Emergency for St. Paul’s School in Sudan

Sudanese woman and children
Dear Friend of St. Jude,

Father Peter Sticco, S.A.C. Novena Director

We have an urgent situation in the Sudan for which I humbly request your prayers and support.  It is for orphans and children who have endured a lifetime of pain that no child should suffer.

The Republic of South Sudan is not necessarily front-page news today – nor is St. Paul’s Nursery and School, but for the children, families and teachers who live there, it is the most important place on earth. 

After two decades of civil war, exiles – mostly widows with children and orphans who lost families in the war – have returned to their devastated homeland.  They came home to a war-torn village in a land of poverty and despair.  Everything familiar is gone.  Families have been broken apart.

In their village of Rimenze, the women and children have found a safe harbor from the war and the untold atrocities that are still raging throughout the country.  Here, priest, brothers and sisters opened St. Paul’s Nursery and School.  It is a place of peace where the children can learn and the mothers can begin healing from the trauma of war.   

These precious children, who have only known war and exile, now have an opportunity for a hopeful future through education.

Sudanese woman and childrenOur Pallottine priests and brothers are trying to strengthen the school project by bringing help and hope to these fragile survivors of war.  I urgently need your help today to provide food, school supplies and training for the teachers. 

The illiteracy rate in Rimenze is alarmingly high – more than 90%!  For women and children, it is closer to 97%!  Girls are the first to drop out of school to tend to their families and work in the fields.  Family income is very meager due to the lack of education.  

St. Paul’s Nursery and School has only one qualified teacher, and two who have limited training.  Five more urgently need training.  These committed teachers want to provide a good education for the children, and they turn to us to help them succeed.  Financial aid will enable these teachers to receive the training they need to be qualified.

Many of the children are malnourished.  With your help, we can meet the need for maize, rice, beans, vegetables and other necessities to prepare healthy meals so they receive at least one nourishing meal a day at school. 

Spirits are high and hope fills the air.  The teachers are enthusiastic about what ‘can be’.  With your help, we will be able to bring the hope of St. Jude to St. Paul’s Nursery and School.

The teachers will benefit from this program, but it is the children who will gain the most.  When teachers are better prepared to teach, children are better prepared to learn.  Ultimately, the community will flourish when children have a chance for a promising future.

St. Jude brings help and hope to us in our time of need.  Through his powerful intercession with the Lord, people who feel hopelessness find strength in difficult situations.  I urge you to embrace the power of St. Jude’s miraculous intercession by sending us your special intentions.  We will include them in our prayers and Masses.

When you send your intentions, please include an offering that will help our Pallottine priests and brothers bring hope to a hurting world…the poor, the hungry, the grieving…and especially the children, who as Pope Francis says, “are often the last we think about.”

Thank you in advance for helping us with this urgent project in Rimenze and for touching the lives of so many who are beaten down by poverty and oppression.  You are a blessing!

 Wishing you the hope of St. Jude and our Newborn King,

Fr. Peter Sticco, S.A.C. 
Novena Director

P.S. Please send your prayer requests along with your most generous gift today to help our Pallottine ministries and the poor we serve.  I will make sure your prayer requests are remembered in the prayers and Masses at our Shrine and in daily Mass that is celebrated on St. Jude’s tomb in the Vatican.  

About Fr. Peter Sticco

Fr. Peter Sticco, S.A.C. is the Novena Director of the St. Jude Shrine in Baltimore, MD.