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Medicine, food & shelter needed for 7 nuns who fled warzone
We are the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We were founded in 1954 in Juba, South Sudan (then Sudan) by Comboni Missionary Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi to respond to the needs of the poor, the neglected, afflicted, and those who have not heard the Good News of salvation. We serve in Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and in the Archdiocese of Phoenix in Arizona, USA.
In South Sudan and Sudan, we are afflicted by wars for over 50 years but never give up on serving, because our charism is to spread the “Love and Compassion” of the Heart of Jesus to the vulnerable. And to “Live love in Truth”. At times we become vulnerable too.
Our work has many challenges. The wars in South Sudan and Sudan have affected the people we work with and our own sisters had to evacuate the place for their safety as bombs and bullets were falling and flying in any direction.
Most of the children we ran with are malnourished, vulnerable, illiterate, and suffer high death rates. We also experience rampant killings.
Two of our Sisters were brutally killed on 16th August 2021 enroute to Juba. We encounter abductions in our work.
In April, four of our sisters were in a terrible accident while escaping from Khartoum – one sister broke four ribs, another broke her collar bone, and two sustained chest injuries.
Later on, 3 Sisters were evacuated by the Vulnerable People Project (VPP) amidst fighting in Khartoum. All the sisters came with just the clothes on their bodies – without beddings and other necessities. 5 sisters have remained serving the refugees and IDPs in the settlements at the border.
Both the people we serve and the Sisters have run out of basic needs, of food, medicines, clothes, sanitary items. They lack clean water and cannot educate the children in these circumstances. The needs are enormous on the ground.
Your assistance will help us to purchase medicine to rescue children and their mothers, give food to the malnourished, clothing for the naked, and clean water to avoid water-borne diseases killing our children. We kindly ask you to join hands with us to rescue a children and mothers, and help Nuns so that they can serve better.
God bless you and replace what you have generously given to save lives in South Sudan and Sudan.
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Comment from the Superior General Sr Alice Jurugo:
Our sisters came in two groups and each had different experiences on the way. While the first from Khartoum led by the Provincial came without assistance and traveled for three days, the second group from Omdurman took six days but were well supported by the Vulnerable People Project and taken care of until they were officially handed to the community of St. Joseph in Juba.
However, both groups were brave and resilient, constantly trusting in God’s protection and Providence. This has been the life of our Institute right from its inception in 1954. We were hardly ten years in existence when the first civil war in Sudan started in 1960s. Over the
six decades nothing seems to have changed except location of the wars.
I would like to thank our Sr. AAA for her open and generous heart for introducing her Institute to her personal friend and colleagues in the USA at such a time of great need. And on behalf of my Council, and on my own behalf, I want to thank Sister’s generous friend CM and her team within and abroad for their genuine concern and generosity through the V PP in rescuing our sisters out of Sudan war.
As expressed already, this event was never planned for and our 7 sisters are here in Juba in dire need of even basic items such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine and personal effects, and the survival of the four from the accident, has given us courage to trust in God more.
We would be most grateful if there are still wellwishers to stand by us in supporting these sisters. Our prayers remain with the five sisters still in Sudan; 2 in El-Obeid and 3 in Kosti who have remained to give service among the South Sudanese refugees.
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