Sisters of St. Gemma prepare to celebrate Jubilee of Mission in Ivory Coast
Why the mission in Ivory Coast?
In 1996, during the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, all our sisters who were on mission there were evacuated from the country and arrived in Italy as refugees, welcomed by the Italian communities.
While waiting until it was possible to return to Congo, the Congregation matured a new possibility: namely, to open a new mission in another French-speaking country. Among the proposals were Cameroon and the Ivory Coast.
Two sisters were sent to explore the territory of the Ivory Coast and having gathered initial contacts on the spot, they considered that a “right” place to open a new mission of the Sisters of St. Gemma. It was a country without war and the climate was favorable.
Our Foundress, Mother Gemma Eufemia Giannini said, “Like the apostles we must embrace the whole earth, where there are souls to be brought to Jesus….”.
On November 11, 1999, Sister Bernadette, Sister Lucia and Sister Veronique arrived in the Ivory Coast, welcomed and hosted for a month by the Consolata Fathers with whose Superior prior arrangements had been made.
Obviously, the decision to open a new community had also been made in synergy with the Bishop of San Pedro, Bishop Baltelemì Djablà, who had expressly requested some of the sisters to support a new parish in his Diocese, particularly by creating a kindergarten in such an impervious territory as the Sago Forest.
When the sisters settled into their independent house and began community life, they wondered what to do since there were no churches or Christians on the land: in fact, the majority of the people were Muslim. Each sister caught in bewilderment prayed and cried while continuing to wonder how they would get food in the middle of the forest: there was no market, no one traded meat or bread. The most widely used form of exchange was barter. People lived from farming alone.
The nearest market was in the town of San Pedro almost 120 kilometers away, the sisters had no car, but most importantly, there were no roads on the site-a disaster! For a long time the sisters fed only on bananas and eggplant for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Gratuously you have received freely given
After a few weeks had passed, Sister Bernadette, in agreement with Sister Veronique, decided to put her nursing studies to good use and look for a job that could provide a living for the sisters. So it was that she went to the nearest Health Center, a state-run facility, and after a brilliantly passed internship period aimed at qualifying her degree that had been earned in the Congo, she began her profession.
At the same time Sister Veronique began to devote herself to educational, animation and catechetical activities, meeting with children on Saturdays to prepare them in about two years to receive Baptism.
Every Wednesday the two sisters visited houses in the village for an initial evangelization proclamation and this allowed them to open a dialogue with the inhabitants and a relationship of trust.
In 2000 Sister Maria Pia was also sent to Sago to strengthen the community in mission. There was only one traditional church there for the natives (godié), but there were no Christians apart from a small Burkinabè community living in camps far from the village. Thanks to the intensive evangelization work, it was the godié who asked to be baptized and later asked to be married in the Church.
He who sows widely, widely he will reap
Initially during liturgical celebrations, a Muslim man would go to the church to read the Holy Scriptures as he was the only one in the village who could read and write. Hence, the need to offer a path of schooling aimed at children.
An urgent need, seized by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Gemma who took action to start a kindergarten.
It was a great challenge to get people to understand the importance of education. Adults in fact preferred their children to start work in the fields from an early age. Many did not have the financial ability to meet school expenses.
The mission in Sago has grown over the years, and the area has developed at the building level. To date, the kindergarten welcomes dozens of children and a boarding school has also been activated for girls who come to Sago from afar to study.
The sisters also run a dispensary. When they arrived, the state hospital was very far away and the population, being very poor could certainly not afford the cost of traveling to the facility in case of need. This led to reliance on traditional medicine resulting in high mortality.
It was precisely for this reason that the congregation decided to open a dispensary, which is still in operation today albeit with the great difficulty for the most serious cases of reaching it lacking a means of transporting the sick.
Since 2021 our community in Sago has been involved in the HIC SUM project of spazio + spadoni thanks to which it has been able to start a small but profitable chicken farm, a social enterprise directly taken care of by the sisters present on site. In addition, a large group of volunteers accompanied by the sisters are dedicated to spreading the works of mercy.
We are getting ready to celebrate 25 years of our presence in Sago, and it is good to see the enthusiasm and involvement of all the residents, whether Christian, Muslim or of another religion, who recognize us as those who started the City of Sago.
“That’s how good it is, that’s how suave it is for brothers and sisters to live together”.