Our community has repeatedly endeavoured to give substantial aid to the Sisters at Isiolo, Kenya, towards the building of the new primary school, and we are all excited at seeing the end of the first phase of the project.
Christmas 2001 brought us a great present : to be able to share, with the children of Isiolo, the great mytery of Incarnation.
We spent memorable days working in the new buildings and helping the Sisters prepare for the beginning of the school year, which in Kenya is in January.
It was very important for us to witness that the aid sent to this community has been well invested and has shown concrete and useful results for the hundred children that can thus start primary school at the Mission. The school not only gives the children a precious opportunity to grow and "see new horizons" but is also a place that can guarantee a daily meal, often beyond the reach of the average family. The religious community also promotes long-distance adoptions, which is the only way they can guarantee aid for these poor children.
Families whose children have been adopted are very grateful, and it is wonderul to see so many people being helped to look to the future with hope in their eyes.
The Sisters at Isiolo have repeatedly asked us to thank the community at Dairago, whom they always remember in their prayers. We have great pleasure in delivering this message and we assure everyone that the thoughtfulness and support of the community can greatly improve the living conditions of these children and give them hope for the future.

Raffaella and Massimo

When a 61-year-old healthy woman is widowed, her children are married, what can she do? This is a question I asked myself at Christmas, and during Lent I spoke to a Sister of the Community of Loreto, whom I have known for some time, and she told me about Sister Maria Volpato, who works for the Missions.
At Easter they told me :there's a Sister going out to Isiolo at the end of May: I immediately decided: I'm going too. I don't know why I took this decision. It turned out to be a great experience. You can't change the world: it's great just as it is, but you can give your personal, albeit small, contribution.
Getting to know different people, and helping them, is not an unreasonable choice you make : there's always a good reason - it's up to you to find it.
Perhaps I found it when I leafed through a booklet on the 10th centenary of the founding of the Congregation of the Sisters of Loreto, and decided to share their missionary calling.
My help is like "the widow's tithe"; I have no money but I can give some of my time, sewing uniforms for the children at Isiolo Nursery School.
It takes so little to make their eyes shine: an Italian song, a smile while passing by… these little things you give last forever in your mind and you long to return. It not the usual "Longing for Africa", it's rather the need to feel a citizen of the world. I am full of joy and I qould like to tell the whole world!

Pia Molin Pradel