NAIROBI, October 15, 2013 (CISA) -The 2013 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award winner, Sister Angelique Namaika has said that her call to serve the displaced and abused women by the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) from Uganda in North East Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a call from to God.
“There were two sentences in the bible that encouraged me to do that. The first one was that Jesus went everywhere to do well. He had no time to mess. The second one is that Jesus said that everything good you are doing to someone weaker than me it is as if you are doing it to me”.
“What pushed me to start serving vulnerable people is a German nun who was visiting my village and was treating and taking care of such people. This gave me the urge to do like her”, said Sister Angelique through her English translator, she spoke in French.
The catholic nun was addressing the media in Nairobi, Kenya after travelling around Europe revealing her work with displaced women and girls to dignitaries.
Sister Angelique has assisted more than 2000 women and girls in remote Dungu town in DRC.
According to Sister Angelique many of the women and children she has helped recount stories of abduction, forced labor, beatings ,murder, rape and other human rights abuses.
Through her center for Reintegration and development, she has helped them transform their lives by offering them the chance to learn a trade, start a small business and go back to school.
Since the announcement of the UNHCR award Sister Angelique has met his holiness Pope Francis, the French first lady Valerie Trierweiler and her majesty Queen Matilde of Belgium who congratulated her on her service to the displaced women and children.
When she met the Pope, She told him of her work in Dungu to which he responded to her by saying,
“I know your cause, you have to continue helping refugees, Sister Angelique said. He then placed both hands on my head, prayed and blessed me and the women.”
In gratitude and awe, Sister Angelique was quoted saying, “I never dreamed that I would meet the Holy Father, and when I found out I cried for a long time. When I met him I said I was from the Democratic Republic of Congo and I carry with me the women and children, who have been victims of atrocities by the LRA, so that they can be blessed as well as me.”
SHARED FROM CISA NEWS
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