FEBRUARY 2014

FEATURED

Celebrating Mary

Ward Week

Pastoral Activities

News from our

schools

Intercultural expe-

rience in Peru

Syrian Refugees in

Morocco

Nº 9

From 28th January to 2nd February, we celebrated our Provincial Congrega-

tion in Castilleja, Sevilla. We were 32 religious women, coming from Spain,

Ecuador and Morocco. It was a big joy to see each other and to share this

time together.

Josune Arregui, ccv sister, was our Facilitator, and she helped us in our pro-

cess.

We began with a solemn ritual, using the symbols of Land, Water, Air and

Fire. After that, we started our PC.

First of all, Isabel Gortázar presented the Report about the last 8 years of life

and ministries in the Province, followed by table conversations and ques-

tions. We followed the same process concerning the Finance Report, pre-

PROVINCIAL CONGREGATION 2014

CONECTA

sented by Elena Cerdeiras, Juan Carlos Ballesteros

and Myriam Benito.

Next day, we had an open panel about the differ-

ent ministries in the Province.

Asilah: Mary Burkart and Macarena Fdez. de Boba-

dilla talked about their projects, state of the mis-

sion, capacity building for teachers, literacy pro-

jects…

Ecuador: Isabel Peche y Louise Latín talked about

the culture and History of the country, about the

work of the schools Fe y Alegría, the teaching…

Schools: Josefina de Miguel talked about the six

schools in the Spanish Province, their Pastoral

work, the new technologies, bilingualism…

Other ministries: Beatriz Martín explained the vol-

untary work others sisters do: prayer groups, voca-

tion ministries, parish work, Caritas, social work

with migrants, visit to the prisons, working with

homeless…

Mary Ward International: Elena Cerdeiras provid-

ed a good an updated information about Funda-

2

Opening prayer in Castilleja.

ción Mary Ward International. We will here more

after the Toronto meeting.

With all this information, we can know what’s going

on in the Province and how everything is evolving.

On the 30th January, we celebrated Mary Ward’s

day: we worked hard in the morning, and in the

afternoon we had a meeting with teachers in

Loreto School. We had a great time because it

was a moment for sharing and enjoying all to-

gether. Later, we went to Bami School, where we

first gatherd around the new MARY WARD

STREET. A lay collaborator talked about Mary

Ward and connected her words to the Tree.

We celebrated Eucharist and we had something

together. The atmosphere was really amazing.

At night time, we had a great time thanks to Beat-

riz Martin, who prepared this social time.

Delegates election

We voted the delegates and the Spanish delega-

tion will be: Macarena Fernández de Bobadilla,

Elena Cerdeiras, and Isabel Gortázar.

Victoria Lassaletta

3

Celebrating Mary Ward Week with lay people in Loreto school (Seville).

Ecuador

Image by

Blanca Bergareche

As every year, the Province celebrates Mary

Ward Week. There have been celebrations all

around the country carried out by different

members and lay collaborators of the Institute.

We started on the 23th January with an Eucharist

in Leioa (Bilbao) organized by Past Pupils of the

School.

IN Seville, Mary Ward Mission kept open our

Mary Ward Centre, and there were meetings and

prayers.

Finally, on the 30th January, IBVM sisters, who

were attending to the Provincial Congregation in

Castilleja de la Cuesta, had a time to share and

enjoy with teachers, pupils and friends in Seville,

visiting the schools and the recently inaugurated

Mary Ward Street.

4

CELEBRATING MARY WARD WEEK

Prayer time in Mary Ward Centre in Seville

In the schools we have also had lots of

activities to celebrate Mary Ward’s

Week.

In Bami, they decorated the walls with

collages and icons dedicated to Mary

Ward, they organized a Music Festival

and they even prepared a Mary Ward’s

Trivial.

In Cullera (Madrid), they have created

a multidisciplinary Project: videos,

texts, web info… where they combined

Mary Ward’s History and new technol-

ogies. You can see the videos at http://

maryward.colegioirlandesascullera.org/

In Loreto School, they created an origi-

nal photocall, so all pupils could take a

picture with Mary Ward.

In Castilleja, we could see a beautiful

tree representing the whole Mary

Ward Family (photo in the previous

page) and in El Soto they organized

different activities reflecting about the

Institute Tree.

5

MARY WARD WEEK IN OUR SCHOOLS

The IBVM schools

organize, as every

year, their Pastoral

activities for children

and youth.

We will have our

summer camps in

Chipiona, as well as

the traditional

Camino de Santiago.

In 2014, for the first

time, we will have a new experience: Urban

Camp in our Cullera School (in Madrid), for

those who want to dedicate some of their time

to the others.

Of course, we will have our traditional Easter

preparation for young students, and University

students.

We will also participate in the work camp in

our mission

in Asilah

(Morocco)

with young

adults.

