Chai Brady
From natural disaster response, complex surgeries to delivering education in some of the most challenging countries in the world, the legacy of Irish missionaries continue to empower and even save lives across the globe.
In their 2023 annual report, Misean Cara provided €13.6 million in funding to support 321 projects in 52 countries, administered by 52 members.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, CEO John Moffet highlighted the work they supported, including that of the Salesians of Don Bosco who helped save lives during the major earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey in February 2023.
Mr Moffett said: “They were able to respond immediately. That ability to be able to respond in the immediate aftermath really helps people. It is so important. It is often the Church and missionaries who are the first responders to emergencies. They often don’t get any credit for the work that they do, so it is great to be able to support that.”
Many of the missionaries Misean Cara help are supporting communities severely affected by climate change so they can adapt to and mitigate the effects of the crisis. In 2023, a total of €2.4m was allocated to 70 livelihoods projects implemented by 33 members in 17 countries, targeting 137,133 people. Mr Moffet described it as a “cornerstone” to their work towards upholding the “right to climate resilient livelihoods”.
Resources
Regarding education, the charity spent almost €5m last year assisting more then 110,000 students access quality education, as well as 22,600 people who had been forcibly displaced from their homes. More than 500 students were aided in receiving government scholarships.
However, the issue of getting girls into education remains a challenge due to longstanding cultural norms in some countries and more recently the Covid-19 pandemic – with some girls not being allowed to return to school by their families due to economic pressures. Mr Moffet said: “Education for women and girls has taken a real back step in in recent years with the disruption caused by the Covid crisis and schools being closed for long periods of time.
A lot of women go through life without having treatment”
“That meant that a lot of young girls and women were not able to return to education. So we’ve had a real focus over the last year in trying to support particularly young women and girls get back into education. Our members, because they have this long experience of working in schools, have been particularly successful at reaching out to young girls and women and getting them back into education following that crisis,” he said.
One of the projects the charity is hoping to support this year is the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) who have been running a hospital in northeast Nigeria. They work with women who do not have access to safe facilities to give birth, one of the outcomes of which has been that there is a high percentage of women suffering from obstetric fistula, which causes severe injury to a woman’s genitalia due to prolonged labour.
“It’s really serious stuff and the stats for treatment are shocking, to put it in real terms if you were suffering from a fistula the average waiting time is 87 years. So as you can imagine a lot of women go through life without having treatment,” Mr Moffet said.
The MMMs have been setting up a fistula treatment hospital which has a catchment area of 300km and are looking for women who have suffered from fistula to repair the damage that has been done to them physically.
Mr Moffett said: “They also run a programme for about 18 months after, which is about rehabilitation. If you can imagine living with that for a number of years you are being ostracised by your community and family because of the stench and the stigma that comes along with it. There’s a long-protracted period of both physiotherapy, post-traumatic stress counselling and an investment into training those women to go back into the community and have a livelihood after years of being ostracised.”
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With conflicts around the world, Mr Moffett hailed missionaries who continue to minister to their congregations, despite extreme violence. In 2023 Misean Cara were able to support the Daughters of Charity’s work in northern Ethiopia, in Tigray – where some of the most horrendous crimes against civilians has taken place.
Mr Moffet said the sisters have been helping women in Tigray who were “abused and sexually assaulted by soldiers from Eritrea and Ethiopia”, adding that they “were one of the last bastions”, working in places other aid workers were unable to go.
There is no doubt that the missionaries Misean Cara support continue to be at the fore of alleviating human suffering and offering education and dignity despite challenging situations, sometimes in places others fear to tread.