Make sure you watch the VIDEO here too.
In Madagascar access to clean water for washing, cleaning, cooking and
drinking is scarce. With no access to proper sanitation, thousands of
children die each year from easily preventable diseases.
Daughters of Wisdom religious Sister Rose
Rasoavololona, is the director of one of the Catholic
Schools in Madagascar. She has seen many children
fall desperately ill as a result of the lack of clean water.
Some of her students have even passed away because
of water-borne diseases. Here is what she has to say
about life previously in the community:
‘We had a small well but it was broken and that’s not
good. It’s stinky and dirty and there’s no way to wash
hands after toilets and after break, so their copy book
is very dirty as well. The children have a lot of worms
so that creates diseases. They vomit after experiencing
diarrhoea because of the dirt of their hands. When they
eat something without washing they get disease, they
get sick and some die. Others get allergies because of
this and around the school it is very stinky. Sometimes
when it is hot disease spreads all over so when we get
water the atmosphere in the school is very nice and
everyone is pleased.’
Joanna is eleven years old, in grade six at elementary
school, from a Catholic Mission school in Madagascar.
At school she studies a wide variety of subjects, but
her favourite is Science and she hopes to become a
doctor one day. Joanna is driven to be a doctor by
the amount of sickness she sees in the community
around her. The people of her community previously
have had very bad access to clean water and proper
sanitation facilities. Her neighbours and
classmates, such as her friend Kyla, are
often getting sick with diarrhoea from
consuming bad water and from poor
hygiene generally. These sicknesses are
no ordinary tummy bug and often those
ill require hospitalisation and at the very least medical
assistance. Some of her classmates have died from
this. Joanna herself has been sick, with worms that
caused her to vomit, more than once. Without the help
of doctors she and many others would die from the
terrible water conditions in the area.
Joanna is a Catholic. Her favourite part of being a
Christian is dancing and singing in Mass and listening
to God’s Word. Her dream for her life is to remember
to love God first and to love her parents and in turn to
‘give back’ the love they have shown her. That’s what
the Madagascan people do. When you finish your
study you give love back. It’s your turn to help your
parents with finances and in other ways. That’s what
Joanna will do one day. That’s her dream.
Kenzin is nine and in grade seven at school. He loves
sport, but also enjoys learning French and Maths.
Unlike the girls, he doesn’t want to be a doctor when
he grows up, but a priest. He has seen the priest
preaching most Sundays and looks up to him.
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Like a lot of others in his community, Kenzin lives in
a wooden house with three rooms. One that he and
his two siblings share, his parents’ bedroom and a
dining room. His family is lucky enough to have their
own outside toilet building, so they don’t have to use
the public community well or toilets which are often
in disrepair. He has been sick, although he struggles
to remember this and also has seen many people
he knows get the ‘belly-ache’ from drinking water,
particularly from the lake when the public wells
aren’t in use.
Karen is another grade six student. She enjoys reading
books in her spare time, with her favourite class
being Science. She likes coming to school because
she wants to be successful in her life and ‘to know
everything’. She finds it a pleasure to come to school
because it’s clean. She also dreams of becoming a
doctor because she likes to communicate with people
and to help heal and save them. She finds going to
Mass helps ‘to save her, by nourishing her soul’.
Karen realises that most people in her community
can’t afford a private well or tap for use in the home.
The limited times the public well is open, in addition to
a lack of hygiene education, mean that a lot of people
in her community regularly become ill due to bad
drinking water.
She is hopeful after the Catholic Mission
project at her school, estimating that formerly
90 percent of the students would regularly be
ill with ‘belly-ache’ and diarrhoea and now it
is less than ten percent. The school no longer
stinks of excrement and students can now
wash their hands and drink freely.
Thanks to Catholic Mission, Sister Rose has
built eight toilets, six water pumps and provided
e
essential training and basic education on hygiene
and sanitation to the children and their families.
This has significantly improved the health of the
whole community because they are better at
preventing diseases and have access to clean,
e
running water. One of the things Joanna likes the
most about the school is that unlike many other
places in her area, it is clean. The school also
provides them with some books and uniforms.
There are still however, countless children across
Madagascar who do not have access to clean running
water and proper sanitation at school which is making
them seriously ill. Most of the parents being farmers
are living in poverty and they struggle to provide the
necessary medicine which means they constantly
worry about their health.
Sister Rose desperately wants to provide life-saving
physical water, as well as formation and spiritual
support to many more children in desperate need so
that they can have a successful and hope-filled future.
Together we can give the children of
Madagascar such as Joanna, Kenzin and
Karen, the Living Water they need today.
Freecall: 1800 257 296
catholicmission.org.au
DISCUSS…
What is life like for Joanna, Kenzin and Karen?
Write down and share five bullet points for the
following questions…
How are their lives similar to your life?
How are their lives different from your own?
RESEARCH ACTIVITY…
Go online and find the answers to these questions!
(make sure you write them down.)
What is Madagascar like?
What exactly is happening in Madagascar in
terms of water?
Why does this community keep getting sick?
DRAMA ACTIVITY…
In small groups, develop a short performance on what
your school community, Australia and day to day
lives, would look like if suddenly you lost access
to clean water and sanitation (toilets). You can do
a play, a mime, song, interpretive dance, anything!
DISCUSS…
How does this issue impact the people of Joanna,
Karen and Kenzin’s community?
