Mission Circle Ministry

Mission: OUR NEXT MISSION IS TOWARDS THE ERADICATION OF CHILD SLAVERY It is a known fact according to UNICEF records that more than 200,000 children in West and Central Africa are forced into some form of slavery, given out or sold by their parents or guardians or relatives. The children are starved, abused and beaten by their so-called care takers. One of the main reasons why children are given out in this manner is due to poverty. Many families due to poverty are unable to take care of their children and sometimes desperate parents are duped to give up their children to strangers who most often promise a better life for these kids as they trick their parents to give them up. Some parents receive money in exchange for giving their kids and most often these vulnerable parents are given the impression that their kids will go to school or learn a good trade and they are promised a better life for their kids by those who come to take these kids. No sooner are these kids taken away than the reality of what they will face will dawn on them and by then, they are already very far from home that it will take a miracle for them to be able to trace their way back to their village community. This situation becomes worse when children are orphaned as surviving members of their families most often find it hard to take over the care of these kids on top of their other responsibilities. Most of these orphans are more vulnerable to being sent to strangers from the cities who are in desperate need for house maids and servants who will do domestic work for them. Sometimes these children are subjected to hard to labor and beating unknown to their relatives. Fr. Ken experienced the horror of orphaned children being given out to strangers by their desperate families. He went home last Christmas with the intent of helping out with the education of some children who have been identified as orphans and desperately needed help for their tuition. Unknown to these orphaned families that help was on the way, Fr. Ken reached his village only to find out that some of these orphaned kids have been given to strangers who are unknown to their grandparents who were their primary providers. The grandparents were eager to give them off for they felt that life in the city will offer the kids a better prospect and a brighter future. Efforts to locate these given away kids failed. According to the stories, some middle men whose job was to locate such vulnerable children will approach relatives or guardians of these orphaned children and talk them into giving out the kids promising better for these kids when they are given out to their new families. Once the desperate relatives or guardians agree to this proposal, the middle men will hand in some money to the needy family which is irresistible and then take the children to the city where they will then send them to the more affluent families who needed them. If the children are lucky, some of these families send them to school and also treat them well, but some are very unlucky to end up in homes where they will become house servants and house maids to their new masters and madams and they are punished for flimsy mistakes and abused for no good reason. Sometimes they become apprentices and carry wares on the streets for sale. Only God knows their fate as sometimes some never come back alive to tell their stories. In order to put an end to this menace, the St. John Eudes Mission Circle is organizing a weekend of fun come November 12-13, 2011 at the church premises in which they will sponsor the Nativity Sunday. We are inviting you to come with your friends and families to this all important parish event. Come and enjoy good food and delight yourselves by visiting the various galleries of the nativity scenes from various countries of the world which will be on display. Proceeds from this fund-raiser will go towards the education of these orphans so that they will be able to go to school and pursue education. This will prevent desperate poor families from giving out their kids to strangers and bring an end to child slavery which is one of the greatest menaces to human development in our world today. The Mission Circle also hopes to use part of the proceeds to help the poorest families to raise their own livestock by giving each of these families a fertile female goat. The first offspring of these animals will also be donated to other poorer families and the initial recipients of these animals will then keep them and continue to raise subsequent offspring as their own which will be a good source of income and revenue for their families. It is like the biblical planting of a seed that will multiply for good. We therefore appeal to all well-meaning citizens to support the SJE Mission Circle effort by making tax-deductible donations to this project. For more information to this November event call Lisa Long (818-666-5450) or email her on outreachkidz@gmail.com or you may call the Parish office on 818-341-3680 or visit the parish website on http://www.sjeparish.net and see Mission Circle Activities.