Mgbele, Oguta II, Imo State
Convent PHJC and children's house
Mgbele, Oguta II, Imo State
Postal address: P.O.Box 6525 Owerri, Aladinma
e-mail: ladyescee@yahoo.com (Sr. Scholastica)
Our first project in Nigeria, the street children project, had several stages. Some children which we found on the streets, had families which were too poor to care for them. With some help and counselling, several children could return to their families which we often supported for quite a while. Other children wanted to go back to the streets joining their parents who were also beggars. Some families moved away to other areas and took their children along. One boy found a family who took him in like a son.
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Ngozi was our first child. Here we see her May 2006, September 2006, August 2009 and January 2012
There are 12 children who presently live with us. Some do not know their origins, others cannot live at home because of poverty. Five of them are handicapped in some way, mentally or physically or both. They live with our Sisters, go to school if that is possible, learn to care for one another and to get as independent as they can. Each summer all of them visit Garam to have some kind of holiday. They all look forward to their next vacations.
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Mgbele compound with children's house and convent
As the convent building is now finished next to the children's house in Mgbele, the Sisters conduct the mobile clinic from there. They cover the area around Mgbele village. As in Garam, many people in small villages need help for health questions. The Sisters also could interest a German physician and a Nigerian eye specialist to come for consultation and treatment.
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People wait for treatment in the mobile clinic the clinic card nurse seeing a patient
| In Mgbele itself, with the help of Irish Aid, a clinic has been built. The clinic building has been completed and officially opened. Patients are being cared for, and several children have already been born there. We are trying to establish a lab and also build a kitchen and laundry place for the people who accompany the patients according to Nigerian custom. |  |
For the last three years, the Sisters from Owerri and now Mgbele visited prisons and helped people who were imprisoned without hope for their case being brought to judgment. They could free several prisoners and support others. They also cared for a group of small boys in Uyo prison who were accused to be witches and therefore imprisoned. Those boys can now go to school as we provided their uniforms. Such social work goes on as well as we can.
For the children of our home, but also for the village of Mgbele and other villages, a school has been built. Dr. Peter Calhouri from Switzerland is supporting this project with his on-going help. So far, we are teaching four groups of pre-nursery and nursery children, but it is planned to also build a primary school. Our own smaller children go to this school and enjoy it very much. Both sisters and lay teachers work there. So far, there are about 80 children.
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