Contents
◆2011 Missionaries-Sending Ceremony・・・・・・・・・・・2011 Lay Missionaries
◆Know more about MDGs Goal 5:
"Improve maternal health" Kampong Luong Floating Village,
Cambodia・・・・Mr. Masashi SHINODA
◆Letter from Cambodia ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・Ms. Miyuki ASANO
◆Letter from East Timor・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・Ms. Yui FUKAHORI
◆Information・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・Management
Know more about MDGs (Please refer to Vol.139 "What is MDGs?")
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Kampong Luong Floating Village, Cambodia
By Mr. Masashi Shinoda (Karasaki Church, Kyoto Diocese)
<Mother and child health care>
This time I introduce Mother and child health care program operated in Kampong Luong Floating Village. In the floating village we have everything that is available on the land.
There is also a hospital and it is called "health center". Seventy percent of the people in the village are Vietnamese but very few of them use the center. It is because the staffs are only Khmer and the Vietnamese have the barrier of language and in dry season the water level becomes lower and the center is far on the land which the village people do not have an easy access by transportation. As a result many Vietnamese do not know what the health center is for. In order to let the people know what the center is operating and how necessary it is, we hired a doctor from the center and started the program to set up the free clinic a year ago.
Our intention was to contact all the patients but this time we targeted pregnant women and infants and hired a gynecologist. It was because the infants' lives were lost in the floating village due to the unbelievable causes.
The Missionary-Sending Ceremony was held at Chofu Congregation de Notre Dame and the Mass was conducted by Archbishop Ikenaga (Advisor Archbishop of JLMM) on 12th November, 2011. Two new Lay missionaries were blessed and encouraged by many people. We could hold a wonderful ceremony with the help of Sisters from Chofu Congregation, church people and many others. Two of them will be sent to Mongolia. Mongolia is a new mission area of JLMM. Mission started in the country only twenty years ago. JLMM missionaries will start the mission "live together" in young communities there with other Lay missionaries from many countries. The midwinter is starting soon in Mongolia and they will go there in April, 2012. We wish two JLMM Lay missionaries will live together with people in their mission areas. Your prayers and support are appreciated.
There was a big flood which occurs only once in a decade in Cambodia. Particularly the water level of Tonle Sap Lake rose and the houses at the riverside had big damages. There was no damage in Phnom Penh but in countryside the roads flooded, the houses were covered with water and the paddies got a huge damage just before the harvest season. TV showed the people sending the aids to the isolated villages. The water level is getting lower now but I worry about the people who lost the income source.
By Miyuki Asano (Kikuna Church, Yokohama Diocese)
<Women are motivated>
The business of sweet roti food stall is getting better as the children came back to school in October after the long school holiday in Cambodia. Mrs. Siwon (33) has joined the business. Her husband left her and four children to go to another woman last year and she has been working in a factory to raise the children. As she could not afford to pay the rent and to make a living, she borrowed money from many people to buy food. She used to moan to Mrs. Suleimau who lived in the same apartment about her problems. She got tired of listening to her story and introduced the food stall business to her. Then she started the business. Her eldest son is twelve years old and always came to "Children's house" to study with his youngest sister, two years old, as no one could look after her. She often cried and sulked
during the lesson. Teachers said, "She is hungry because the family is poor and cannot afford to give her enough food since her father left home." Every time she cried they gave her the school lunch at the rear seat before lunch time. Her brother took very good care of her feeding her with the food and water, washing her pants which she had wetted and so on. In the evening he cooked rice and waited for his mother's coming back. I heard that he had come to ask the teachers for the rice support. The family was so poor that three children could not go to primary school during that time. In October they entered the public primary school and the eldest son could join the second year class.
There is no word to mean "Thank you" or "Sorry" in East Timor! Ms. Fukahori who is working in Alliance of Friends for Medical care in East Timor (AFMET) has, through her activities, realized the meaning of "gratitude" and "forgiveness".
Ms.Yui Fukahori (Yuigahama Church, Yokohama Diocese)
<Training>
I asked the vocational center (CDE) to hold a marketing seminar for FINI, the representatives of "Mutual aid for health and life" (CG), the other day. The CDE trainer Mr. Aires is very cooperative and always listens to the CG members very attentively. He has already organized the training for FINI a few times and is used to it. His training has a good tempo and he tries to include all kind of things such as games and group discussions. So I enjoyed it very much.
There are four elements to do business, which are goods, prices, sales locations and promotions. The goods are sold to customers only when the four elements are appropriate. If there are problems in each element, they must be solved. When the good explanations are given to the trainees, they can understand well. They often do not understand what the trainers says even it sounds easy to understand.
