DCCW
- impacting those at home and abroad!
by Janet Dempsey
Do you want to go away for a
week and have the experience of a lifetime?
Go to San Lucas Toliman in
A couple of the programs
where the Council of Catholic Women have made an
impact include subsidizing the school library. The funds and supplies sent by
DCCW for the school library are incredible. The library project is a wonderful
undertaking and it provides the children an opportunity to learn and give their
families hope for the next generation. The DCCCW also supports the local
economy by purchasing San Lucas “Juan Ana” coffee and selling it in parishes
throughout the New Ulm diocese.
A more recent emphasis is on
the construction of the “Woman’s Center” to create spaces for women that are
recreational and educational. The center
will include a laundry area to wash clothes that are now being washed in rivers
and lakes. It will have electric wash machines (non-automatic) donated by our
diocesan people; proper disposal of wastewater, a school and library with
videos (some women cannot read or write); a kitchen area with ovens to teach
women to bake for their own families. They can learn to use soybeans for more
protein in their diet and make sauce, jams, and jellies from the abundance of
fruit available. Presently they do not know how to process the ripe fruit, so much of it goes to waste.
Msgr. Gregory Schaffer, a
priest of the New Ulm diocese and pastor of the diocesan Mission Parish of San
Lucas Toliman proclaims, “This Mission is here to
celebrate the wonders and glories of God and will be exemplified by the
continued support of CCW.”
By the end of the journey, my
mind and camera were crammed with vivid images of gracious and very poor Mayan
people and a breathtakingly beautiful countryside that makes San Lucas one of
my most amazing travel experiences. The
adventure was enough to draw me back.
Janet Dempsey is from New