Mother Teresa's Internet Café

By Sr. Mary Deighan, O.L.M.
March/April 2009

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Sr. Cathy Peco (inset) served 23 years in the Public Health Care (PCH) program as a caring close friend of staff and patients, well loved by all. Sr. Peco died September 20, 2006. The public health care workers of Vandeikya wanted this clinic named after her. Also shown are PHC staff Joshua Iorsongu and Judith Moji.

When I’m in the town it often happens that someone will come up to me to say, “Thank you for bringing the Internet to Vandeikya.” And indeed it wasn’t Our Lady’s Missionaries but rather the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Waterdown, Ontario, who have made this dream a reality. Mother Teresa’s Internet Café is a terrific asset to the people living here. They chose this name because of their great admiration for Mother Teresa’s work among the poor. No longer is it necessary to travel sometimes as much as 30 kilometres to access the Internet. The café is also an encouragement to many who would like to learn to use the computer through the skills training offered there.

For years we, the staff of Primary Health Care and Our Lady’s Missionaries living here, have wished that we could build an Internet café to financially support our three ministries: Primary Health Care, Pastoral Care for People Living With HIV/AIDS, and St. Joseph’s Centre for the Disabled. In the beginning, we had not factored in the asset it would be to the students and general population of Vandeikya Local Government who, in this 21st century, are barely aware of the world’s major crises. The economic meltdown is not their concern, yet they are suffering from it as it impacts on shortages, high food prices, lack of jobs, as well as health care and education. In this era of instant global information, many do not have a radio and cannot afford a newspaper. They rely on “bush telephone” (word of mouth) for news, a service that has improved considerably with the introduction of cell phones.

People here say, “The Sisters have always cared for the poor. Now they are helping all of us through Mother Teresa’s Internet Café.” Our gratitude goes to the Notre Dame Sisters and to you, our families and friends, who have contributed so that we can provide this service to the people of Vandeikya.

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