sister angelique: a story of revival


of their aggressors. These women tell us their despair and their trauma, and they tell us that the only person who took them in and supported them without judgment was Sister Angelique.


Having been displaced herself, Sister Angelique has a particular


insight


into the lives of the women she has committed to her life to serve and she works on a very personal level. She listens to the story of each woman who comes to the Centre, she provides comfort and counsel, and she works together with each woman to help them rebuild


their


life. She sends them to school, gives them vocational


training (often in


sewing and tailoring), employs them on her farm (and now in her bakery!), enrolls


their children in the small


school she has set up, and in many cases gives a home to abandoned or


at risk children in the orphanage she has established.


Sister Angelique does all of this


with the smallest amount of funding. She mainly relies on her own hard work, perseverance and faith. It is a testament to the transformational power of one determined person. Sister Angelique has now helped over


2,000 women rebuild their


lives after experiencing unimaginable brutality.


I step out of the car and I am greeted by a wave of women all wearing identical dresses made by the seamstresses trained in the Sister’s program. I am whisked away and quickly redressed in a stunning traditional outfit of boldly printed local fabric. When I emerge Sister Angelique welcomes me with a kind, twinkling smile and I learn that when


SISTER ANGELIQUE HAS NOW HELPED OVER 2,000 WOMEN REBUILD THEIR LIVES AFTER EXPERIENCING UNIMAGINABLE BRUTALITY.


Sister Angelique smiles, everyone


smiles with her. She shows me the bakery where


perfect croissants


(inspired by her visit to Geneva where she


Refugee Award) are lined up infusing the room with heavenly smells.


Outside, immaculate children school in the dressed in uniforms


(more evidence of the skills of the seamstresses


program) walk with us as we pass the small school


livelihoods the Sister has started, accepted the Nansen


I LEARN THAT WHEN SISTER ANGELIQUE SMILES, EVERYONE SMILES WITH HER.


© UNHCR/ Jordi Matas 6 / UNHCR © UNHCR/ Jordi Matas


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