6

PASTORAL ACTIVITIES 2014

Carmen Torijano is the Latin teacher in

our school El Soto, and she has published

the book “Gramática Latina elemental”, a

very successful volume that has been very

well accepted by the public.

We are very proud of her!

MEETING OUR TEACHERS

IRENE VILLA RELEASED HER BOOK IN CULLERA

On the 28th November, our school in Cullera

(Madrid) had the pleasure to receive the visit of

Irene Villa, past pupil, journalist and an exceptional

woman, for the release of her second book “Nunca

es tarde, princesa”. (It’s never late, Princess).

This book is a master lesson about life and self-

improvement. Because Irene Villa was a victim of a

terrorist attack by ETA in 1991, in which she lost

her two legs. In those days, she was a pupil of our

school, and she has never forgotten her friends,

teachers and sisters who accompanied her during these hard days.

She has now become very popular in Spain, but she always comes back to our school, and has

time to celebrate with us.

7

The Crib made by students,

families and teachers in our

school in Cullera was

awarded by the City Council

of Madrid last December.

The judges pointed to the

originality of the Crib –it

was done with recycled ma-

terials– and the fact of be-

ing an inclusive representa-

tion of Jesus’ birth: with

black and white figures, in

reference to the reality of

the centre, where there are

pupils from 27 nationalities.

The Crib title was: “We are

all the same, we are all

different, but, we are all

next to You”.

More information at:

www.ibvm.es

8

IBVM schools took part in the XXX Congress of Catholic

Schools in Spain, celebrated in Valladolid under the top-

ic: “Creative school”. Time to share and learn about new

experiences about innovation and new technologies.

“Creative school”

Our Crib awarded for inclusive and original

For second time, this summer Fundación Mary Ward organizes a Work

Camp in Peru. An opportuni-

ty to live an intercultural ex-

perience focused on solidarity in which the partici-

pants will see the projects that are being carried out

in the country.

Intercultural experience in Peru

9

Our faith calls us to recognize that where the dig-

nity of the human person is violated, then all

members of Christ’s Body suffer and that we are

all called to see, act and correct this “evil”. Our

globalized structures and processes are both sup-

ports and obstacles to Christian responses to refu-

gee crises.

We are limited in what we can do directly, but not

in our struggle to embody the original justice of

our creation. Our desire is to be part of the free-

dom, integrity, justice and joy with which God

blesses all people. This calls us to challenge all

processes and systems that are not working to-

wards preserving the dignity of all persons in the

integrity of God’s creation.

Syrian Displaced Persons Outside Syria

In January 2014 the UNHCR indicated there were

over 2.3 million registered Syrian refugees and

expect the number to be around 5 million by the

end of the year. The majority of registered Syrian

refugees are in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and

Egypt. These countries have designated refugee

camps with supports from the host country, UN-

HCR, local and international NGOs.

There are few figures available on refugees that

have not been registered with UNHCR. Some

countries, such as Lebanon and Sweden, register

Syrians as “refugees” or “asylum seekers”. Esti-

mates for North Africa, excluding Egypt, are that

there are about 17,000 Syrian displaced persons.

The number of Syrian Refugees in Morocco is un-

known.

Of the UNHCR registered refugees over 1m are

children, 740,000 of whom are under 11 years of

age. NGOs are working with the UNHCR in the

SYRIAN REFUGEES

Syrian crisis has last for nearly three years and by the end of 2014 there could be nearly 5 million refu-

gees living out of the country. One of these places is Morocco, where two IBVM sisters are dealing with

the situation of three Syrian families. Mary Burkhart, specialist in Middle East, explains the situation of

these refugees and the traumas they are facing.

Citizens being evacuated in Homs, Syrian capital. Photo: © United Nations

camps to set up and maintain health and educa-

tional facilities. The rise of contagious illnesses,

especially tuberculosis and polio, in Syrian refu-

gee camps is a concern, not only in the camps,

prompting WHO to launch of a polio eradication

campaign aimed at 23 million children globally.

UN Funding

Funding for Syrian refugees through the UN has

strong international support. $4.4 billion was

pledged by member states in 2013 and the UN-

HCR is seeking pledges totaling $6.5 billion for

the first half of 2014.

Microcosms of the situation in Syria

The UNHCR and NGOs work with the host coun-

try to provide structured supports through the

initial emergency and the longer term mainte-

nance period of displacement with the objective

of returning refugees to their countries. As with

all populations who flee from war, civil war, gen-

ocide, or political, sectarian or other forms of vio-

lence, refugees bring with them the legacies of

the situations from which they have fled. Among

Most of the Syrian refugees are finding a place in neighbouring countries: Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, but

they have also travelled to other Mediterranean countries like Morocco and Spain.

