God bless you and we always pray for you in our prayers and intentions of the mass. Thank you very much.
Sr. Agnes – Regional Superior -Tanzania
Jan 25, 2022 | HISTORY, NEWS
Lionja
In 1974 Bishop Cotey asked for three sisters for another mission station in Lionja, which was also in the Diocese of Nachingwea. In December 1974, the General Management decided to take over this station.
In 1976 three new Polish missionary sisters arrived in Tanzania and first went to Kilimarondo to acclimatize. However, when they arrived in Lionja at the beginning of March 1976, the planned buildings had not yet been prepared. Therefore, the arrangements had to be changed at short notice, and the sisters went to Nanjota.
Nanjota
Nanjota was 150 kilometers from Kilimarondo. On March 29, 1976, the second branch of the congregation in Tanzania was established here, initially with three sisters. The station of the Polish Salvatorians, where the sisters lived, consisted of a large house, a farm building with pens for pigs and small livestock, and a garden with numerous fruit trees. The population lived in simple mud huts covered with grass and tin. Their farms were outside the huts. Not all residents had beds and kitchen utensils. In contrast to Kilimarondo, the water here was scarce, it had to be collected and fetched from afar and was often polluted. On the site of the mission station there were tanks for collecting rainwater and a well.
In Nanjota, as in Kilimarondo, the sisters worked in areas in which the congregation had been active in Europe for decades: they ran a kindergarten, taught sewing to the women, looked after the church and looked after a small hospital with 30 beds and treatment rooms for outpatients. In Nanjota, obstetrics was particularly important, so the sisters ran a maternity ward.
At the end of the 1970s, there were only two sisters in Nanjota and in Kilimarondo, which made the continuation of the missionary work questionable. However, by mid-1984 their number had increased to four.
On October 13, 1978, the Diocese of Nachingwea signed an agreement with the Congregation. It made the two stations in Kilimarondo and Nanjota available to the sisters for their missionary work, paid the sisters working there financial support and provided for their medical treatment while they were in Tanzania.
The General Treasurer, Sister M. Notburga, organized support for the mission from Germany. She sent a wide variety of everyday items to Tanzania in containers. For several years, the women’s community in Wenden donated the proceeds from a bazaar to the mission stations.
novitiate
The postulants who had initially been in Kilimarondo were cared for in Nanjota in 1990. The community of sisters partly provided for their own food by growing vegetables and raising poultry and pigs.
The African novitiate was also opened in Nanjota. On December 7, 1990, the first four local novices were invested. Sister M. Konsolata Wilma was installed as mistress of novices.
On December 8, 1992, three African novices made their first profession. The Superior General, Mother M. Angela, came to Africa specifically to receive them. Bishop Magnus Mwalunyungu personally preached the high mass because it was the first profession of Sisters of Mary in Africa.
From 1990 to 1998, 22 novices were invested in Tanzania and 15 African sisters made profession.
With the opening of the new branch in Chikukwe in 1998, the novitiate was moved there.
House Superiors
Evangelista Dąbrowska 05.03.1976 –
Viannea Parchatko 06/01/1986 –
Miriam Kusek 08.12.1994 –
(Johannes Mertens, „Aus der Geschichte der Kongregation der Marienschwestern von der Unbefleckten Empfängnis“, Band 2, S. 628-630)
Jan 20, 2022 | HISTORY, NEWS
Preparations
In accordance with the decision of the General Chapter of 1969, Mother M. Gertrud, Superior General, tried to establish a mission station. Having no experience in this area, the Congregation contacted the Salvatorian Order, which was active in Africa. As a result, in September 1971, the Missionary Bishop Father Arnold Cotey from Tanzania visited the Generalate. He was accompanied by the Mission Procurator of the Salvatorians and an Assistant General of that Order. It was agreed that the sisters of Mary Immaculate could come to Kilimarondo to a Salvatorian mission station belonging to Bishop Cotey’s Diocese of Nachingwea. Kilimarondo was south of the equator. The place was surrounded on three sides by not very high mountains. Compared to other areas of the country, it had the advantage that sufficient drinking water was available. The mission station consisted of a church, two mission houses, farm buildings, a boarding school and a catechist’s house. It had also owned a school and hospital, but these had recently been taken over by the state.
Opinion about the sisters was divided in the Nachingwea Diocese. Some priests said they weren’t needed.
