A Tribute to the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters) on the occasion of their 150th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Institute (1872 – 2022) and 25th Anniversary of their presence in Teuk Thla.

 

Don Bosco School Teuk Thla, Cambodia has a unique story to narrate. Since our first 4 missionary Sisters set foot on Cambodian soil, the Sisters have been working in Cambodia for 30 years. This year, our second house here in Teuk Thla gives thanks for 25 years of its presence. It coincides with the Institute’s jubilee celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the first profession of Religious vows of Mother Mazzarello and her companions.

 

Among the different proposals from the planning committee was the idea of having the statue of Mother Mazzarello for the school since we only had the statue of Don Bosco to date. This suggestion was unanimously accepted. In a span of two months, parents, students and staff contributed generously. Mrs. Preut Sivet, our past teacher, designed the statue and Bro. Vy Somnang, a diocesan seminarian and past pupil of the Salesian Fathers, helped to get it crafted in Vietnam. He went out of his way to see that the statue was made according to what we desired. The final product was due to arrive after three months of work, on July 13, the commemoration of Mother Mazzarello, but eventually arrived on the next day. A welcome shout of joy rang out from all of us.

 

The statue of Mother Mazzarello was installed on August 28, 2022, during the of Gratitude day for the parents of our students as we closed the school year. Representatives from among the Sisters, staff, teachers, students and parents came forward to unveil the statue in a gesture of solidarity. Fr. Suon Hang Ly, the then Parish Priest of St. Peter and Paul Church, Phnom Penh Thymai, blessed the statue and the people around. Children of the elementary school presented the dance of gratitude to God for all His blessings. An atmosphere of wonder and grace was felt as expressed by all present. A unique and touching moment in the history of the school. As being the school gratitude day, Parents bought their lunch and we were blessed and gratified to witness families enjoying their simple food together seated on the grass or under the trees in our school compound. Oh! God’s love is so amazing! Evviva Madre Mazzarello!!!

 

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Mother Mazzarello for the first time wrote to her daughters in Myanmar in their own language!  The Sisters feel their Mother is so close to them as they read her letters with joy.

This translation of the Letters of Mother Mazzarello into Burmese has been a long time dream of the Sisters. A group of Sisters made an effort to translate the book by dividing among themselves the letters to facilitate the translation. One of them gathered the work and edited. However, the work passed unremembered as perhaps it was not the suitable time. The time for its birth is now! The Sisters thought of reviving the initial work this year being a suitable time as we celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the foundation of our Institute.

Mother Chiara invites the Sisters to read the Letters slowly and meditatively. In her Presentation of the book, she writes:

“Vi invito a fare l’esperienza di un ascolto profondo, di un incontro personale in cui potete lasciare parlare la Madre al vostro cuore ed ascoltare la sua voce tenera e forte, soave e decisa. Sentirete la sua presenza materna che diviene per ciascuna di voi orientamento e guida nel cammino della santità salesiana.” (paragraph 3)

 

တဦးချင်းစီကို ဖိတ်ခေါ်ချင်တာကတော့ နှလုံးသားကို ဦးတည်ပြီး ပြောလာတဲ့ မာသာရ်ရဲ့ စကားလုံးလေးတွေကို နှလုံးသားနဲ့ လေးနက်စွာခံစားပြီး ဖတ်ကြားစေလိုပါတယ်။ သူမရဲ့စကားလုံးတိုင်းဟာ နူညံ့ပေမဲ့ ခွန်အားအပြည့်ပါတယ်။ ညင်သာပေမဲ့ ပြတ်သားလှပါတယ်။ အမေ တစ်ဦးရဲ့ ချစ်တတ်တဲ့ နှလုံးသားနဲ့သမီးတဦးချင်းစီကို မြင့်မြတ်သော ဆလေးရှင်း လမ်းစဉ်ကို ညွှန်ပြနေသောအမေ့ရဲ့ တည်ရှိခြင်း ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

This translated work of Mother Mazzarello’s letters is commendable! It has been an inspiration from Mother Mazzarello herself whispering to her daughters, “I am here with you in this moment of difficulties.”

