While no stranger to foreign languages and cultures, Dominican Sister Robin Richard had a truly eye-opening experience during her recent two-week visit to the African country of Zambia.

Sister Robin, who is fluent in French and Spanish and currently the director of educational programs at the Hispanic Apostolate, traveled to Zambia along with representatives from four other Dominican congregations. 

The purpose of the trip was to promote cultural awareness and foster a better understanding of the problems that face the impoverished nation, one of the poorest in the world.

Zambia is plagued by epidemics of malaria and AIDS, a poor educational system and a government infrastructure unable to provide even the most basic human needs.

The five-person US delegation spent the week with the Dominican Sisters of Africa and the Zambian Dominican Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

"Our purpose was to link together, to work as sisters and intertwine with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, in order to learn from each other and find ways to improve the situation in this country," Sister Robin said at a news conference at the Dominican Motherhouse.

Sister Robin described the encounter by citing an ancient Aborigines' epigram: "If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time; but if you come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." ,

Dominican Missionaries of the Sacred Heart conduct various education-related ministries. One, known as "barefoot schools," aims to educate children who are too poor to afford shoes. Since the government prohibits students who do not have shoes to attend school, these children are effectively denied an education.

ANOTHER MINISTRY is called "container schools." This program targets children who are over the age of 11 and illiterate. Illiterate students over 11 also are forbidden by the government from attending school. The Dominican Missionaries gather these children in truck trailers or "containers," which serve as makeshift classrooms.

Other programs seek to improve girls' education with a focus on books and computers.

Sister Robin said AIDS is one of the most serious problems that plague Zambia. "Over 20 percent of the adult population is infected and 5,000 people per day die of the disease," she said. "Almost no one is untouched.

Sister Dominica, a local Dominican, has lost three siblings and five nieces and nephews to AIDS. The AIDS epidemic, along with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and a life expectancy of only 37 years, make this nation's future seem particularly bleak. The country is further crippled economically by declines in world market prices for copper, a key Zambian export.

"Because of the depressed state of the economy, Zambia has been forced to borrow money from the World Bank to buy food," Sister Robin said. "The result is that 60 percent of the national budget goes to finance the debt and little is left over for crucial government programs and investment in infrastructure."

DESPITE seemingly insurmountable problems, there is hope for the future. 

Jesuit Father Peter Henriot, who has served in Zambia for the last 12 years, said the nation has a relatively low population density, and with the proper government infrastructure improvements there is a great potential for the production and exportation of agricultural products. In order for the government to achieve this, however, the national debt must be brought under control.

Sister Robin was particularly. moved by the positive attitudes of the people.

"Everywhere you go the children come up to you, they touch you and want to hold your hand," she said. "At first I felt like I was reaching out to give a blessing. Then all of a sudden it hit me. Who was blessing whom? They were the ones blessing me... The people everywhere were so gracious and loving and warm.

"This was a very humbling experience, especially when you compare it with the materialism that surrounds us."

[ Background ] [ Sister Robin reflects ]

Mary Jordan Recognized
From Veritas, June, 1997

M. Jordan Langenhennig, OP, was featured in PICO^* UPDATE (May, 1997), with an interview reviewing her thirty years in organizing. Asked about her proudest accomplishments, Jordan said that Congregation-based organizing has brought people of different faiths together in a way that brings faith values into the work of organizing. "The biggest challenge facing the field of organizing," she said, "is the growing chasm between rich and poor. This gap must be narrowed. Organizing must find ways to alleviate the suffering of the poor."

^*Pacific Institute For Community Organizing

Mary Jordan Honored
Named "Woman of Justice" by Network
from Veritas, January, 1997

"Jordan is truly a Woman of Justice of the highest order." -- Joe Givens

Mary Jordan Langenhennig, OP, has been named "Woman of Justice" by NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby based in Washington, DC. NETWORK has served the cause of justice with vigor since 1971, when it was begun by forty-seven women religious.

The award honors twenty-five women who have "exhibited great strength and courage in their commitment to justice." Awards will be presented at a ceremony April 12, 1997 in Washington.

The history of NETWORK with biographies of the Women of Justice will be highlighted in a booklet published for the occasion. The board selected these twenty-five as "most worthy of the honor" from among many nominees, said Kathy Thornton, RSM, national coordinator.

Sister Mary Jordan has led successful community organizing efforts in West Central Oklahoma, New Orleans (All Congregations Together/ACT), and now in Baton Rouge (Greater Baton Rouge Interfaith Sponsoring Committee/GBRISC), and across south Louisiana (Louisiana Interfaiths Together/LIFT).

Mary Jordan holds two masters degrees, the first from St. Louis University in teaching English, and more recently from the University of Chicago in religious studies. A New Orleans native, she graduated from St. Leo the Great Parochial School, St. Mary's Dominican High School and St. Mary's Dominican College.

She taught in parochial schools until beginning parish work and then neighborhood organizing. She trained in the methods of the pioneer of community organizing, Saul Alinsky, who once visited Dominican College in New Orleans, and later worked with the Cheyenne and Arapaho people in Oklahoma in a Dominican project called Las Casas.

Since 1988 she has worked with Pacific Institute of Community Organization (PICO), which was founded twenty-five years ago by Fr. John Baumann of Oakland, CA.

"Jordan is truly a Woman of Justice of the highest order," said Joe Givens, executive director of ACT. "Any such recognition of her is well-deserved and long overdue."