Sisters’ Project 2025 Webinars

In November and December, a series of webinars entitled Sisters' Project will begin. This initiative is supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and wishes to offer opportunities for discussion and practical support on issues that profoundly affect the lives of local communities. 

The Sisters' Project 2025 seminars were created with the aim of increasing the skills, awareness, and capacity for action of Catholic sisters working in Africa and Latin America.

Sisterts play an essential role in promoting human dignity, supporting vulnerable communities, and caring for creation, working in contexts marked by instability, ecological crises, forced mobility, and challenges related to mental and physical health.

For this reason, the webinars focus on three key themes: migration, ecology, and health, addressed by experts, local collaborators, and religious figures directly involved in research and witnessing processes in the field.

Goals of the program:

·       Strengthen the analytical and operational skills of sisters working in the field. 

·       Explore urgent issues that cut across missions: sustainability, human mobility, and psychological and physical well-being.

·       Create spaces for dialogue, discussion, and shared solutions.

·       Offer concrete tools to improve pastoral and social effectiveness in their respective contexts.

Therefore, the creation of spaces for lively dialogue, where experiences can be shared, experts can be listened to, and perspectives useful to their daily work in the field can emerge, are among the main objectives of the project.

Each webinar will be led by a sister accompanied by an external 

MIGRATION: The phenomenon of migration, in Africa as in Latin America, is one of the most complex challenges of our time. Sisters are often on the front lines in accompanying vulnerable people, families on the move, and young people in search of a better future.

The first webinar for Africa will be held on November 27, from 11:00 to 11:45 (CET), in English (with simultaneous translation into French, Portuguese, and Italian). Expert Fr. Filippo Ferraro CS will speak alongside presenter Sister Juliana Rodrigues, MSCS.

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The first webinar for Latin America will take place on November 25, from 16:00 to 16:45 (CET), in Spanish (simultaneous translation into English and Portuguese).  Speakers will include Dr. Clarisa Demattei, researcher at the Catholic University of Buenos Aires and co-author of the Dicastery's annual report on Pastoral Care of Migrants in South America, Prof. Diego Ferreyra, at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, and Sister Juliana Rodrigues, MSCS.

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ECOLOGY: Caring for creation is increasingly urgent, especially in regions affected by deforestation, exploitation of natural resources, and environmental impacts on the most vulnerable populations.

The second webinar for Africa will be held on December 1, from 12:30 to 13:15  (CET), in English (with simultaneous translation into French, Portuguese, and Italian). Sister Maamalifar M. Poreku MSOLA, Co-Secretary of the Intercongregational JPIC Commission, will speak as an expert, together with the presenter, Sister Jackline Mokeira Omariba, FSSA.

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The second webinar for Latin America is scheduled for December 4, from 16:30 to 17:15 (CET), in Spanish (with simultaneous translation into English and Portuguese). Sister Mónica Benavides HDV, project coordinator in the secretariat of the Latin American Confederation of Religious (CLAR), will speak as an expert, together with Sister Jackline Mokeira Omariba, FSSA.

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HEALTH: Physical, psychological, and spiritual health is a central dimension in the

life of communities. The sisters are often a point of reference for those who do not have access to health services or who live in situations of emotional and social fragility.

The third and final webinar for Africa will take place on December 9, from 15:00 to 15:45 (CET), during which Fr. Jean Messingue S.J., director of the Center for Professional Counseling and Clinical Pastoral Care (COPAC) Ivory Coast, will speak, together with the speaker Sister Mercy Shumbamhini, CJ.

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The last webinar for Latin America is scheduled for December 11, from 15:00 p.m. to 15:45 (CET), with Dr. Marcio Gagliato, mental health expert, who works for the United Nations and is a professor at Fordham University, and Sister Mercy Shumbamhini, CJ.

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The webinars therefore represent a valuable opportunity to strengthen the social, pastoral, and cultural mission of Catholic sisters through a dynamic approach.