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The 2nd World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly 2022 is celebrated with the theme: “In old age they will still bear fruit” (Ps 92:15). This theme is an invitation to reflect on the blessing and gift that inevitable old age presents to us. In the message of Pope Francis for the Second World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, he likens old age to a season of “enduring fruitfulness.” This special day offers the Sisters and the young people in formation of the Blessed Eusebia Palomino community an opportunity to honor the experience and wisdom of the elderly and their important role of passing on the good values to the younger generation. As a concrete gesture of their gratitude and appreciation for grandparents and elderly, they rendered a cordial and benevolent visit to some elderly women in the nearby village of Lu Phram bringing joy to them with their greetings and simple gifts. Moreover, they also greeted the elderly Sisters of Myanmar, Cambodia and Philippines as their way of acknowledging their gift-presence to the Institute whose lives have been a source of inspiration to the young Sisters and formands. It was truly a grace-filled encounter filling our hearts with joy!

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The 30th Jan, 2022 was filled with the great joy in the Laura Vicuna Community, Chanthagon, Myanmar. The fourteen girls from Don Bosco Vocational training Center had succeed the Computer and Book keeping Accounting Course for two years. During the scholastic year, the girls could not return to us to complete the second year in 2020.Among the 28 girls the fourteen of them had accomplished the two years course. In spite of the difficulties caused by Covid-19 pandemic and the civil war the wonderous protection of Mo. Mary was evident in the Community. In the month of July and August, the sisters from the community had found the Covid-19 but by the grace of God and the loving assisting of young girls; the sister recovered soon and regain good health. The training   began alive again after the Quarantine days of the sisters. The young girls were so much grateful for accompaniment of the sisters and to the Institute. They appreciate the Countless blessing of God through the loving and supportive presence of the sisters because more than ever it has been a very difficult and uncertain moment in which they were able to prepare for their brighten future.

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 WEEKLY FROM 25^th AUGUST to 29^th SEPTEMBER- 2021

We were happy to have formation for kindergarten teachers on line, especially this COVID time. Sr. TM with the help of Tr. Vuthy was able to do this for every week from 25^th August-29^th September -2021. It was great joy for us and for the teachers to learn something with various topics

TOPIC: “Building Resilience: Making Life Durable During the Pandemic”

    TOPIC: Detoxification (IN & OUT)

    TOPIC: Be friend with negative feeling

    TOPIC: Guiding young and children to possess ARROW: 

        symbol of VIRTUE and SWORD:  

    symbol of CAPACITY, TALENT AND SKILLS

TOPIC: “We are together in one boat”

     TOPIC: “Ecology is our life”

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August 16 is etched in the heart of Mary Our Help Province for the blessing of the new house in Cambodia which welcomes the Bl. Eusebia Palomino community. Fr. Pedro Ramirez Ramos, pmé, graces the occasion with the celebration of the Eucharist and then blesses the different parts of the refurnished house.

 

The Blessed Eusebia Community is established for the purpose of committing itself to the formation of the temporary professed Sisters and Cambodian young girls who are in their initial formation. The community which will engage itself in varied apostolic works of the Salesian Sisters in Phnom Penh will provide the Sisters and formands with formative moments.

 

It is truly a beautiful gift on the 206th birthday of great founder, St. John Bosco, who wishes his Daughters to give importance to their formation in order to be “credible signs of God’s foreseeing love to the young”. The festive occasion is graced by the newly-installed Provincial Superior, Sr. Ched Ditching, and the Sisters in Phnom Penh and Battambang communities who share the joy of the Sisters who will form part of the community.

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On August 15th, 2021 Sr. Gertrudes Ditching (Ched) FMA, begins her service as the 4th Provincial Superior of 'Mary Our Help' Province (CMY- Cambodia and Myanmar).

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Our thanks to Sr. Jessica Salvaña for her generous self-giving to our Mary Our Help Province for her six years’ service as Provincial Superior in Cambodia-Myanmar (CMY)

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Installation of Sr. Gertrudes Ditching (Ched) as 4^th Provincial Superior of CMY on August 15, 2021.

