LORETO HOSTEL RESIDENTS, SIERVAS DE SAN JOSE AND COLLABORATORS CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL EARTH DAY --- 22 APRIL 2020, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

EARTH DAY 2020

 AN OPPORTUNITY TO BEAUTIFY AND

                                  SHOW RESPECT FOR MOTHER EARTH                                                                                   

TODAY WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE, HOW WE FEEL AS WOMEN OF CHANGE THAT CARE FOR MOTHER EARTH AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT:

The Social and Advocacy Committee of the hostel organized the event with Sr. Ived, SSJ as the C-T link, and our hostel collaborators.

Our celebration of EARTH DAY began during the Fellowship the night before, where a video was presented inviting everyone to be aware and to participate in some ways in caring for our beautiful Common Home.  Earth is crying and in many places of the world there is no one who heeds the call to come and heal Mother Earth. It further explained how we can become ecological advocates with simple gestures of recycling, reusing materials and proper disposal of wastes to avoid polluting our waters, safeguarding our beautiful mountains and defending our land not to be exploited and kept barren.

On the bright morning of the 22^nd of April at about 8:30 a.m., we began honoring Mother Earth. Those working residents and students who were still advised to stay home came together in this prayer gathering, singing songs and reciting the psalm and with the aid of mandalas that depicted the different elements of nature such as water, wind, land, sea, sky and others. This motivated each of those present to commit themselves to be stewards of Mother Earth today and all other days.

Earth Day Every Day #Climate Action is this year’s call. It is not only an invitation but doing concrete actions in our daily life like how we are to find a way to plant trees in our backyard, clean up our surroundings and care for the earth today so that future generations can enjoy it tomorrow.

In small work groups, we then set out to work in three areas of the hostel that needed a fixing up or face lift. One group was to dig a compost pit. 

Another group gathered all the empty tin cans for smashing ready to sell for recycling. 

Still another cleaned the incinerator and the garden near the hostel entrance gate.

Each group with its own set of strategies carried out its job for the day.

The creativity began to blossom and the areas began to be transformed. Those significant spots that they have worked on added life and beauty to the hostel grounds- like the hostel entrance was made colorful with the painted used tires marking this Earth Day. Truly we sat back in wonder as we contemplated the work of our hands.

After we completed all our tasks, we visited each area and said thank you to Mother Earth for giving us so many treasures that we take for granted, such as, the rich soil, the warm sun, the magnificent trees, bushes, fruits and flowers. It’s as if Mother Nature said thank you, too, for some of the bushes that were trimmed and cleared of rubbish …and suddenly smiled back at us.

This event would not be complete if we do not mention the other small group that took care of preparing and serving the meal of local produce for everyone. 

We were graced with the presence of Cardinal Ribat, Fr. Robert, MSP and Fr. Fabian, MSC from the Chancery who joined us at the kiosk. It was a fellowship to celebrate the work done and appreciate the gift of nature having nice sunshine and breeze. After this, a break was observed to have the needed rest.

Evening came and this was when we closed the celebration. At the hall where all lights were off shone small sparkles of light through the small holes of each empty tin can shaped a letter each, which formed EARTH DAY 2020! We prayed together to continue being women who are aware and acting to care for and heal Mother Earth.

Here are what they say on this EARTH DAY 2020:

“For me it was amazing how, despite the pandemic crisis that the world is facing, [that] we were able to make this Earth Day 2020 a special one.  The activities organized by the Sisters were fun and enjoyable.  We were divided into small communities and worked together to celebrate this day.  Our group was given the task to recycle the empty cans of the drinks. I was impressed that we were able to smash so many cans and completed the task. This activity for me was, fun, enjoyable, and educational, as well. We learned the importance of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle by putting these into practice. I believe that today and in this manner that we came together we helped save a piece of mother earth.” ElioraMitir

“Inspiration on Earth Day… What inspired me on Earth Day was the fact that I learned from seeing how each team worked together to complete their tasks.  Team work was what I was able to see on [this] day. I believe in team work; without team work we could not have completed the work or activity that we had planned to do.” Darusilla Bart

“Helping Mother Earth… As for myself, [at] first, I was confused as far as to what was really going to happen but, later I realized that what we are doing is very effective because we helped our Mother Earth by joining in to clean up. As for my group, we were assigned to dig a pit for the waste disposal [and] we worked for 3 hours. I found that some ladies did not have confidence in themselves and they would say things like if we don’t finish it today, we can finish another day. I told them that, with faith, we can dig and finish it on time.   To our surprise we finished it on time and all of us were very happy. I was very happy because I did something to help Mother Earth.” Michelle Sumi

“On earth day I joined a clean-up that was organized by the Social and Advocacy Committee here in the hostel.  The day was fun and [was] also a great time to help Mother Earth through creativity.  I helped to crush the empty cans; this helped me realize how helpful we can be to Mother Earth by being mindful of where we throw our empty cans and, also, the many creative ways cans can be used to beautify our environment. TeAnneMagaru

“This Earth Day 2020 has been a great experience for me. It taught me teamwork and be creative and responsible shown in actions, care and respect for Mother Earth. It’s a beautiful feeling seeing the photos, before and after, knowing we can have a better tomorrow if we work together to really save Mother Earth. The little we do to appreciate and be responsible of our daily actions are beneficial for the coming generation because Mother Earth will provide if we learn to take care of her.I enjoyed greatly this day of creative ideas, replanting, beautifying our home and learning to reuse empty cans and the decomposing method.” AnnellieNongkas