Summary What is L'Arche becoming? - Arche Deutschland

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The cry of a newborn baby brought the neighbours running. They had seen the pregnancy of the 15 year old girl and knew it her time of giving birth was not far off. But by the time they reached her, she had delivered the baby by herself without any support, medical or otherwise. The baby died as the result of a fall. This is the story of Musisi. Musisi has been a victim of sexual abuse for most of her short life. After being abandoned by her mother, she was lodged with her grandfather. He could not cope with her mental disability, and left her in a bedroom with no door, no privacy, no bed and no bedclothes. Men would visit the grandfather. More abuse followed. Then another pregnancy. Mercifully, a neighbour helped her deliver the baby, which is now in an orphanage. Now, 24 years old, Musisi has been living in L’Arche for the past two years. She was helped to come to our community by an Irish friend, who could no longer stand Musisi’s abuse. It is true that her village community tried to look after her, but she really needed a secure home in order to develop her full potential as a person. Thankfully, the abuse of her life has at last stopped. But the scars remain. For her, one lifelong scar is HIV. To be honest, we all had our fears and were asking ourselves: “how is it going to be to live with someone with HIV? After all, we share everything together in L’Arche and many risks are involved.” But that seems a long time ago now, when we were still afraid. Musisi made us forget our fears, greeting everyone with a beautiful smile and even kneeling down as a sign of respect. ... Important reading Life can be cruel. Sometimes, very cruel. We have debated very seriously about whether to include or omit this next story. Shockingly raw, it comes from a community in Africa. In the end, we decided to share it: as members of a world-wide family, we need to be aware of the extreme suffering that some of our brothers and sisters have endured. We hope this encourages our bonds of solidarity, and deepens our understanding of L’Arche’s role in the world. Obviously, names have been changed to respect the person’s dignity. The story of Musisi By an assistant in Africa, introduction by Jim Cargin communications director of L’Arche International L’Arche has been able to give Musisi a room, food, care and friendship. But she is still lacking a lot of things like clothes, underwear and hygienic items as she came with very few belongings to L’Arche. We are still learning how to live with her, but are grateful for the opportunity to get to know her. She has only been for a short time with us, but she fully participates in community life helping with housework, taking care of the core members who are weaker than her. She loves dancing at celebrations. She never learned how to write or read, but has an outgoing personality and likes chatting to people. Sometimes, she asks for her babies. We don’t really know what to say but we do our best. HIV/AIDS In AfrIcA As the above story shows, L’Arche is deeply involved in the issue of HIV and AIDS. We know we cannot solve the problem of AIDS in Africa. But we can give an example of how to support Musisi giving her the care, love and friendship she needs. This story shows L’Arche’s engagement in a big social issue of our world. We encourage you to write us with other examples of this kind of engagement with the world. 6
Felt-work is the art that we have chosen to develop in our workshop. This consists of working the wool and making wonderful things from it, with a drop of hot water and some soap. It is a very pleasant, relaxing craft which anyone can turn their hand to, with therapeutic effects. After our workshop’s first steps, we were ready to begin welcoming disabled people. We have chosen to welcome them gradually. Therefore at the outset we will only have three people with us. Others will come later, towards the month of October. This will allow us to get to know each person really well, and to establish a solid basis for this blossoming community. The first young man to be welcomed, Halmé, arrived at the beginning of August. He is 16 years old and comes to us from a refugee camp in Deheisha, Bethlehem. Halmé is chatty and cheerful. He seems to really like the work and manages well. At the moment his work consists of making little caves for Nativity ... Important reading Letter-writing campaign for Malja community Members: update on the situation (see also International Meeting Ground from June 2009) Pierre Kubler, L’Arche volunteer in Palestine Generally speaking, very few letters get to Malja…We receive some letters from Canada, and from Great Britain, but this is nothing compared to what we would expect to receive. All the letters from France are redirected to Trosly, because nobody picks them up from the Post Office. We don’t know why exactly. It would seem that the local authorities are probably withholding them, but we can’t be sure. One of the objectives of this letter campaign is to remind the authorities that we are looking after the wellbeing of the residents of the Malja community, and so we invite all the communities that are involved in the campaign to continue sending letters. We hope that some of them will reach our friends, or at least that this will continue to put pressure on the authorities. To those of you planning to write in the future, please ensure that you include the date of writing, the community of origin and its address on the letter itself. Sometimes this is missing, and makes it more difficult to identify the letters, as they are systematically delivered without envelopes and therefore without the sender’s address. Kathy Baroody’s advice about not mentioning her name is still relevant. To all of you who have written, and will continue to write, thank you on behalf of all our friends. For those who receive post, it is always a source of great joy! Since March, the development of the L’Arche project in Palestine has been gathering pace, with the creation of a workshop for people with an intellectual disability. Having found a house that is suitable to our needs, a small group made up of Palestinians and some foreigners has begun to meet with Mahera Nassar, who is the community leader of L’Arche in Bethlehem and Kathy Baroody, the L’Arche delegate in Palestine. L’Arche Bethlehem welcomes its first people Pierre Kubler, L’Arche volunteer in Palestine scenes that we are constructing. This is a long task which so far he has been proudly carrying out with ease. Shortly after, Maha arrived, a young woman from a village in the surrounding area. She is 18 years old. Her character really contrasts with that of her working companion Halmé: she is gentler, quieter, even a little shy. She has a very expressive smile and expression. Maha seems happy to be with us, and likes her new work. She is becoming more and more comfortable, and lets us know it. Great joy all round when she shared her happiness at being here! Ossama is the last young man welcomed to the workshop. He is making a sheep for the Nativity scenes that we make at the workshop. Ossama understands very well but speaks very little. He is gradually getting used to being with us in the felt room, even if he doesn’t always work. He still needs time, but some signs are showing us that he is making progress. Ossama has much to learn through the social life that the workshop now offers him. Although it is not always easy, we are happy to have him and we know that our relationship will help us all to grow. 7
Page 1 and 2: What is L’Arche becoming? Jean-Ch
Page 3 and 4: Focus on International Sharing stor
Page 5: Naomi Iwamoto, Sagar and Laura Wick
Page 9 and 10: News from around the L’Arche worl

Summary What is L'Arche becoming? - Arche Deutschland

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