FOUNDATIONS
PERU

ON THE AMAZON (1948 - )

1. San Pablo, Amazon River - Hospital for Persons with Leprosy

On September 15, 1948, Sisters St. Albert (Eva Albert) and Imelda Cyr arrived in San Pablo. Their small house was in the area reserved for medical personnel and other employees of the hospital for lepers situated a little further along the Amazon. The 350 inhabitants of this village lived in huts made from the bark of palm trees with thatched roofs; the Chapel had neither a door nor a window, the floor was of beaten earth; there was a miserable hospital for the very ill and a poor house for invalids. The doctor who treated them lived in Iquitos, about 300 km from the settlement, and came from time to time to San Pablo. One lone nurse cared for the lepers with the help of the more able-bodied among them.

The sisters met with numerous and great difficulties, but they did all they could to ease the sufferings of those with leprosy. Happily, other Hospitallers arrived in San Pablo in November 1948 and again in September 1949. These missionaries, as well as those who followed them later, succeeded in completely changing the hospital for lepers, which in 1957 numbered 712 patients. This increase was explained by the fact that people attacked by leprosy hesitated less to be cared for at San Pablo; they had hope for healing because in 1955 for the first time in the history of the hospital, fifteen patients were declared cured.

Prevention contributed to curbing the spread of the disease. The sisters in San Pablo built a large house, the Preventorium, to receive children of pre-school age born in the hospital for lepers. Today, San Pablo is not only an asylum for lepers, but a village open to the neighbouring population. Hansen’s disease is no long considered contagious and persons who contract it are no longer isolated. The R.H.S.J. looked after invalids with leprosy and the sick at home or in the General Hospital of 18 beds; they also worked in catechetics and were present to youth.

2. Indiana, Amazonia (1955 - 2003)

With the consent of the parents with leprosy in San Pablo, children of school age were sent to Indiana, the seat of the apostolic vicariate of the Amazon. There Bishop Laberge had a childrens’ settlement constructed, a boarding-school that he confided to the R.H.S.J. In December 1955, Sisters Bernadette Blanchet, Agathe Bourgeois and Aurore Gallant came to Indiana to care for these children.

Afterwards the Sisters extended the gift of education to all the children of the region by means of a Primary School, a boarding school for young girls, and later a Secondary School for all the youth of Amazonia. The Sisters also saw to the formation of Christian Communities and their leaders, to catechetics, as well as to family and youth ministry.

The priority given to education did not exclude care for the sick. From 1970, the Sisters opened the Indiana Health and Preventive Medicine Centre, which led them into the villages all along the rivers and their tributaries. The number of Sisters capable of committing themselves in such activities gradually diminished. In 2003, the last two Sisters, a Canadian and a Peruvian, left this milieu to go where needs were greater.

3. Iquitos (1953 - 55) Punchana, Amazonia (1974 - )

From 1953 to 1955, R.H.S.J’s were present in Iquitos where they looked after a kindergarten called A Drop of Milk. They left Iquitos upon the opening of a community in Indiana.

In 1961, the San Pablo sisters decided to have a small house in Punchana, a suburb of Iquitos, where they regularly went for the needs of their missions. A community was set up there in 1974. Over and above welcoming their companions from other missions, they committed themselves in diverse apostolates: preventive medicine, formation of health care personnel among the indignous people, education and service to the sick from localities along the Amazon who were hospitalized in Iquitos.

The education of adults was not set aside, for this reason one Sister contributed for several years to the Amazonian Centre of Theological Studies (CETA). This provided for the formation of professors, faith education, promotion of Amazonian culture in general and especially in the formation of lay facilitators.

LIMA (1951 - )

1. Hogar de la Madre (1951-1971)

In 1950, at the time when the Sisters in mission on the Amazon thought of having a place to stay in Lima, the Congregation received an offer to take over the internal administration of the Hogar de la Madre, a maternity hospital for economically-poor mothers, founded by Mrs. Rosalia Lavalée de Morales Macedo.

The General Council of the Hospitallers of N. B. accepted this offer and on May 4, 1951, five Sisters arrived at the Hogar de la Madre. The Maternity work developed; the poor still have preferential care there, but mothers of all social classes are also welcomed. The missionary sisters passing through Lima were at home there. In 1971, the administration of the Hogar was given over to a medical director and the R.H.S.J.’s left this institution.

2. Regional House (1960 - )

In order to facilitate the administration, promote unity and a better integration of the sisters into the country, the Congregation decided to establish a Regional House in Lima. At the beginning, the house also received young Peruvian women desiring to consecrate themselves to the Lord in the R.H.S.J. congregation. After being in Las Flores, Monterrico and San Antonio, since 1974 the Regional House has been located in Santa Catalina.

The Regional House is especially a house of hospitality for the Sisters, their parents and other visitors. The associates to the R.H.S.J. have also their meeting there. And the sisters of the Regional House, according to their possibilities, collaborate in parish activities: prayer groups, catechetics, youth and health ministry.

3. Del Empleado Hospital, Lima (1961 - 1968)

The government of Peru had this hospital constructed for the state employees. The director wanted religious as consultants on hospital problems and as Directors of certain specialized services. On the recommendation of the Apostolic Nuncio for Peru, the R.H.S.J.’s accepted this great challenge.

In 1961, four Hospitallers founded a new community in the area put at their disposal. A work of great scope awaited them in this institution of 1,000 beds. They encountered many difficulties and much opposition, especially from the nurses. After seven years of experience, the Sisters decided to leave the remunerated positions in the hospital to the lay people and retired from “del Empleado”, to move towards less advantaged sectors.

4. “Siete de Octubre”, Valdiviezo, Lima (1973 - 2000)

In 1971, many R.H.S.J. in Lima were called to the “‘preferential option for the poor”. They began to collaborate in the care of the poor and sick at a Medical Centre, then decided to focus their activities on the economically poor of the slum area “Siete de Octubre” in Valdiviezo. In 1973 four sisters had a short experience of life in the same shanty town; but health problems and those of adaptation obliged them to rejoin their sisters, in the healthier neighbourhood of Valdiviezo. Nevertheless, in 1981, this group moved to the foot of the mountain, very near to the slum area.

The Sisters came as “poor among the poor”. Their priorities were pastoral care and catechetics, visits to the sick in their homes, tracking down tuberculosis, the promotion of the family and of women, as well as education in all its forms; a group of women obtained authorization to construct and organize a kindergarten and nursery school. In the year 200, the community of Valdiviezo was closed, the sisters were called to serve elsewhere.

5. Santa Anita: Formation House (1988 - 2003)

The community in Santa Anita opened in December 1988 for the welcoming and formation of young aspirants to religious life. The sisters are especially present in San Carlos sector where they participate in parish activities: catechetics, alphabetisation and health ministry.

6. San Carlos (1999 - )

After having worked a couple of months in the disadvantaged area of Santa Anita, in the eastern part of Lima, two RHSJ’s decided, in May 1999, to live in San Carlos. This sector was especially developed in the 60's, with the arrival from the Andes of families who fled terrorism. More than half of the population of 25,000 - 30,000 are women, single or abandoned mothers of whom the majority are less than 25 years of age. It is the district of Lima where tuberculosis is the most widespread due to malnutrition.

In collaboration with the laity and the Diocesan Church, the Sisters want to do their part to respond to the innumerable socio-economic, political and religious needs of this marginalised milieu. Their general objective is to announce the Good News of Jesus Christ, according to the charism and mission of the congregation, and to share their experience of a loving God who unites and frees.