What are some possible long term effects on
these communities if they continue to suffer from
these issues?
How do you think Sister Rose and Catholic Mission’s
’s
work so far, has improved Joanna, Kenzin and
Karen’s lives?
What is stopping them from having good hygiene?
Why don’t they have access to clean water?
DISCUSS…
How does limited access to clean water affect
Joanna, Karen and Kenzin in their day to day lives?
How does a lack of hygiene education affect these
communities?
How would getting sick all the time (so you have
to leave your school) affect your life?
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DISCUSS…
What actions could WE take?
JOURNALLING ACTIVITY…
You may want to share some of these answers
afterwards, or get students to discuss these questions
in small groups first.
What things can we do at our school
about this issue? How can we help
Catholic Mission to help these people?
What do we think about this situation?
DISCUSS…
Are there any particular ideas we are
going to take up to help Catholic Mission
provide life-giving water and sanitation to
our friends in Madagascar?
How does it make you feel hearing the stories of these
other young people?
How fair is this experience for the Madagascan
communities?
Pick a student you felt the most connected to –
What do you think it would be like to walk in their shoes?
What will we do as a class?
What should we try and get our schools or
other communities to do?
Who else can we involve?
PRETEND…
You are in a different world with leaders, such as the Pope,
the President of the USA, the United Nations Secretary
General, the President of Madagascar and the Australian
Prime Minister. In addition there is the Catholic Mission
National Director, Sister Rose and Joanna.
You can elect people from the class to act as these
characters, or get small groups to come up with ideas
and choose a person from their group to speak as the
character in front of the class.
Get each person to answer in character the
following question:
What do we want to change in long-term for the
people of Madagascar?
Will anyone in this class volunteer to lead this
action in our class or at school?
PRAYER ACTIVITY…
End with one of the prayers for the people
of Madagascar.
PRAY
www.cm.org.au/WMM2015/pray.html
FUNDRAISE
www.cm.org.au/WMM2015/fundraise.html
ADVOCATE
www.cm.org.au/WMM2015/advocate.html
Freecall: 1800 257 296
catholicmission.org.au
World Mission Day Statement 2015
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francismessage-for-world-mission-day-2015
“Who are the first to whom the Gospel message
must be proclaimed?” The answer, found so
often throughout the Gospel, is clear: it is the
poor, the little ones and the sick, those who are
often looked down upon or forgotten, those who
cannot repay us (cf. Lk 14:13-14).
• How is the Pope leading the Church to act
towards the poor?
• What does Pope Francis mean by spreading
the Gospel to the poor?
How does he want us to do this?
• What do you think Jesus would say to
the Pope?
• How does the Pope’s 2015 Mission Day
statement relate to Catholic Mission’s work
in Madagascar?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=91oXEXw3qH4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpyYpseaupg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnh9EwLwjpw
• What does the Pope teach us about how
we should act as Christians?
• How did the Pope help the poor when he
was a bishop in Argentina?
Freecall: 1800 257 296
catholicmission.org.au
GOSPEL REFLECTION: Matthew 25:32-46
Read through with your teacher.
“I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink”
32 All nations will be assembled before him and he will
separate people one from another as the shepherd
separates sheep from goats.
41 Then he will say to those on his left hand, “Go away
from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal
fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you never gave me food,
I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to
drink,
33 He will place the sheep on his right hand and the
goats on his left.
43 I was a stranger and you never made me welcome,
lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and
in prison and you never visited me.”
34 Then the King will say to those on his right hand,
“Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as
your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since
the foundation of the world.
44 Then it will be their turn to ask, “Lord, when did
we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking
clothes, sick or in prison and did not come to your
help?”
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was
thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger
and you made me welcome,
45 Then he will answer, “In truth I tell you, in so far as
you neglected to do this to one of the least of these,
you neglected to do it to me.”
36 lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you
visited me, in prison and you came to see me.”
46 And they will go away to eternal punishment and
the upright to eternal life.’
37 Then the upright will say to him in reply,
“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed
you, or thirsty and give you drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and make you
welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you?
39 When did we find you sick or in prison and go to
see you?”
40 And the King will answer, “In truth I tell you,
in so far as you did this to one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”
Fre
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GOSPEL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
– What do you think is the key message of this
Gospel?
– In the time of Jesus, how did the local people treat
the poor?
– According to Jesus how should people care for
them? Give an example of when Jesus demonstrated
this from what you know about his life.
– Do you know people who are sick, lonely, hungry or
thirsty today?
– What does the Church do to help these people?
CREATIVE ACTIVITY…
Create a poster in small groups answering these
questions on what YOUR ideal (best) world looks like
in this situation. Present it to the group. Remember to
dream big, but also have some practical ideas!
If you could help these Madagascan communities,
what would you ideally want them to look like?
What would life be like for Joanna, Kenzin and Karen in
an ideal world?
What would Catholic Mission schools and funding be
doing to create this new ideal community?
– The theme for this resource is ‘When I was thirsty you
gave me drink.” Does this reading from the Gospel
teach us anything about this?
– What do we believe Jesus would do if he lived in this
community in Madagascar?
– How is Catholic Mission living the same mission that
Jesus called us to live, in these communities?
– How are we called to act as followers of Jesus?
Freecall: 1800 257 296
catholicmission.org.au