‘We were supposed to return to Italy on 5 March, but we are still in Indonesia because of the war in the Middle East, waiting to find a flight.’
Sister Maria Luisa and Sister Isabella left in February to support an agricultural training project near Sintang, a town in West Kalimantan..
‘The war has blocked us, but the community of sisters was naturally ready to welcome us and help us find the best solution both for visa renewal and for the return journey. By extending our stay, we took advantage of the opportunity to work even better on the project we are carrying out and to study some aspects of it more carefully.’
Sister Maria Luisa and Sister Isabella are well and, despite the difficult situation caused by rising prices, they are continuing their work with the local community: “Once we arrived in Sintang, we visited the communities of Mandrehe on the island of Nias and Pontianak in Kalimantan and resumed the “New Hope” agricultural training project.
The aim of the “Esperanza Nuova” project is to involve women from the villages around Sintang in human, cultural, agricultural, spiritual and health training. They learn how to cultivate rubber, harvest the rubber, which is then sold, and part of the proceeds go to them.We came here to the community of Jerora Satu, located in the immediate vicinity of Sintang, where we met with many associations and local authorities. We are also trying to start a chicken and fish farm at Esperanza, as well as the cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables.
There is a need for sugar cane and peanuts. Three sisters will devote themselves full-time to this project, and in Sintang, next July, we will welcome five or six girls from families in serious economic difficulty and begin their training.
We join them, our sisters in Indonesia and the troubled Middle East, in fervent prayer for peace.