Opening in Kilimarondo
The first two sisters arrived in Tanzania in December 1972. They spent Christmas with a community of sisters in Dar es Salaam and began work in Kilimarondo on December 28, 1972, where the parish was overseen by an African priest. On February 18, 1973, a third sister followed. One of the missionaries had prepared for the mission at the Catholic University in Lublin with language courses in English and Swahili and other courses. The other two sisters did the language course in Tanzania.
The sisters lived in a massive one-story building that was part of the Salvatorian Mission. Such a house was unusual locally, as the population lived in mud huts. Each sister had her own room upstairs; a fourth room served as a guest room. The house had electric lights, running water and sewerage. The sisters slept under mosquito nets, which were also supposed to keep out any crawling vermin.
Areas of work
The sisters also worked in Africa in the classic areas of work for the congregation. A sister taught religion and handicrafts in the school and gave sewing lessons to the women. Another sister looked after the outpatients, the sacristy and the church laundry. The third sister taught women home economics and mentored the African workers. During the 1970s, a kindergarten was set up on the ward. Some distance from the station a house was built in the bush to serve as a sewing school for the women who lived near it.
Bishop Arnold Cotey was very pleased with the sisters of Mary. There were plans to take over another station at a Salvatorian work site. However, there were too few sisters in Africa. In 1978 there were only two sisters in Kilimarondo.
The cast was too small. Because the situation was equally unfavorable in the second branch in Nanjota, which opened in 1976, the interim chapter in Rome in 1978 spoke out in favor of ending the missionary work. However, only a general chapter could make the necessary decision. However, the next general chapter in 1981 decided to continue the mission in Tanzania despite the personnel difficulties. In the mid-1980s there were three sisters in Kilimarondo again.
African candidates
In the 1980s more and more young African women showed interest in the Congregation. Bishop Pengo also advocated an African novitiate. In 1984, the intermediate chapter first decided to set up a longer postulate in Kilimarondo, since local priests worked here, which was helpful for the local young girls.
Since then, looking after the candidates has become an important task for the Kilimarondo branch. In 1988 there were already 20 candidates here. A new house was completed that year for them to live in. They were partly self-sufficient by growing corn and rice.
However, Kilimarondo was unsuitable as a location for the novitiate, being more than 100 kilometers from the nearest major town of Nachingwea; the road was extremely bad even by African standards and impassable in the rainy season. Therefore, the novitiate was opened in 1990 in the second site Nanjota.
Closure
On December 31, 1991, the Kilimarondo branch was closed. The Superior General placed the house that had been built for the candidacy at the bishop’s disposal.
House Superiors
Aldona Plazek 28.12.1972 –
Consulate Wilma 05.03.1976 –
Innocencia Luks 06/01/1986 – 1991
(Johannes Mertens, “Geschichte der Kongregation der Marienschwestern von der Unbefleckten Empfängnis“, t. 2, s. 622-624).
Jan 19, 2022 | NEWS
Johannes Schneider English medium school is one of the biggest fruits of our mission in Tanzania. It is run by sisters and also lay teachers. Some years back the congregation wanted to expand our apostolical work of dealing with the children in school, in Mwanga Kilimanjaro and thus the construction process started but due to some challenges including land tittle deed and later school administration number, it took time to start. We could not wait for all this construction process thus we decided to ask for one room in Mwanga parish so that we can start admitting children for class one and in January 2018 we were lucky to have 25 pupils who could start Johannes Schneider English Medium primary school. This one room served as class for lessons as well as a dining room for one year. During this one year the construction was rapidly growing and also the number of the children increased and after a short time the school was given the administration number and the children started using the new facility. One of the things God blessed these children from the beginning is that they are proud of being in this school, very zealous and competitive in learning, none of them could accept to be defeated and this made the class so lively and cheerful. We can say these 25 pupils were the foundation of Johannes Schneider school and they have set a very good example even to the new comers and due to this many loved the school.
The school is now rapidly growing with almost 300 pupils and five classes, these twenty five children are now in the top level (class five). as education curriculum in Tanzania, every year all the pupils in class four do national examination in order to step to the next level which is (class five) and for the first time in our school, last year we had our first class four group who sat for the national examination whereby they did a very amazing work by being number 1 out 89 schools in municipality of Mwanga, number 1 out 567 schools in Kilimanjaro region and number 45 out of 3997 schools national wide. Congratulations to them and their teachers and for all those who support us (our benefactors) and the people of good will for the good job. By doing this marvelous work they have advertised our school and due to this we are expecting many more children from all over the country to join our school from this year.
Sr. Teresia Mukumu
