We feed, rehabilitate and love Argentina's forgotten

Litir na Nollag ón Athair Liam Ó hAodha, S.V.D.

Christmas greetings from Fr. Liam Hayes, S.V.D.

Dear readers

The intense heat and humidity of Misiones does not weaken our desire for celebrating Christmas. As for so many people at home, the highlight is our Midnight Mass with its universal custom of acting the Gospel story of Christ’s birth. The excitement is palpable as our residents, assistants and volunteers dress up as angels, shepherds and kings for the Nativity Play. Last Christmas, one of our residents, Samuel, sat on his wheelchair wearing a grey cloak and a gold crown as he acted the part of one of the Magi during the Midnight Mass. He caught all our attention because he really acted well, as he adored the new-born King of Kings. The Infant Jesus was represented by the most recent tiny baby to arrive in the home, 8 month-old Maria-Yorley. We did not mean to cause any theological controversy by picking a baby girl! Maria-Yorley was the best qualified for the job, being the youngest and most beautiful bonny baby in the house.

Joy and sorrow intermingled! Just over 24 hours later I was called to Samuel’s bedside in time for his sudden death. We are heartbroken whenever any of our residents go to their reward but Samuel was one of our homes’ really special people. When he was eight months old he fell off his mother’s lap and severely injured his neck and became paralyzed from the waist down. He lived in sub-human conditions before his family approached the home and asked us to help him. Like all our residents, he was in a most undernourished and dehydrated state when he came. Although he never made a complete recovery, he improved no end during his five years with us.

That Christmas night, he had made a profound impression on me as he acted the part of adoring the Infant Jesus. But within a short few hours I had come to realise that he was playing the part for real. For now he was in Heaven where he was really adoring Christ face to face.

Baby Maria-Yorley, who represented the baby Jesus in the live crib on that wonderful Christmas night, also had a sad story. While in the womb her mother sold her and was paid in food, money and clothes by the adoptive parents. But two months after Baby Yorley’s birth the “adoptive parents” discovered the she was severely disabled intellectually and physically. They drove the long distance back to Oberá and gave the two-month-old baby to her poverty-stricken mother then living at the side of the road. They seemed not to care that they were putting the child’s life in mortal danger.

The mother did not know how to cope. She asked us to care for this most precious and invaluable baby whom we soon fell in love with.

Sadly this practice of selling babies in the womb – facilitated by money-loving middlemen, some of them lawyers – is all too common here.

Seeds of Hope

So that, dear friend, is how the year began after I last wrote to you. Springtime brings growth and hope and we made it visible in our organic garden during the past year. We planted more orange trees in order to have oranges during the different seasons. In this way we are enabling the Homes to be as self-supporting as possible. We have begun providing our own honey with seven beehives. Our poultry farm has expanded considerably too.

Great progress was also made with our Bible Garden. The garden has a very important place in Scripture for it is intimately connected with the whole of salvation history. It is the scene of the creation, the fall and redemption of the human race. We were very fortunate that Fionnula Dunne, a qualified architect and cousin of my SVD colleague Fr Liam Dunne, spent six months as a volunteer with us. Fionnuala made a careful study of the theme before designing our Bible garden for us. This will be a magnificent recreational area for our residents and visitors alike as well as providing shade and much fruit and vegetables. Fionnula did invaluable work here and enlivened many occasions with her great violin playing. May she be richly rewarded.

Visit of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

On the 19th March last, on a lovely sunny day, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern TD visited our Homes. Dermot’s delegation included Philomena Murnaghan, the Irish Ambassador to Argentina, and Mr Dermot Gallagher, Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The Minister unveiled the foundation stone of the new home we are building to house eight of our least physically disabled but most emotionally disturbed residents. At present we accommodate all people in the same home, regardless of the kind of disability people have. At various times we have very ill and dying residents who need peace and quiet on their journey out of this life. Housing the emotionally-disturbed residents in a specially-designed facility will allow us to give people the comfort they need at crucial times – especially our ill and dying residents.

The Minister also inaugurated an overhead hoist for our therapy pool. Apart from helping our rehabilitation programme, this facility is providing therapy for other members of the local community and easing the suffering of people with disabilities. Many thanks to Des Kelly, Chairman of the St Teresa Obera Support Fund in Ireland and his friends for providing this hoist and shipping it to Argentina.

