The poster for Mission Sunday 2012 has been launched and this year celebrates the lay missionary. It features Aisling Foley, in her office in South Africa, a native of Cork and a Viatores Christi Volunteer in the poster picture, along with a young African boy, Neo.
In advance of Mission Sunday, which is celebrated in October, Aisling Foley has told her story stating that it had always been a dream of hers to do voluntary work abroad.
“From a young age I regularly raised money for local causes, was affected by injustices in the world and always had a social conscience which I inherited from both my parents who worked voluntarily in the community,” she explained.
Later she heard about Viatores Christi, an organisation that ran courses for people who wanted to volunteer overseas, and she joined one of the courses.
“That planted the seed, even though it took a few years to flower,” she said.
During those years, while the seed was germinating and Aisling began her career as a solicitor in Dublin, she continued her work with the Clarendon Street Conference of St Vincent de Paul on Wednesday evenings.
Often she felt that this was the most productive work she did during the week.
In 2008 she went to South Africa to work for six weeks as a volunteer in Home of Hope, a project that provides accommodation and foster care for children at risk. When she returned to Ireland she felt as if she had left her heart in Africa and she took redundancy and decided to return to South Africa with Viatores Christi.
“As someone who had a good job and career and a big mortgage, there were a lot of obstacles in my way. Going to another country to start a new job in a place where you don’t have family or friends can be challenging or even scary,” she said.
“There is never a perfect time to up sticks and move but I suppose some times are better than others and, for me, with the recession in Ireland, my health and the health of my family being ok, I felt that I had to carpe diem and go for it.”
She returned to work with Home of Hope in South Africa and in particular with children who had Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders; brain damage caused by pre-natal exposure to alcohol.
She compiled all she learned about how to care for these children in a handbook.
She found they do not do well in mainstream schooling and so set up special school, the first of its kind.
The school is called Amathemba (“Our Hope” in the Xhosa language) and Ashling Foley is the project manager.
“Despite all the work so far, we are only at the tip of the iceberg in dealing with this problem in South Africa. I truly believe that I was guided to work in Home of Hope and that my mission is to stay here until God tells me that my work is done. Every day these amazing children I work with teach me so much about tolerance, patience and love and these lessons will stay with me for life,” she concluded.
Mission Sunday will be celebrated on October 21 with the theme, Growing in Communion.
World Missions Ireland helps organise Mission Sunday.
It involves the Pontifical Mission Societies and brings the prayers, solidarity and financial help of the Church in Ireland to Christian communities in other parts of the world, especially those in greatest need.
On Mission Sunday there is usually a collection that is distributed to 1,100 young or newer Churches.
Last year more than €2.2 million was received by such churches having been collected in the thirty-two counties in 2010.
It helped build up the Church in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as helping in the training of novices and seminarians.