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You might have heard of Fr. Flanagan and his Boys' Town in Nebraska. If you are old enough you may remember the movie with Spencer Tracy as Fr. Flanagan and Mickey Rooney as the ‘unloved and troubled tough kid.’ The movie has a beautiful ending, as Mickey accepts the love given him by Fr. Flanagan and the boys.
This same scenario is being actualized in new Boys' Towns and Girls' Towns which are in different stages of development under the inspiration and guidance of our General Director, Fr. Alphonsus Maria Duran, M.J.
Miles Jesu operates Girls' Towns in L'viv, Ukraine, and Umunnachi, Nigeria. Some stories from these locations are included below so you can see how Miles Jesu is making a difference in the lives of these children.
L'viv, Ukraine
The Miles Jesu Ladies’ Community opened a soup kitchen in the late 90’s, including special serving hours for children only. A street lady asked us to take care of her three-year-old, Halia. By 2004, we had finally cleared away all the government red tape and were now “home” to nine little girls aged four to seven years old. August 2005: fourteen girls. August 2006: nineteen girls and counting.
When you walk in the door of our L’viv Girls’ Town, you are greeted by a short-legged, long-haired, strong-lunged welcome-wagon. Everyone has her two kopeks to put in. Rokslana insists on greeting you by bending your hand into a fist and then pretending it’s an apple for her to eat. Emma wants you to carry her around from the moment you arrive until you leave again (even though she’s already seven!) Nastia, at age four the baby of the bunch, expects a lot of cuddling. The whole ritual is very draining, since there are 19 of them. No one, by the way, asks that age-old question: “What did you bring me?”
The girls in our Ukrainian Girls’ Town have very sad stories. One—already 15 years old—is there because her parents, who love her, are very poor and live far away from any school. She visits them in the summer. They asked us to take her so she could get good formation and have a chance to go to school. But the others are here for more tragic reasons. One has both parents in jail for drug trafficking; many suffered criminal neglect from alcoholic mothers (fathers often unknown); one was rejected by her family because she’s the product of adultery. The worst story is the seven-year-old whose mother twice tried to poison her. The grandmother called the police and begged them to take the child away. Now these children have found a new, loving home. They are busy soaking up all the hugs and attention they can. I see them crowding around the front door like that and thank God that they have found a loving home before it was too late for them spiritually, psychologically, even physically.
These little girls are not some statistics on a social worker’s clipboard. We do everything possible to promote a family atmosphere. Whenever a couple of domus members go anywhere, on any kind of errand, they take two or three girls along. The kids love this. Birthdays, of course, are red-letter days, with the domus members hatching a unique and elaborate theme so each child will really feel special on her big day. There’s loving discipline, too. The kids are full of life and usually carry a lot more emotional baggage than children from happier backgrounds.
For example, Mirichja is 12 years old. We found her at a state-run children’s home in the Carpathian mountain area. This home, a former prison, housed 160 children. There was no running water and all the children had lice. Mirichja comes from a very poor family in a small village with no school nearby. She was put in this home due to the poverty of her parents but also so she could receive an education. We visited her parents who are simple, honest and hard working people. A friend of ours from the USA who was with us at the time wanted to give a donation to the parents to help them out. The mother said “no”; give the money to the Church instead. Amazing generosity from one so poor! When we asked what we could do for her family, her response was that we find a better home for her daughter. How could we refuse such a plea as that? Mirichja is a good girl, mature for her age and big help taking care of the younger children.
Olja is 13 years old. Her father is an alcoholic who beat her and her mother often, finally throwing them both out into the street. The mother is quite mentally ill. The government office in charge of children’s homes, called us asking us to take Olja, since she had nowhere to go. Her mother begged us to take her daughter, too. Olja is a nervous child but well behaved.
When the girls first came to us, they were hyperactive, insecure and did poorly in school. Some of their emotional blocks were so bad, that they couldn’t even draw lines or circles. Now, all are reading and writing and are more calm.
God bless you and keep you. Know that your prayer petitions are in our chapel before the Blessed Sacrament. You are gratefully in our prayers.
Would you consider making a donation to support the Miles Jesu Missions? You can make a donation online or call us at 1-800-654-7944.
Umunnachi, Nigeria
There are currently twelve girls at the Girls' Town in Umunnachi. Living conditions in Nigeria are very poor and it is a challenge to provide adequate living quarters, food, and education for these children.
To help raise money for their expenses, the children at the Girls' Town sew and sell chapel veils. These chapel veils are available in the Miles Jesu Bookstore with all proceeds going directly to the Girls' Towns in Nigeria.
One of the girls who i will be introducing to you today is Chidimma (meaning God is good). She came in four years ago at the age of 7 years old. I remember one time, she'd been ill from a bout of Malaria and was just recuperating. She was still weak and so i decided to exempt her from joining the other children for a 30-minute walk to the parish for Catechism classes. She wanted to go with and cried a lot. She didn't want to rest and just sat sulking in one corner of the bedroom. I started to think what to do to calm her down and remembered that very soon, it will be time to prepare dinner. It was a Wednesday and dinner was rice and stew. She'd never done that before and when i suggested it to her, i could see she liked the idea. I promised her she would do it all by herself and then tell the others her achievement when they get back. She was happy. I brought all the ingredients and showed her what to do. She chopped the vegetables, put the oil in the pot, fried the already ground tomatoes and poured evrything in as i directed her to. Soon her stew was ready and while stirring it in the pot, i decided to take her picture. She was very proud of herself and her big achievement!
At dinner that night, i told others how Chidimma had prepared the stew all by herself! All that week every child wanted to take their turn to cook. Chidimma loves competition. She never wants to be left behind her peers in any thing. When she first came, she used to take between 14th to 18th position. When we decided to make them compete with each other by giving gifts last to those who got between 1st to 5th position, she came 4th in class. At the end of the term that day, she walked into the community fom school with a very solemn expression on her face, went straight to the Chapel to visit the Blessed Sacrament, as we teach them all to do whenever they need to go out or are coming back from somewhere, came out and proudly showed me her result sheet. I was proud of her too and showed it to her. Hope to write again soon to about our girls whom you are helping us care for. God bless your every effort towards the good of these children. Thank you.
Would you consider making a donation to support the Miles Jesu Missions? You can make a donation online or call us at 1-800-654-7944.
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