My Dear Friends in Christ,

DEO GRATIAS !  That is my first reaction to our last year’s, 2022, fund-raising.

Really, after the last 2 years of unbelievably hard for everybody experience of living in fear of an uncertain future, our benefactors proved to be resilient in front of adversities and generous towards those who are living in more precarious conditions that ours!

Knowing that Our Lord will reward our kindness towards the poorest of the poor (Mt 10:42; Mt 25:40…), I would not pretend to be able to deprive you, the benefactors of 17000+ orphans and abandoned children at Akamasoa, of your reward directly from God!

Nevertheless, I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude for the solidarity you manifested responding to these poor little ones appeal through me, and there we are:  over $140000 providing help for the education of 17000+ orphans and abandoned children under amazing paternal care of Fr Pedro Opeka.

I’d like to mention those especially, who were in an outstanding way participating in our last appeal activities:

1. Donations: those who contributed $5000 and more, were presented with personalised certificates of appreciation.
2. Selling the lottery tickets at large scale:  Rosa Cardoso, Susan Fabro, Sinisita Filitoga, Giuseppina Galluzzo and Hervé Juste.
3. Contributions to the sales: Jeannette Beaudoin, Francesca Chow, Gail Dawson, Susan Fabro, Bernard Fortin, Russo Family (Roma Pizzeria-Ristorante South Hurstville), Nadia Schwarz, Wojciech Serafin (Wawel Import Export NSW) and Maria Vaccari.

My heartfelt appreciation is also directed to the Catholic Mission, because of our partnership in helping the poor, we can enjoy the tax deduction for our donations.

Whilst waiting for Fr Pedro’s few words directly from Akamasoa, I like to wish you all an abundance of God’s blessing during this year, 2023, already with us!

Yours grateful in Christ:   Fr Jan

P.S. I’d like to invite you to have a look at our events reported below, during our 2022 fund-raising:

        High tea fund-raising  and lottery drawing

This is the final state of our ‘open by generosity and compassion hearts’ 24th appeal:

Donations	110,298.00
Sales	8,714.00
Lottery	17,546.00
High Tea fundraising	3,100.00 (Blakehurst)
Total	139,658.00

My Dear Friends in Christ,

Thank God for His abundant blessings in this time of trials and difficulties!

Last year we expressed our goodness by giving a helpful hand to the education of 17300 beautiful children at Akamasoa in Madagascar.  Amazingly, we raised almost $150,000.00 for this cause!

Thanks to people around the world like us (the sponsors of Akamasoa), these poor children, in the majority ‘abandoned and orphans’, are not ‘abandoned’ and ‘orphans’ anymore, because they are ‘taken care of’ and ‘adopted’ by Fr Pedro Opeka (4 times Noble Price of Peace nominee!) whom we are helping in this wonderful God’s endeavour.  

We do not choose our place of birth.  But being born on a ‘better site’ of this Planet, our ‘being part’ of humanity is challenging us to look at this ‘other site’ less fortunate than ours!

There we can discover, without any prejudices, unimaginable suffering in the struggle for daily survival, a result of social unjustness brought upon these poor people/children partly by local, but mostly by international political and economic organisations.

Keeping in mind Jesus suffering in the poor around the world, or simply as the human beings full of compassion and goodness, we are again invited to be a part of this year’s fundraising, our 24th, for the poorest of the poor at Akamasoa in Madagascar!

Let the Good Lord open our hearts and help us to continue in our compassion and by sharing His goodness with those in upmost need of it!

Lottery drawing at St Raphael’s Parish Hall.

On Friday 28^th October evening, some members of the committee of SFRCC: Jeannette Beaudoin, Philippe J. Etienne, Sinisita Filitoga, Marina Jean-Baptiste and myself, came together to prepare the hall.

As for the last 12 years, Jeannette Beaudoin was again in charge of providing everything necessary to make the hall look attractive and welcoming, including making a pleasing arrangement of  tables and their decoration.

Beautiful carnations provided by A&L Florist were shining on the table bringing a feeling of serenity to the place.

Drinks were generously offered by Valore Cellars.   

An abundant variety of finger food and sweets came from our good longstanding friends of Akamasoa:  ‘C’est Si Bon’ at Rose Bay and ‘Ganache’ at Castlecrag French patisseries.  

A delightful gift of little box of home-made delicious biscuits was given by Rosa Cardoso.

