Springing Into Action: COVID-19

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On January 31st 2020, the Society Fundraiser made her first visitto the grave of Mother Anna Dengel in Rome. RememberingMother Dengel’s words about becoming ‘fire and flame’, shepacked a book into her bag to read during her travels entitled,“Setting the World on Fire”, about the brief and astonishing lifeof St Catherine of Siena. It is written by Shelley Emling. A fewpages into the first chapter, she was reminded about the BlackDeath, la Pestilenza, and how Europe became a breeding groundfor the disease, with densely populated cities accelerating itscirculation. This included cities in the north, where daily lifebecame a grim battle against the disease. This description madeher remember COVID-19, creeping ever closer to Europe -although, in hindsight, at the time of her journey, there wereonly 2 confirmed cases recorded in Italy. As this number rosedramatically, our thoughts and prayers were very much withpoor, suffering Italy during the pandemic. Medical MissionSisters also began springing into action to respond to the viruselsewhere in the world.

St Catherine of Siena

It is not the hour to seek one’s self for one’s self, nor to flee pains in order to possess consolations; nay, it is the hour to lose one’s self.

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Uganda

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In Northern Uganda in their newly establishedmission with refugees, one of the sisters cameacross the first local case of COVID-19 in ahospital, although happily, she reports that thispatient recovered. Given the risks of the virusreaching the refugee settlements as it spreadsthrough neighbouring countries, the sisters areworking hard to encourage local communitiesto avoid public gatherings and social contact,especially handshakes, and are teaching themto wash their hands frequently, using soap,since no-one can afford hand sanitizer.

KenyaTo love is to be inventive …Mother Anna Dengel’s instruction to her sisters

This instruction has been put into good practice bythe sisters at the Good Shepherd Dispensary inAngiya, Homa Bay, Kenya. They are making face masksfor the clinic to help those, who cannot afford them,yet must make journeys to leave their homes forhealth reasons. They are offering employment to localcommunity members, who lost their jobs due to thepandemic; men are involved in construction works atthe new Anna Dengel Academy and women carrywater to the site. This building is being designed offera range of inclusive Early Childhood Developmentservices to local children and their families, includingthose with HIV/AIDS and children with disabilities.

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Ethiopia

At Attat hospital, every preventative measure isbeing observed at and by the hospital. If theMMS medical team comes across a suspectedcase, the person will be quarantined in aseparate section of the hospital. If a persontests positive, the patient will be transferred toa small specialist hospital for treatment.

Attat’s public health team is engaged inextensive awareness raising - both to patientsin the waiting area of the hospital and, goingfrom house to house, to alert people of therisks and to advise them on how to stay safe.The sisters expect a lot of hunger in the areaalong with associated health problems.

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Ghana

Holy Family Hospital in Techiman,Ghana, where several MedicalMission Sisters currently work, hasformed a COVID-19-Response Team,which is leading the effort to preventthe spread of the virus in their area,whether through public education orby raising awareness, using allavailable means. The sisterpharmacist at the hospital, Sister RitaAmponsaa-Owusu, heads a team,making and packaging a continuoussupply of hand sanitizer for use byhospital staff and they sell it,basically at cost, to others in thelocal community.

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IndiaIn India, Sister Smita Parmar ensures social distancing, while deliveringfood to her Dalit neighbours in North India, who are starving. Elsewhere,Medical Mission Sisters feed families from the slums and, as part of aninter-congregational effort, have packaged donated foods for rickshawdrivers, who are without work and income.

Indonesia

Despite having the largest economy in South East Asia,more than half of Indonesia’s workers are in theinformal sector, trading, for example, as street vendorsand ride-hailing drivers (Go-Jek). Now they cannot workdue to the pandemic. The Jakarta MMS Community isinvolved in food distribution, especially to: informalworkers without jobs; homeless garbage and ragpickers;and people with disabilities. The sisters are usingbicycles because the ragpickers are not always easy tofind. In the meantime, Sr Anke continues her work inAtma Jaya University remotely from home, providingonline DBT - that is to say, psychotherapy sessions forIndonesian patients and refugees. There are newpatients asking for her tele-psychotherapy servicesbecause the outbreak of the virus affects peoplepsychologically - as fear and anxiety grip them.

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The PhilippinesIn the Philippines, there is a growing concern forthe well-being and safety of medical andhealthcare workers in the frontline of thispandemic. Every Saturday, Medical Mission Sistersprepare and deliver healthy snacks of meals forthe health staff at the Lung Centre of thePhilippines in Quezon City - one of the country’sfirst testing centres. They also respond to otherrequests for food assistance, whether amongurban poor communities in Manila or four Lumad(indigenous) communities in Quezon.

Peru

In Peru, the sisters and someAssociates participate in an inter-congregational work of deliveringdonated food to the most needy - byfoot! This includes families ofchildren with disabilities to ensurethat no-one is left behind.

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Venezuela

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Currently, MMS’ Bethany Solidarity Kitchen inBarquisimeto and its 5-day a week feedingprogramme for about 200 children andvulnerable members of the community has hadto stop because food supplies are just notavailable. The programme will resume as soonas possible. For now, the sisters share just afew bags of food a week with the neediestfamilies.

USA

• Written by Sister Miriam Therese WinterMMS in 1996 while travelling through India,this poem invites us to patience andcontinuing tenacity during the pandemic.

• Sister Celine Paramundayil, the Society’sUnited Nations representative, is struck byhow the pandemic makes us equal: “Peoplewho earn a million dollars and children inpoverty are in this together. Life matterswhether you are rich or poor, white or black,living in a country which is developed ordeveloping.”

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The Netherlands

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Sister Elly Verrijt MMS writes, “For all peoplearound us, life has totally changed, and weknow that some of it will stay so. In the openspaces because of the cancelled activities,there is space … space for one’s self … to asksome new serious questions, questions of lifeand death, for us personally, and for the wholecommunity of life. To realise more that eachone of us is as vulnerable as the sparrow, theinsects, the glaciers, the trees that havealready gone.”

United Kingdom

Sisters work with migrantsand refugees, many of themhomeless, to assist them ingetting into shelters, wherefood is available. One sisterworks in the Accident andEmergency ward at StThomas’ Hospital, whereactive cases are admittedfor treatment. The SocietyLeadership Team joins inclapping and drumming forthe UK’s National HealthService every Thursdayevening.

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Germany

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To combat some of the isolation caused bysocial distancing, Associate Pia Aporta andother families in her Frankfurt neighbourhoodpaint messages on their windows to offer“hoffnung” (German for “hope”) - a creativeway to be present to others during this time offear and uncertainty. The sisters also continueto work with hundreds of homeless people inFrankfurt, support refugees and migrants inDuisburg, as well as offering telephoneconsultations from the public health office inBottrop and visits to frail, housebound, olderpeople in Essen.

St Catherine of Siena

Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.

Wishing you joy on her feast and

stay safe!

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