COMMUNITY MINISTRIES

Our passions lead us into many needed areas. Here are some subjects we focus on:

Providing Homeless People Essentials

In conjunction with National Health Week and Charles Drew Health Center Summer Project, Sr. Stephanie Matcha joined Sandra Pinkney, a Charles Drew Community Health Worker, and her family in collecting items and putting together over 400 backpacks filled with personal and medical items. The backpack items will not only be helpful for their daily personal needs but also to show that they are not forgotten. The backpacks will be distributed to the homeless living on the streets, under bridges around the Siena Francis House Homeless Shelter and the Stephen Center.

Ixim Connects Omaha With Guatemala

Sr. Mary Kay Meagher has been working with this group since 2003. Ixim, Mayan for “Corn,” is an archdiocesan ministry cultivating relationships of friendship, faith, and solidarity between the Archdiocese of Omaha and the Diocese of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Ixim began in 2002 in response to Pope St. John Paul II’s call for dioceses in developed nations to form relationships in solidarity with dioceses in the developing world. You can read more about her work and see a video at notredamesisters.org/news.

Teaching English

Sr. Cynthia Hruby, Sr. Mary Kay Meagher, and Sr. Joyce Ann Rezac teach basic English to prepare people for the citizenship test or their GED. “Currently my students in the small classes are enrolled through Catholic Charities,” Sr. Cynthia said. “These students are also in the Citizenship classes, so my role is to keep in mind inclusion of citizenship type content.”

Follow the Sisters’ ongoing ministry work at notredamesisters.org/news and at Facebook.com/NotreDameSisters.

Above: Srs. Consolata and Imakulata from the community in Vrano v and Topľou assisted at the borders in Ubľa where they helped doing anythin g that was needed for migrants from Ukraine. Right: Sister Fabiola and other Sisters from Piešťany take care of 13 Ukrainian refugees in the building next to their house.