By the way, the Minister’s visiting party included his Private Secretary Sinéad Ryan, a native of my home place, Cappamore, in Co. Limerick. We both come from Main Street and I knew Sinead’s father, Seamus, the goalie of the Cappamore team from 1948 to 1970 – quite a career. Sinéad enjoyed Catriona Hanley’s beautiful painting of the local Cappamore scene, “The Sandbank” and we had a wonderful talk about our native place. Great love for Cappamore stirred in our hearts on that sunny March evening as we were thousands of miles from home.

Africa – UN conference in Addis Ababa

Visiting Africa was the fulfillment of a long-held dream for me. I had volunteered to work in Africa once upon a time, but the Lord and the Divine Word Missionaries had other plans. But last May, at the request of Cheshire International, I attended a UN Conference in Addis Ababa.  (Give some information about the conference – title and theme)

Visiting Ethiopia felt like stepping back and entering the world of the Old Testament with its processions of camels, goats and donkeys. In Africa you see extreme poverty and the scars of conflict. Ethiopia is no different and there is much sickness from the cradle to the grave. But the country is also a fascinating mosaic of peoples, religions and languages. I loved the colorful vestments of the Coptic priests. But, more practically, I had the privilege of witnessing the loving work of missionaries and volunteers from Ireland, Austria and Italy. They work in incredibly difficult conditions with many seemingly insurmountable local obstacles, including political corruption. These excellent people are investing their skills and their lives in bringing the comfort of immediate relief and the hope of long-term development assistance to the poor. Sister Myriam McLoughlin from Derry in Northern Ireland and her Good Shepherd Community are doing great humanitarian work and benefiting thousands of people. Many of the missionaries participated in the UN conference. Ms Mumbi Kamuri of Kenya described how she felt protected by the Lord to drive to farms outside Nairobi and transport food supplies through the strife-torn city in order to feed the residents of a Cheshire Home isolated by the violence which followed the Kenyan elections.

Home and fundraising

Earlier in the year (say when) I returned home to Ireland to do some much-needed fundraising, making it coincide with my journey to Africa (confirm). Unfortunately, I got quite unwell during my visit and developed a bad chest infection. I did manage to cough my way through an interview with Marian Finucane on RTE Radio 1. I am very grateful to Marian and her team of researchers for the interest they showed in our project. Thanks to that interview, a number of donors came forward to help us. (check with Des)

One highlight of my year was a visit to Áras an Uachtaráin accompanied by a number of fundraisers and volunteers past and present. The President visited us in Argentina in 2004 and this year kindly invited us to return the visit. It was great to renew our acquaintance. As is her way, Mrs McAleese made us all feel very much at home and gave generously of her time to each visitor.

I would also like to thank in a special way the Carmelite Fathers in Clarendon Street. They kindly agreed to the taking of a collection at all Masses in support of the homes, despite the fact that my chest infection left me unable to preach at their weekend Masses as arranged. But the Massgoers of Clarendon St were their usual kind selves anyway and contributed very generously to the work of our homes. There were many other parishes and parish personnel who continued to be generous to us throughout the past year.

An urgent plea

And yet we must continue to ask your support. The economic recession is hitting us hard, as rates of exchange between the European and local currency has narrowed. We depend on charitable donations from Ireland and England in order to survive and keep going. There is no State aid in Argentina. Our costs have increased greatly especially wages which have gone up by 49% in the last year (confirm if this is true and explain what you mean by legally paid).

I return home each year to fundraise among Irish and British friends. The increase in costs and particular needs of our residents means we need an annual €200,000 to keep going, so this letter ends with a plea for your loving assistance. (Liam, the figure continues to rise. Is this due to the number of residents or rising costs in Argentina?)

If you can help us by organising a fundraising event please do so or perhaps consider making a standing order to help us make ends meet. As a registered charity in Ireland (Charity No. CHY17476) we can claim benefit for all donations over €250 from PAYE taxpayers. In the United Kingdom we are also a registered charity (Charity No. 1088687) and we can make similar claims. Corporate Tax payers can claim contributions as a legitmate expense.

Remember that we depend on your prayerful support as well as on your donations. And if you, or anyone you are in touch with, would like to volunteer for any period of time in our homes, you will be most welcome.

For any information about the homes, or about donating or working as a volunteer, please get in touch with us at one of the contact addresses below.

All of us here wish you every joy and blessing for Christmas and 2009. Guímid siocháin agus sonas ort féin agus ar do mhuintir le teach an linbh Iosa. Agus gach rath ort don Athbhliain.

Fr Liam Ó hAodha SVD