Destabilizing influence in host country

Refugees are often seen as an actual or potential

source of destabilization within a host country. Be-

cause refugees can bring with them different political

outlooks their presence, in large numbers, can influ-

ence internal politics in the host country.

For example, in the mid 1950s Iraq, Saudi Arabia and

Libya expelled striking Palestinian refugees. 1970s the

Palestinian refugees where expelled from Jordan and

Kuwait as the PLO became stronger. Many refugees

went to Lebanon destabilizing the fragile Lebanese

government.

The Rwandan genocide in 1994 drove more refugees

into Tanzania and by December 1996, the number of

Rwandan refugees in Tanzania had tripled to over

883,300. The refugees were blamed, among other

things, for increased crime, environmental degradation

and disruption to the local economy. The Mary Ward

team had been missioned to the camps in 1995 and

where there when the camps were shut down and the

majority of the refugees herded back to Rwanda. One

of the team, Luwanga Katala, IBVM, accompanied the

refugees on part of their journey, accepting the chal-

lenge of solidarity through presence. / M.B.

Syrian refugees, differences of ideologies, sects

and politics are mingled with the simple need to

get out of Syria and stay alive. The refugee popu-

lation is a microcosm of the situation of Syria it-

self.

Status of Displaced Persons

An important issue for displaced persons is their

status in the host country. For instance all Syrian

refugees are welcomed into Morocco. Some Syri-

ans have applied for residency, asylum or refu-

gee status. Few, if any, have been given papers

indicating their legal status in Morocco. Without

papers non-nationals are not eligible to work or

avail of the Moroccan national health or educa-

tion systems. Since government policy and status

of Syrian refugees in Morocco is ambiguous, Syri-

an refugees become ghosts, joining the hundreds

of Sub Saharan migrants, begging on the streets

of Moroccan cities.

Tangier Region

The Syrian Community in Tangiers, is a large,

affluent and established community. Caritas,

Tanger is collaborating with the Syrian Mosque

Association but there is a certain resistance by

the refugees to engaging in formalized relief pro-

cesses.

Dr. Wahiss, MD, the mosque’s Syrian manager,

sees part of the problem as that of fear and dis-

trust. In the Tangier region Dr Wahiss, Cartitas,

Tangiers and ourselves in Asilah, have found that

the refugees are focused on getting money and

are not, generally, interested in being registered

for formal aid. This reluctance seems to be tied

to their concerns over personal security and the

security of relatives still in Syria. The refugees are

afraid, insecure and unsure of the implications of

registering with NGOs, Government Departments

or their Embassy. Political issues, real or per-

ceived, on the part of the refugees, as well as

NGOs and governments make it difficult to effec-

tively intervene in the crisis that has driven so

many Syrians, here in Morocco, to begging.

The need for NGOs and local associations to col-

11

Citizens being evacuated in Homs, Syrian capital. Photo: © United Nations

laborate in helping Syrian refugees is obvious.

However, there is a real fear that information

gathered for humanitarian purposes could be

used for political purposes and this mitigates

against a structured response to the crisis.

Asilah

As far as we know, there are three Syrian families

in Asilah. Most refugees and migrants head to big

cities such as Tangiers. As the numbers of Syrian

Refugees and Sub Saharan migrants grow the

generosity of Moroccans on the street is being

stretched to breaking point. The current situation

is untenable. Sub Saharan migrants and Syrian

refugees who live in Tangiers are going out to

surrounding small towns, like Asilah, to beg.

Limited Response

Our IBVM response is limited. For refugees not

living in Asilah we refer them to Caritas in

Tangiers or the Syrian Mosque. We are com-

mitted to providing emergency help to Syrian

families living in Asilah. Maria Llinas of FMW has

indicated that some emergency funding is availa-

ble. Our collaborators, Association Attadmoun

d’Asilah are looking for support from local health

authorities to allow Syrian Refugees access to

public health and educational facilities. We will

also, as necessary, support accommodation rent-

al, and providing food and prescription medi-

cines, as well as clothing, depending on individu-

al, verified, circumstances.

Within our limitations and those of our repre-

sentative international bodies and governments,

we struggle “to make a commitment to securing

authentic integral human development”.

We rely on our relationships with God:

To help us with our desire to allow the power of

love transform our lives and, through that love,

that we may become “agents of mercy, channels

through which God waters the earth…” To guide

us in our desire to be “vehicles of change” in the

international and national structures that directly

affect the dignity of persons. To enable us to be

agents “changing hatred into love, vengeance

into forgiveness, war into peace”. May Your lov-

ing care and peace hold all

those affected by the vio-

lence, loss and insecurity of

displacement.

All quotes are from: Pastoral

Guidelines – Welcoming

Christ in Refugees and Forci-

bly Displaced Persons, Cor

Unum, Vatican City, 2013

Tánger Mosque.