Holy Union Associates and St. William of York Church Provide Meals in Massea

For many years now, our Holy Union Associates, supported by Sisters Jane Newcomb and Marilyn Gignac, have worked with St. William of York Church in Tewksbury, MA in a wonderful collaboration to help our Alfred Therese School in Massea, Cameroon. We are so very grateful to Quilin Bouzi OMI, the pastor of the parish, who has generously taken up a collection every Sunday during Lent specifically for our Holy Union elementary and middle school there. Over the years, the funds have helped buy and install windows in the school, build bathroom facilities, and most recently provide school lunches. In a part of the world where food is not taken for granted, this program has provided the funds to buy and make three lunches every week for every child at Alfred Therese School. These meals relieve the children’s hunger and give them the nutrition they need to focus on their studies and achieve good grades.

Sr. Alfred Therese Cyr, SUSC, for whom the school is named, died on June 7th, 1931 from Yellow Fever, shortly after arriving in Cameroon. Among the first of our Sisters to mission in Cameroon, her body is buried there, and the school that bears her name now has 330 students attending. Due to the funds raised by St. William of York, the children now all receive lunch three times a week comprised of rice, beans, or plantains. On special feast days the meals can include meat or fish as well.

We are grateful to “Father Q” for his long-time support of this wonderful program and to our Associates who run it, and especially to the parishioners of St. William of York Church, whose generosity is having a direct impact on the lives of hundreds of children living on the edge of “the big forest”, and thriving.

Below are several pictures of the children of Massea and two letters from them, as well as the Sisters and Associates creating posters for the back of the church to make parishioners aware of the work that has been done.  We’ve also included a few pictures from previous projects. Please know how grateful we are for this collaboration, and be aware that it is making a real difference in a part of our world that on the surface may seem very different than our own, but is truly very much the same. God’s light is shining through you and the fruit it is yielding is plentiful.