Greetings from India

My dear Confreres and Friends of the Fransalians, 

I wish to greet each one of you with a grateful heart for your love and concern for our work in the missions. Your constant support and prayers give us the strength and courage to continue with our work in spite of the many difficulties that we face. Lighten up the lives of the poor and the disadvantaged is our Mission and Vision. It is our endeavour to provide service to the most needy people with a number of effective responses to poverty, disease, injustice and other threats to human wellbeing. Our Vision of Integral Human Development is a positive understanding of human person, covering all aspects of life: social, educational, economic, political, cultural, personal and spiritual.

It is very gratifying that for the past 17 years our Verein in Germany  has been able to mobilize and disburse a substantial sum of money each year in favour of the poorest of the poor through the many ongoing projects and programs in our missions. All this was possible because of the good will and generosity of so many people. However with the ever increasing number of appeals for help it has been difficult for us to respond to all of them mainly due to lack of sufficient funds.

We are therefore launching immediately a fundraising program in India beginning with our own Fransalian communities and educational institutions. We would like to enlist many more donors for our developmental works in Africa and in India. With the support of more donors we would like to reach out to those sections of society who live in extreme poverty. We have identified two such vulnerable groups namely those who have no shelter and those who have no means of accessing medical help in emergency cases. We are therefore committed to mobilise and create two separate funds for the homeless and for those in need of urgent medical assistance. With your help we hope to help more people in great need. We would like to reach out to many more people who are vulnerable and continue to remain on the peripheries of society. We need your help to find more donors and sponsors. We are therefore making an earnest appeal to all our friends to introduce our programs and projects to prospective donors and sponsors. 

My last visit to Europe was in 2019. Due to the Covid crisis and for some health issues of my own I was not able to plan another visit yet. God willing I hope to make it in the near future. I wish you all good health and best wishes for all your near and dear ones. God bless. 

Yours cordially,
P. Thomas Cherukat, MSFS 

Greetings from Chad-Cameroon

My dear Confreres, Friends and Benefactors, 

Greetings and good wishes to each one of you from the Fransalian Mission of Chad and Cameroon  which is now entering into the silver jubilee year. It was in November 1999 that the first three Fransalians from India had arrived in Chad to open a new mission. We gratefully remember the heroic works of the pioneers and the several batches of missionaries who had followed them. The missionary zeal and commitment of so many young priests and the generous support they received from friends and benefactors from many parts of the world have helped this mission to grow very rapidly. Today there are 20 Fransalian priests working in this Mission . There are over 70 seminarians undergoing different stages of their priestly formation. Most of these students are from the Mission itself which is a healthy sign of the steady growth of the mission to its full maturity rooted in the local culture. The Mission has 7 parishes, 5 schools, 2 formation houses and several mission stations where many development works are being undertaken.

Nearly 2.000 students are formed in our schools. Our school at Gaki, Doba in Chad achieved 100% result in the public exam. It was for the first time that the students of SFS educational complex at Gaki presented its students for the public exams. Our School at Doba Town in Chad   was placed one among the best 10 schools in the whole of Chad. The school in Ngaoundere too had  very good results in the public exams. We thank all our friends and benefactors who have made their contributions towards building up these educational institutions. Two boys’ homes run by the Fransalians in Chad are highly sought after. We have 39 children at Bero and 79 at  Gaki. We are finding it difficult to run these institutions due to lack of sufficient finance.  We look forward to your continued support for this noble cause.

In this Jubilee year, we had the joy of welcoming our new Provincial Superior from India, Fr. Thomas Kalariparampil who made his first official visitation to Chad-Cameroon from 17 June to 2 July 2023. It was an occasion of thanksgiving and a comprehensive review and evaluation of the Mission and planning for the future. We thank our Provincial for his love and concern for this far away mission in Africa.

A tragic loss of life

With much grief I would like to inform you that our Mission has suffered a tragic loss of life.  One of our young priests from Chad, Pater Abba MTOUDJIEL, MSFS  died of a road accident on 15 April 2023. He was only 33 years old. Ordained priest on 28 January 2023 his priestly life was abruptly brought to an end within a short span of 76 days. He was the second Fransalian priest from Chad. The untimely death of a promising young priest is indeed a rude shock for all of us.  He was known to all of us as a friendly, jovial, talented and hardworking person. We cannot fathom the ways of God. We humbly submit ourselves to God’s Will. May his soul rest in peace.

Thanking you all for your prayers and support. 

Yours cordially,
Fr. Manoj Arackal, MSFS