Pope Francis Center
A Rescue for Women and Children in Crisis
The news was devastating. Riak found out her husband had been killed. In addition to her grief, she was caring for a baby while suffering a crippling condition that left her on crutches in order to move about.
Now she found herself alone and a single mother. Riak’s physical disability prevented her from being able to farm crops for food. With no income and no assistance, she felt hopeless. Between surges of grief and fear, she wondered what would become of her and her infant child? How would they survive?
Being a single mother in Sudan and South Sudan can be a life sentence to poverty, hunger, and sickness – for both mother and child. With few job opportunities, single mothers struggle to find sources of income to feed their children and survive. They have no health care if either one gets sick or injured. Their outlook can be bleak.
One organization in Nzara is working to change this downward spiral and stop the cycle of poverty that leaves widows and single mothers destitute. The Pope Francis Center for Peace and Wellness is dedicated to rescuing women in crisis like Riak, and the children affected by these tragic situations.
Empowerment through Occupational Skills
One lifechanging aspect of the Center’s services is training in occupational skills. The Pope Francis Center focuses on long-term solutions to create sustainable outcomes for families. Equipping participants with job skills opens up new worlds of opportunity to earn income. These skills can be trades like commercial baking, tailoring, or other marketable skills suited to the client. This is a crucial step in empowering widows and single mothers to become self-sufficient earners for their households.
Empowerment through Agriculture and Nutrition Programs
Even when supplied with gardening tools and seeds, it takes time to cultivate a garden and produce crops. In the meantime, the Pope Francis Center helps families with food relief until they become self-sufficient, saving children from the effects of malnourishment that can stunt their growth and development permanently.
The program provides households with essential food supplements including rice, beans, sugar, and salt, along with basic hygiene items like soap, to help prevent sickness. In some cases, participants can work in the community garden, helping to raise the produce that benefits everyone in the program. In Riak’s case, if she cannot, the program ensures a widow like Riak and her child receive food assistance until they are in a position to be able to purchase their own food.
Empowerment through Small Businesses
The small business program has changed untold lives, with benefits that stretch to the next generation. The Center gives microfinance loans to a woman in crisis so she can start a small business. She will receive the resources she needs to launch her business, such as a sewing machine and cloth if she’s learning tailoring, or commodities if she’s opening a small shop. She also receives training in basic finance and business management so that her new venture will be successful.
The effects of being given these opportunities are life changing, and ripple through families and communities. Some women’s small businesses thrive to such an extent they can expand their shops or services. Some have built a house for their children to live in with the proceeds of their earnings.
In some cases, women earn more than their household needs, and they are able to help extended family members or others in their community. One woman grew so much food that she was able to share her overflow with other families in need. Watching women learn business skills they would never have been introduced to, and become not only self-sufficient but able to help others, is one of the most rewarding and telling aspects of the microfinance program.
Empowering Children through Health Care and Education
Where once children born into HIV were often abandoned and left to die, now they have an opportunity to grow up and live meaningful, successful lives. One of the programs of the Pope Francis Center reaches out to these children and begins a health care protocol for them from Day One.
Children in the program receive vital antivirals that build their immune systems, as well as nutrition support. They are monitored regularly to measure their growth and ensure they are thriving.
A sad side effect for many children when poverty and tragedy strikes is they are no longer able to go to school. Without enough money to buy food, there is nothing left for tuition, school uniforms, or supplies. The Pope Francis Center ensures children like Riak’s will be able to go to school. The education they receive changes their lives and their opportunities for the future. Some children who have attended school on scholarships have gone on to college and returned to work in the program, to give back to others what was given to them. This is when you see the cycle of poverty broken and the transformation of lives come full circle.
From Despair to Hope
Riak’s life was turned around when she was introduced to the Pope Francis Center. At first it was difficult for her to believe. But then incredible joy and relief sank in. She realized she was not alone in her struggle, and her situation was not hopeless.
With the immediate care provided by the Center, Riak no longer has to worry how she’ll feed her baby. The center offers food assistance until she is on her feet. Riak will receive skills training so she can obtain employment suitable to her physical constraints. She may even be taught how to run her own small business. Her child will be nourished and able to go to school.
Because of the Pope Francis Center, she and her baby will not become a tragic statistic. Instead they can look forward to a future with hope and possibility. A future that is changing for many women in crisis every day, because your partnership supports programs that save.