"Hogar Nino Dios": A Home for Disabled Children. A new charism “the evangelization of culture”, which touches many fields: hospitals, parochial schools, and works of mercy . . . To give a living witness …More
"Hogar Nino Dios": A Home for Disabled Children.
A new charism “the evangelization of culture”, which touches many fields: hospitals, parochial schools, and works of mercy . . . To give a living witness to it in the everyday, the Sisters of the Word Incarnate, just a few meters from the Basilica of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, manage a house for disabled children. In the house “Hogar Nino Dios”, the “God Child House”, live 21 children, welcomed here since they were abandoned because of their disabilities (severe, in some cases) or because a difficult family situation prevents guaranteeing appropriate conditions for taking care of them.
Sister MARIA DELLA SANTA CROCE, Sisters of the Word Incarnate (Bethlehem): “There are many children living a very particular situation at home, for example, there are Bedouins who do not have heating at home. If a child suffers from heart trouble, she cannot live at home because there is no water, no light, and the mom has humbly asked us to take her.”
Caring for these children who need so much are just five sisters, assisted by two women, one to clean the house and the other in the kitchen, and also welcome help of some mostly Italian volunteers.
Sister MARIA DELLA SANTA CROCE: “Yes, day and night, from 6 in the morning until 6 the next day. Every night the sisters take turns sleeping with the children as a night nurse when it is their shift.”
The Institute of the Word Incarnate is an Argentine Catholic congregation founded in 1984. At the end of its 25th year of life, in 2009 it was able to open new houses in places that pose a challenge for evangelization in the Middle East: Gaza, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt. Sister Maria told us she had arrived recently in Bethlehem after the house in Alexandria was temporarily closed for security reasons.
Sister MARIA DE RONCESVALLE: “Also in Egypt there are many child victims of violence. We try to take care of the most needy. In Egypt the number of poor children is startling. We cannot take care of all of them, because we do not have the room and enough sisters . . . in Egypt also, and more than anyone, the children are suffering a lot.”
Depending on Providence is part of the charism. The Bethlehem house is sustained with the aid of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and donations from people of good will . . .
Sister MARIA DELLA SANTA CROCE: “This house where we are now is not our house . . . Thank God, there are many children who want to come and live with us, but there is not enough space to accommodate all the children . . . then, thanks to Unitalsi, we had the opportunity to enlarge the house a bit, to make it much larger . . . but we are asking for funds because we have not been able to raise enough money. We are in a bit of difficulty. It has already been 10 months since we came here . . . and now we are waiting on generous people to help us return to our home, to be able to take care of more children.”
A new charism “the evangelization of culture”, which touches many fields: hospitals, parochial schools, and works of mercy . . . To give a living witness to it in the everyday, the Sisters of the Word Incarnate, just a few meters from the Basilica of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, manage a house for disabled children. In the house “Hogar Nino Dios”, the “God Child House”, live 21 children, welcomed here since they were abandoned because of their disabilities (severe, in some cases) or because a difficult family situation prevents guaranteeing appropriate conditions for taking care of them.
Sister MARIA DELLA SANTA CROCE, Sisters of the Word Incarnate (Bethlehem): “There are many children living a very particular situation at home, for example, there are Bedouins who do not have heating at home. If a child suffers from heart trouble, she cannot live at home because there is no water, no light, and the mom has humbly asked us to take her.”
Caring for these children who need so much are just five sisters, assisted by two women, one to clean the house and the other in the kitchen, and also welcome help of some mostly Italian volunteers.
Sister MARIA DELLA SANTA CROCE: “Yes, day and night, from 6 in the morning until 6 the next day. Every night the sisters take turns sleeping with the children as a night nurse when it is their shift.”
The Institute of the Word Incarnate is an Argentine Catholic congregation founded in 1984. At the end of its 25th year of life, in 2009 it was able to open new houses in places that pose a challenge for evangelization in the Middle East: Gaza, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt. Sister Maria told us she had arrived recently in Bethlehem after the house in Alexandria was temporarily closed for security reasons.
Sister MARIA DE RONCESVALLE: “Also in Egypt there are many child victims of violence. We try to take care of the most needy. In Egypt the number of poor children is startling. We cannot take care of all of them, because we do not have the room and enough sisters . . . in Egypt also, and more than anyone, the children are suffering a lot.”
Depending on Providence is part of the charism. The Bethlehem house is sustained with the aid of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and donations from people of good will . . .
Sister MARIA DELLA SANTA CROCE: “This house where we are now is not our house . . . Thank God, there are many children who want to come and live with us, but there is not enough space to accommodate all the children . . . then, thanks to Unitalsi, we had the opportunity to enlarge the house a bit, to make it much larger . . . but we are asking for funds because we have not been able to raise enough money. We are in a bit of difficulty. It has already been 10 months since we came here . . . and now we are waiting on generous people to help us return to our home, to be able to take care of more children.”