6th October 2014: GREETINGS FROM FR NICOLA

Dear friends,  our fraternal greeting to all of you.

Now we are at the stage of working for information especially on how to behave in case of infection and for distribution of sanitation materials to prevent the contagious. But we also begun distributing food to those who are in isolation, to those who are more in need (elderly people who live alone, widows with children, single mothers ... ) and paying for the medical check up and medicines.

The civil Organizations are building more facilities actually there are 400 beds but there are shortage of  doctors, nurses, paramedical personnel like cleaner, the ones who provide food, the  squads to collect the sick, or the dead  to bury them ...). The Catholic Church tries to maintain open its 7 clinics and to re-open  the Catholic Hospital in Monrovia that was closed after the three missionaries “Hospitalizes of saint John”,  Sister Chantal, and 5 of the personnel died of Ebola.
It seams that only a miracle of the Lord can stop this contagion or we have to wait for a vaccine  but the times will be long (at least another year)!

With the flowing of time the families will lack  the money to buy food and medicine.
We are thinking how to help the families to produce food in the town. ... may be supplying vessels with  humus and seeds. It’s possible to produce tomatoes, beans, eggplant, pumpkins ... It could be a pilot project for three hundred families of our parish.   

We are also thinking how to reach students and do not let them stay idle for an academic year, as the school will remain closed  at least until January or Easter 2015.

We thank you for your union with us as we continue to share with the people this difficult and sorrowful situation.

For sure we need  many prayers so that the faith would not be missed, the hope would not die, the love would continue to burn in our lives.

Your
Fr Nicola Ciarapica