 

Messages from Sr. Jessica Salvaña

to all the sisters in CMY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpKLOLYXvlA

to the Educative Communities and Benefactors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMvHn--1i6Q

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The Mary Our Help Province (Cambodia-Myanmar) celebrates a unique event in the history of the Institute on Cambodian soil, amidst the raging Covid 19 in the world. On August 5^th the Sisters and their Educating Community in Cambodia rejoice for the 1^st Profession of Sr. Charlene Jiawen Chua, who is of Chinese origin from Singapore.

 

Sr. Charlene is the only girl in the middle of her two brothers. Even though her parents were not yet Catholics, they prayed for one year in the grotto of our Lady of Perpetual Help for a second child and Charlene’s life was the gift of their prayers. The whole family received Baptism on December 8, when Charlene was two years old. Ever since, they gradually grew stronger in their Catholic faith.

 

What is remarkable in the vocation story of Sr. Charlene is that, though the Salesian Sisters have no presence in Singapore, she was led by the Spirit to meet the FMA through her involvement with A Call to Share (ACTS) –Singapore, a group of lay volunteers who come to Cambodia and Myanmar annually to do mission work for one week. She first met the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco in her first ACTS mission trip in 2012 in Cambodia. It was in 2016, during her 7-month volunteer stint in Teuk Thla, Phnom Penh that she felt God calling her to the religious life. Certain of God’s call, she followed her heart and said her goodbyes. A very painful moment, a heart breaking detachment for her family, but God comes first as her parents surrendered whole heartedly to God’s plan and the noble choice of their only daughter.

 

Sr. Charlene did her formation in the Philippines in Canlubang, where as a group she learned to live, work and grow together as a family. After five intense years of assimilation of the Salesian spirit and impelled by the love of Christ (2 Cor 5:14), Sr. Charlene is ready to commit herself as a Salesian professed Sister.

 

In this year as her country celebrates 200 years of Catholicism, she is a gift to the Mary Our Help Cambodia-Myanmar Province and to the Institute. We accompany her with our prayers, that she, like Mary our Mother, may correspond to the boundless graces that God continuously lavishes upon her to be a sign of God’s love to all, especially the young.

 

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On August 4th, 2021 Mary Our Help Province (Cambodia-Myanmar) celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Fidelity of Sr. Extremo Aranda Gema, the 70th of Sr. Chiandotto Lina and Renewal of vows of Sr. Pheng Sreymom Bernadette.

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Anisakan, Myanmar - July 24, 2021

On the monthly commemoration of Mary Help of Christians, four Aspirants from Myanmar namely, Maria Kai Mun Pan and Teresa Seng Htoi Bu who are both in the Aspirantate in Canlubang, Philippines, Elizabeth and Lucy Lam Lun Kim in Anisakan, Myanmar were accepted to the Postulancy. The reception was inserted during the vespers and all the communities from Myanmar and Cambodia participated via online for the reception of Elizabeth and Lucy Lam Lun Kim Which was held in the chapel of St. Mary Mazzarello Community(Anisakan).

Congratulations to our dear Postulants, for their courageous and generous response to the loving call of God as they move on in their Salesian vocational journey. Like the seeds, may they be open and docile to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to the Formators so as to become beautiful, rich and fruitful plants bearing fruits for the salvation of young people.

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We share our joy and gratitude for our new provincial superior: Sr. Gertrudes Ditching(Ched) FMA.

We are deeply grateful for Sr. Jessica's guidance of the province for the past six years and the YES of Sr. Ched

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June 18, 2021 – Cambodia. The Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco had our first online Seminar. Sharing/echoing of the theme and experiences of the CIAO SCUOLA Congress which was held on March 26 and 27, 2021. Today was a memorable day as all Salesian Educators of our four communities (Tuol Kork, Teuk Thla,, Battambang and Phum Chreh) and 91 teachers and FMA participated. The program was well timed and so all are motivated to this intense learning on Salesian Educators: Advocates of the Global Compact on Education. The method of presentation was done based on the model of CIAO Scuola Congress in Khmer. The Keynote Address of Sr. Runita was presented by Sr. Tang Sovathanak Mary, Human Dignity and Rights of Sr. Sarah Garcia by Tr. Doen Sena (Teacher of Accounting at Tuol Kork – Secretarial Course), Integral Ecology of Sr. Elena Rastello by Tr. Em Chakrya (Coordinator of Teuk Thla – High School), Peace and Citizenship of Cardinal Zen by Tr. Vorn Champa (Teacher of English at Teuk Thla – Food Technology and Hotel Services) and Development and Solidarity of Bishop Pabilo by Tr. Nak Bunleak (Secretary and Accountant of Battambang community).