On Saturday 29^th morning – by 11 am – all those involved in our lottery drawing were present:

the Honorary General Consul of Madagascar Mr Anthony Knox, four representatives of the Italian Prayer Group (who every year with their friends buy 3500 lottery tickets!) and seven members of our SFRCC committee.

A time of friendly exchange with degustation of finger food, wonderful ‘Ave Maria’ sung by George Maurice, followed by the lottery drawing at noon, continued with an accompaniment of delicious sweets until 2 pm.

I am very happy to acknowledge again the generosity of providers of the lottery prizes, to express my gratitude to those who so heartfeltly purchased lottery tickets and to congratulate the winners!

1. Bowerhaus*Old Hollywood triple strand of white round and baroque pearls necklace with a pair of matching earrings valued at $2800.00 – donated by Elizabeth Lee and won by ticket number: 6678
2. Bowerhaus Classic white baroque pearls necklace with matching earrings valued at $2,000.00 donated by E. Lee and won by ticket number: 6406
3. Bowerhaus Prosperity necklace, double strand of white round pearl necklace valued at $1500.00 donated by E. Lee and won by ticket number: 3553
4. Oil painting (“Garden’s flowers” 90x64cm) by David Robert Hill valued at $1500.00 – donated by the artist and won by ticket number: 0739
5.  Voucher $500.00 (to be used in store to purchase wines only) from «Valore Cellars» and won by ticket number: 6025
6.  Voucher $500.00 from Myer – donated by Nadia Fortuné and won by ticket number: 8761
7. Voucher $500.00 from International Ceramics and won by ticket number: 2371
8. Gourmet hamper valued at $280.00 from «Providorium» and won by ticket number: 5282 
9. Gift Basket valued at $150.00 from «GJ Food» and won by ticket number: 8540     
10. Gift basket valued at $100.00 donated by Sybra & Harry Hunt and won by ticket number: 8173
11. Gift basket valued at $100.00 donated by Sybra & Harry Hunt and won by ticket number: 8874
    
    Buying this ticket, you will be a part of the great project called “Akamasoa” in Madagascar. It was funded by Fr Pedro OPEKA (see http://www.perepedro-akamasoa.net/) in 1989. For the last 33 years it provides an urgent temporary relief to 25000 (17000 children) of the poorest of the poor through: getting children to the primary, secondary and tertiary education; providing vocational training, health care; building family housing for the homeless; providing employment through the activities of the association and outside; accompanying the return of families without work in villages and towns of origin and providing access to services for all poor of the neighborhood. May Almighty GOD reward your goodness with His blessing! (The winners will be announced on 29/10/22 at  www.australiansformadagascar.org in Events section)

*Bowerhaus policy on raffle prizes: Though all raffle items donated are valuable, they have no monetary value toward exchange or upgrade; (however, they still bare Bowerhaus’ pride of good workmanship)                                                                         (9000 tickets printed)

Yours grateful in Christ:   Fr Jan

High Tea fundraising

Dear Friends of our beautiful children of Akamasoa!

There are many good souls around metropolitan Sydney and beyond, dedicated to our ‘relatives in Christ’ in need of God’s help through us in Madagascar.

One part of this great ‘Family’ of benefactors, gathered together on Wednesday 17^th August at 11 am at Mrs Nives Care’s home at Blakehurst, to express their gratefulness to God for His blessings in solidarity with over 17000 orphans and abandoned children at Akamasoa.

Already in June, Mrs Nives Care mentioned to me her desire to help these beautiful children in their education, by organising at her place a fundraising event among her relatives and friends.

It took her a  couple of weeks, assisted by: Rosa-Maria Lia, Annie Montecillo, Maria Perugini, Elizabeth Scisciolo, Gabriela Senteneky and Florence Yenson, before she was ready to open the door of her home for the event!

As the pictures indicate, we can appreciate the beauty of the place with the tables prepared and with ‘gusto’ laden with savoury good things. 

Around 30 attendees together with a few generous donors who were not able to attend, summed up their generosity, to sustain the education of these orphans and abandoned children with the gift of $3,100.00.

With $1 providing one day of schooling per child, we thank God for inspiring the participants at this High Tea Fundraising to open their generous hearts in supporting Fr Pedro’s endeavour of providing a better future for these children through a sound and wholistic education.

May the Almighty Lord bless all of us attentive to needs of the most fragile and in need of our help children at Akamasoa in Madagascar!

Yours grateful in Christ:   Fr Jan    

This is the actual state of our ‘open by generosity and compassion hearts’ 24th appeal: