“In some places, children with intellectual disabilities are considered a curse, in others they are considered lucky,” said Sister Claudia Samba. The nuns and staff of the Mauritanian Sister Claire Center also visit families in their homes, which enables them to get to know the lives of the people they serve in the name of the Catholic mission. The sisters travel twice a week to the villages around Rosso, where Sister Claudia’s community, the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Mary (FSCM), has been carrying out a mission since 2014. “Rosso is the sister city of Rosso in Senegal, the two cities, separated by the Senegal River, share the same name,” he explains. – During our visits, we noticed that the treatment of children with intellectual disabilities varies by ethnic group: in some places they are welcomed and considered lucky because they can get money or other goods through begging; elsewhere, they are seen as the curse of the family, an evil spirit, and therefore they are marginalized.”
In order to be able to take care of these children as best as possible, Sister Claire Center tries to sensitize people at all levels – parental, social, religious, governmental and international. “We travel for kilometers, sometimes through sandbanks, and when we see how children with cerebral palsy are treated, tears well up in our eyes. It was difficult for us to accept the way they behaved with them, both when they are seen as good luck and also when they are seen as harbingers of misfortune,” he says.
Hope was brought by the Papal Foundation, founded by North American Catholics, whose goal is to bring the love of Christ to those in need. They were given a minibus with 16 seats, which can be used to take the children from their homes to the nuns’ center every day. “Through the Ministry of Social Affairs, other associations and civil organizations also help parents. But we still have a long way to go to eradicate these a [fogyatékosokkal kapcsolatos] beliefs in sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.
The center welcomes all children with intellectual disabilities, from birth to 14 years of age. “Finding joy in our work is a gift from God – stresses Sister Claudia. – It is true what the Bible says about this: “if God has given someone wealth and property and allowed him to enjoy it and take part of it and find joy in his work: this is a gift from God” (Ecclesiastes 5:18). These children fill us with joy when they learn to draw, sing, write, play, according to their abilities and skills”.
According to sister Claudia, “the children in the center create extraordinary and surprising things. The way they exist and act smartly shows that their world has surprises in store for us!”
Source and photo: Italian-language editorial office of Vatican News
Zsuzsanna Thullner/Hungarian Courier