The day began with the invocation of blessing from God prepared by Sr. Sreymom. Sr. Ophriini (Coordinator of youth Ministry in Cambodia) gave a short welcome talk to the participants and initiated the reason and importance of the Seminar. Sr. Jessica Salvana – Provincial of CMY gave a kick off address to the teachers. She encouraged the teachers to be open to the realities of the world in the education and formation of the young for the future.

After each talk, our Educators took an active part in sharing their insights, the new ideas received and above of dreaming of something new and feasible to put into practice. Some thought provoking ideas such as “yes, we learn and study a lot on these topics – what concrete/action steps should we commit ourselves to live it and make it happen? Again, in our education, we have the topics of Peace, Human Rights, Solidarity – why and how is still unrest, destruction, war in the world even in our own Asian countries?”. Sr. Tang Sovathanak gave a fitting answer to this. We need to study and reflect more on it.

Our sharing was concluded with thank you note from Sr. Maria Thao, where she thanked the day’s Emcee in Sr. Eng Sarin for her abled coordination, the speakers and all participants. Though the schedule was a bit heavy, the teachers enjoyed the learning and everyone express their sincere thanks to the well chosen topics which are very relevant and are eager to assimilate more for the coming years to work for a peaceful world. As for evaluation done through google form questionnaires, the responses of the participants are very positive and encouraging especially in this historical time of Covid-19 pandemic. Our learning day ended with a note of fun by picking up the name of a Lucky Teacher of the year 2020 - 2021.

 

*CIAO SCUOLA: Salesian sisters‘ Inter-provincial conference of Asia and Oceania for Educational establishments

 

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On 12 June 2021, Sisters of our CMY, had our formative encounter with Sr. Runita Borja (General councillor for Youth Pastoral - Rome) with the theme: “Animating a Synodal Youth Ministry and Some Guidelines of Animation until our 24^th General Chapter”.

The encounter was arranged by the Youth Ministry team of “Mary, our Help Province” (CMY). The Sisters from both countries actively participated in this unique encounter. Sr. Runita emphasized that our Institute’s mission is Educational and we, the FMAs are always “Educators wherever we are and whatever task we do, in whatever season of life we find ourselves”. She also stressed in the indispensable requirement for fruitful apostolic action is the formation of and responsible participation in the Educating Community for the Integral growth of the person. She expounded the youth ministry educational mission in our Constitutions, plan of formation and Guidelines for the Educational Mission (GEM). Coordination for communion in the provincial youth ministry in synodal style helped us to revisit our roles in our daily encounter with the young. This encounter empowered us our passion for education for the young generation.

We thank Sr. Runita for encouraging us and inspiring us in our educational activities. Yes, to live “THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE AND HAVE IT TO THE FULL” is our dream and action plan.

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Anisakan, Myanmar- On May 31, 2021 (Feast of the Visitation of Mary) the FMA communities joyfully celebrated the 25th anniversary of the loving fidelity of Sr. Maria Thu Zar Aung. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the political crisis in Myanmar, the celebration was done in a simple way yet in a serene and family atmosphere with some of the Salesian priests and brothers.

 

The Eucharistic celebration began at 9:30 am at the Nazareth Chapel which was presided by Archbishop Marco Tin Win (Mandalay Diocese) and Fr. Bosco Nyi Nyi Zeya Aung (Superior of the Vice Province of SDB Myanmar) and other Salesian Priests. Our Provincial Superior, Sr. Jessica Salvaña participated via online. The homily of Bishop Marco was very encouraging for Sr.Maria Goretti and for all those who were present in the celebration. He encouraged all to have the humble attitude of Mary who attributed all to God and to His mercy. He underscored that each one of us has to look back to our life experiences and God's blessings so as to move forward with gratitude. Before the end of the Holy Mass, Sr. Maria Goretti expressed her heartfelt gratitude by praying her 'Magnificat'. She thanked God for His loving fidelity and all the graces she has received during these 25 years of her religious life. As she thanked the Lord she also thanked and asked God's blessing for Mother General and all the Superiors, her departed parents, Archbishop Marco Tin Win, the Salesians and all those present in the Holy Mass. The well-prepared liturgy and songs made the atmosphere very prayerful and serene. After Mass, lunch was served to all the participants which was lovingly prepared by the family members of Sr. Maria Goretti Thu Zar Aung. After lunch the celebration continued with a simple program prepared by the 5 communities. At the end of the program Sr. Maria Goretti expressed her joy of being loved by God and her gratitude to God for His merciful love. And she, too, expressed her thanks to all who were present. Indeed, it was a simple celebration yet filled each one’s heart with joy and gratitude.

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    Welcoming the New Year takes a different tone for the 9 communities of Mary Our Help Province (Cambodia-Myanmar) as they celebrated it opening the doors of their hearts and homes to families either of Christian or Buddhist religion who are given a treat for a day. The proposal which is intended to be a concrete gesture of solidarity to our brothers and sisters badly affected by the pandemic and a way to transmit to them God’s benevolence and love encouraged the communities to give up something to be able to prepare something special for the families.

    Such initiative was also a timely response to the invitation of the Holy Father for the 54^th World Day of Peace with the theme “Culture of Care as a Path to Peace”. With the involvement of some young people and lay collaborators, the Sisters manifested their care for the families by bringing them joy, relief and making them experience what it meant to be treated in a special way, even just for a day. Some communities went out of their way to visit the families in their respective homes while others welcomed them in their convents where varied formation sessions like physical care, hygiene, and maintaining the cleanliness of the house were conducted to the family members. The festive encounter with the families ended up with a sumptuous meal bringing delight to the entire family. It was such an unforgettable day for all the families as well as for the young, lay collaborators and Sisters who volunteered to animate the gathering, leaving a mark in each one’s hearts!

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The FMA of Myanmar, give shelter to help families in difficulty due to Covid-19.

 

Hlaing Thar Yar (Myanmar). The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of St. John Bosco Community of Hlaing Thar Yar, in Myanmar, of Mary Our Help (CMY) Province, had taken the risk to stretch out their hands in order to show closeness, solidarity and love to the most suffering ones, by taking an initiative to give shelter to help some poor families by building small, but safe and secure huts in one of the slum area called, Padan which is close to the community of the sisters.

 

During this Covid-19 Pandemic, the words of Pope Francis “Use what God has given you and look at the poor. Look: there are so many of them; even in our cities, in the center of our city, there are many. Do good!” challenged the FMA who live in the heart of Hlaing Thar Yar slum area, to go out and seek much more poor ones in the area where they are serving. As the sisters started to provide food items to the poor families in August and till now, they found out more and more poor families who are living in the waters damp and their huts are full of holes, some are already collapsing and full of trash around. During the raining season, they don’t even have the place to sleep and to cook due to heavy rain that comes into their huts from the roof which is full of holes.

 

When the Sisters saw this, they feel the strong call of the Lord in their hearts to give safe shelters to them. With the help of generous donors, the Sisters have the chance to be a voice of the poor. The Sisters pay visit to them, talk to them and try to know their conditions and ask their consent to repair their houses. With the help of some fathers of our Don Bosco Kindergarten children we were able to realize the dream to give shelter to them. The small huts (8ft x 14ft) are built with bamboo, zinc sheet roof and the floor is with ply wood.  All the families are very grateful to the donors and to God for the safe shelter for their small children.

 

When each hut is finished, the sisters go to meet with the family and gifted a Bible to each family wishing them that God, with His love and peace, will be present in their new house, in their family and in their hearts. They joyfully and with reverence, accept the Bible as a presence of God in their home. They promise that they will value it and some also ask our permission to read it though they are all Buddhists.

