Advocacy & People. El Hadji Salifou Ouédraogo. The Man Who Plants Baobabs
The African baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) symbolizes thriving life in the arid landscape of the savannah, providing shelter, food, and water for humans and various species. One man has planted thousands of baobab seedlings over the past 47 years, creating a vast forest that helps his family, community, and the Earth flourish. Meet El Hadji […]
Oral Literature. The cat… with a bag
One day, a penniless farmer from an oasis went to a rich merchant in the neighbouring village to ask for a loan. The old harvest was finished, the new one was still in the field and there was nothing left in the pantry to barter. But as borrowing is a savannah custom, the farmer decided […]
Brazil. Our Floating Church
There are more than 120 communities distributed on the islands of the large Santana archipelago on the Amazon River, in Amapá. The fundamental role of community leaders. An urgent need to have permanent deacons. Two missionaries explain their pastoral activities. We are in the North of Brazil, in the diocese of Macapá. Father Raul, a […]
South Korea. Pots, rice and “the have-nots” of Seoul
Left a very poor country after the end of the Second World War, South Korea is today at the forefront on a technological, economic and social level. However, it exists in a world marked by profound contradictions in which young and old remain on the margins, as Father Vincenzo Bordo says from the capital. “Here […]
India. Child brides. A school for a fresh start
According to a recent UNICEF report, there are 640 million, 200 million in India alone, child brides. In Polur – in Andhra Pradesh – a congregation of nuns runs the “Sree Jeevan Jyothi Vocational Junior College”, a nursing school that welcomes young women who are victims of early marriage. Kavitha and Navyashree, are two Indian […]
Advocacy & People. Chima Williams. To hold transnational corporations accountable
In the aftermath of disastrous oil spills in Nigeria, environmental lawyer Chima Williams worked with two communities to hold Royal Dutch Shell accountable for the resultant widespread environmental damage. On January 29, 2021, the Court of Appeal of the Hague ruled that not only was Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary responsible for the oil spills, […]
Slovakia. The simplicity of an encounter
The Little Sisters of Jesus live their contemplative and active lives in fraternity. They work among those marginalized: immigrants, precarious workers and township dwellers. They try to find beauty and greatness where only degradation and misery are imagined. Sr Anna offers her witness as a worker in a laundry in Slovakia I have been working […]
Tanzania. Maasai. A child’s name-giving
Maasai life is full of feasts, festivities and occasions to celebrate. Looking at a Maasai man’s or woman’s life cycle gives a fair overview of the rich and full life they celebrate. This will become clear with the description of a particular ceremony: a child’s name-giving. During the first four to six months of life, […]
Syria. Aiming at the new generations
Thirteen years of war have shaped the daily lives of the people remaining in Syria. Millions of children have never known peace. Quality school education is almost non-existent. A generation without a future, which also influences the future of the country. The ‘Don Bosco’ paediatric centre of the Salesians in Damascus is a refuge for […]
“I am on the side of peace”
“To those who ask me which side I am on with so many armed and bloody conflicts being pursued in various regions of the world, I reply without hesitation that I am on the side of the victims of war.” A reflection by Father Saverio Paolillo, a Comboni missionary who has worked in Brazil for […]