Meet Sister Loretta LaPointe, CSJ Peterborough
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We are women faithful to prayer, living lives based
on Scripture and Gospel values, rooted in our CSJ spirituality.
Our ministries respond to the poor and most needy, particularly
where the need is not already being met.
(Vision Statement of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough)
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Sister Loretta LaPointe
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The second sentence of our Vision Statement has always been
very important to me and my ministry has tried to be in response
to it. For some twenty-odd years, I taught in the Peterborough
Separate School System loving every minute of it. However,
a restlessness crept quietly into my heart and persisted.
I wondered if there was more I could be doing. My interest
in missionary life was sparked by the visits of missionary
priests and sisters to my high school, and I never lost that
interest. Later on, as a young Sister, I came into contact
with the Missionaries of Africa, then known as the White Fathers,
in the person of Father Ray Fortin. We were on the same COR
weekend and we kept in touch for many years. As this desire
to respond to the poor and most needy, particularly where
the need is not already being met grew stronger I shared my
thoughts with Father Ray. After much prayer and discernment,
I felt that God was calling me to ministry in Africa, specifically
in Zambia where Father Ray was working. And so it came to
be. With Sister Amelia Belohorec, I set off for Zambia for
the greatest adventure of my life. We were going for three
months or three years, and here we are in our tenth year!
Bishop Mpundu, Bishop of Mpika-Mbala Diocese, arranged for
us to teach and be the Chaplains for the Catholic students
of Mbala High School. Sister Amelia taught Religious Education
(still does today), and I taught English. Mbala High School
is a co-educational and day-boarding government-run school.
At present the enrolment is approximately 900 students of
which 700 are boarders. These are the lucky students who can
afford the fees, uniforms, books, pens, etc. The government
provides very little. In Zambia, if one cannot pay the fees
and buy the school requirements for high school, one does
not go to high school. Besides being volunteer teachers (no
salaries), we sponsored seventeen students in term 1 and twenty-six
students in terms 2 and 3, including exam fees for seventeen
grade 12 students. These are vulnerable students whose parents/guardians
have died and are unable to pay the fees. The requests come
to us almost daily as they are losing parents/guardians to
HIV/AIDS.
After the first two years at Mbala High School, I left to
begin a new ministry as Director of Mbala Open Community School
(MOCS). Community Schools are free schools meaning that the
vulnerable or orphaned children do not pay fees. They are
also not required to wear uniforms, shoes and supply their
own exercise books. Uniforms are one of the most expensive
items for poor parents to provide. In Mbala, there were many
students not going to primary school. They were simply hanging
around the town and the markets. The Sisters of the Sacred
Hearts initiated the project but needed someone who was in
education to run it. Therefore I accepted the job. God has
blessed this work abundantly throughout the four years of
its existence. There are almost 400 young people attending
MOCS with a long waiting list. We have four classrooms, a
Home Economics room, a carpentry room, two offices and a staff
room, funded by NORAD. The Roncalli International Foundation,
Canada, gave us money to pay the volunteer teachers and buy
the necessary school supplies for the first two years. We
now have four teachers who just finished teacher training
who will be paid by the Government and three seconded primary
teachers. The money used to pay the requirements for the high
school students and to sustain the Community Schools comes
from donations of interested and concerned people in Canada.
Very little assistance comes from the Zambian government.
There is a specific curriculum for Community schools but
we opted to stay with the curriculum of the Government schools
so our children would not be different than their friends
in the Government schools. We offer grades 1-7, plus life
skills training in Home Economics and carpentry. Not many
of our students will have the opportunity to go to high school,
so we hope that they will learn something in Home Ec. and
carpentry, which will enable them to earn a living once they
leave MOCS. At least they will be able to read and write.
When we first began there was a stigma attached to going
to MOCS and much suspicion by the Headteachers of the other
schools. Gradually MOCS and its teachers and students came
to be accepted. MOCS is now seen as part of the family of
the Government schools. As a matter of fact, the Co-ordinator
of MOCS attends the Headteachers meetings and is on the Executive.
In 2002, MOCS had the second highest number of grade 7 pupils
pass their government exams. Quite an achievement! It just
goes to prove that students do not need uniforms to be able
to learn!
There is a parent committee along with the Co-ordinator,
who make the plans for the school and try to solve its problems.
A project proposal is being written to the Japanese Embassy
to build four more classrooms, a library and a lab so we can
offer grades 8 and 9. Most of our students who qualify to
grade 8 cannot go because they have to go to the Government
schools which require uniforms, fees, etc. Basic education
in Zambia now goes to grade 9.
My role as Director, is to offer support and guidance to
the parents, teachers and the two Zambian Co-ordinators. MOCS
is their school and now that it is well on the way and successful,
they should be the ones making the decisions, because I will
not be in Zambia forever. For the past three years, I have
been back at Mbala High School where I teach English full-time
to grades 10, 11, and 12.
A former student of mine has begun a Community school in
a bush village for one hundred and twenty-five young people
for grades 1-4. Because of the long distance they would have
to walk, these children have not gone to school. As well,
the people are very poor. There are two untrained teachers,
no teaching materials and textbooks. But the parents are most
anxious that their children be educated and the students are
so excited to be going to school. The two Co-ordinators of
MOCS are going to visit this fledgling Community school to
offer support, guidance and assist in any way possible. This
is my next project!
And so the adventure continues. Thank you God, for letting
me be a part of it.
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