With the start of Lent, the “Creating with Love” Foundation and the Conventual Franciscan Missionary Secretariat of the Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Poland (Gdańsk), launched the 13th annual “Bag of Rice” charity appeal for children in Kenya and Ecuador.
The title of the appeal refers to the daily portion of rice, corn or beans that many millions of people in the so-called third world have to live on.
Each year, the “Bag of Rice” appeal raises funds to provide a year’s worth of food for almost a thousand children at the various missionary centers and schools managed by the Conventual Franciscans. It has also successfully implemented other projects for healthcare and education. In Kenya, for example, the appeal financed the purchase of a school bus for the students of the St. Anthony Primary School in Ruiri. It co-financed the expansion of a health center in Ruiri, and bought kitchen equipment for an orphanage in Limuru. It funded workshops for children and youth to fight human trafficking, early marriage, drugs, etc. In Tulcan and Santo Domingo, Ecuador, it funded workshops on child care, led by two speakers.
For more about these projects, please visit www.woreczekryzu.pl [Polish language only].
The Conventual Franciscan Missionary Secretariat in Gdynia, Poland, is also the media patron of the national “Missionary for Lent” appeal (www.misjonarznapost.pl). It promotes the spiritual adoption of religious missionaries, members of the fidei donum movement and lay missionaries. Currently, 12,966 people have joined the appeal; the website randomly assigns them a missionary to pray for throughout the year. Today 1,673 missionaries from Poland around the world are covered by this spiritual support, which has been authorized by the President of the Episcopal Conference of Poland.
Friar Robert KOZIELSKI Provincial Secretary for the Missions