 

The Sisters also feel great joy because of the positive response of the families. Many families exclaimed with joyful thanks saying “now we, with our children, can sleep peacefully even if the strong rain will come because of the shelter that is being provided to us by you dear sisters. We are very grateful to your God who sent you to us. Your God is so good and we feel it through your goodness, concern, kindness and love for us and for our children.” With the generosity of the benefactors and the Sisters well able to support around fourteen families for safe shelters.

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“Stretch forth your hand to the poor” (Sir 7:32)

Hlaing Thar Yar, Yangon (Myanmar). On November 15, 2020, the St. John Bosco Community of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Hlaing Thar Yar, Yangon (Myanmar) Mary Our Help  Province (CMY), celebrated the 4th World Day of the Poor by distributing food items to 700 poor families and feeding some cakes with the help of parents, teachers and children of the Educating Community

The food items consisted of rice, oil, bean, salt, chili powder, noodle, onion, fish can, fish paste, vitamin C, milo, masks and hand sanitizers donated to the families  for a second time by Mr. Thomas Neisinger, the Ambassador of Germany to Myanmar.  

Since the preparation of food items for distribution to the poor families, the Sisters  lived the experience of synodality by planning and journeying together as an Educating Community to start the Revolution of Tenderness in the slum areas of Hlaing Thar Yar. Packing 700 food bags for the poor ones is a tiring one but with the parents, children, teachers and Sisters working together with so much joy of to prepare something for the poorest ones made things easy for everyone. The same thing happened on the distribution day, November 15, all were filled with enthusiasm and sense of collaboration.

After the distribution of food items, the Sisters and some teachers and oratory children, cut the butter cakes received from a benefactor, in order to bring to the poor children of the slum areas. The children were gathered by some mothers who kept them beside the road. They were all sitting quietly waiting for the Sisters who will come to share with them some cakes. When the Sisters distributed the slices of butter cakes they were so surprised and so happy to eat the butter cakes for the first time in their life. They have never eaten it before except one child. The Sisters were edified and impressed by some children who didn’t eat what they receive but kept it for their siblings, since they had it for the first time in their life. Though they are very poor, they have big heart and loving concern for others. They don’t think of themselves alone. The Sisters then appreciated their kind gesture and shared to them two slices each. The children were very grateful to the Sisters who love them and who always share whatever they have with them.

The Sisters of the community were also very happy and grateful to God’s providential care, who through our generous benefactors, made the children  experience the joy of sharing and celebrating the World Day of the Poor with the other poor children and families on this special occasion of the 4^th World day of the poor. 

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The Auxilium Community in Yangon, Myanmar celebrated “World Day of the Poor” on November 15, 2020 with 45 poor families of vendors. Seventy-five persons from different slum areas of Yangon, who are daily trying to earn their living and that of their children by selling flowers, cigarettes, fruits, eggs, masks and some snacks, etc., arrived joyfully at the appointed time.

To prepare for the day the community fasted for a month and half by eating on two evenings per week only boiled-rice porridge so as to provide a good meal for some families and on the day, the sisters, together with the boarding students of the Home and Food Management Center, cooked chicken rice and served it with a large piece of chicken, vegetables and some appetizers.

In giving lunch to the people, we had to divide them in three groups in order to abide by the Government regulations since the rate of Covid 19 cases is very high here in Yangon. Joy and satisfaction ran through the group as all fed on such scrumptious meal.

Love and gratitude bloomed even more when, after lunch, we distributed to each family, with the gracious support of the Embassy of the Republic of Germany, Yangon, a ‘Love pack’ consisting of  rice, oil, salt, chili, noodles, beans, canned fish, fish paste, milo and also soap cream, hand sanitizer and Vitamin C tablets for virus protection. 

Indeed, it has been a deep joy for all of us to experience brotherhood in this time of Pandemic, to experience that God is ever present among us and that  this time He has manifested His love through the generous concern of the German Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar on whom we ask God to bestow His bountiful blessings.

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Fun-raising on Mission Sunday 2020, in Anisakan, Myanmar

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