St Vincent de
Paul Society was founded in Paris in 1833 by Frédéric
Ozanam and the society took the Blessed Virgin
Mary and Saint Vincent de Paul as its patrons.
It is an international Catholic voluntary organization based on the
spiritual and corporal works of mercy and dedicated
to the sanctification of its members through serving the abandoned poor and the
disadvantaged. As of today, the
society has 800,000 members in some 140 countries worldwide, whose
members operate through "conferences".
St Vincent de
Paul Society at Holy Trinity Church Tawau of Sandakan Diocese started in March
2014 with some 20 active members. This first and isolated conference in Sabah
is called Conference of Holy Trinity Tawau wherein Mgsr. Nicholas Ong is the
rector of the Church. This society, indeed, is always in collaboration with the
Parish Integral Human Development Committee to achieve its mission.
The conference in Holy Trinity church carries out many
Corporal Works of Mercy activities such as:
HOME VISIT
Visiting the
poor and provide aids until they can care for themselves. Currently, the
conference is supporting 12 families in their monthly necessary groceries such
as rice, salt, eggs, detergent, etc. With different needs, there were 10 to 26
other families received help. Other than that, some families were helped by
giving cash and sometimes rehabilitating infrastructure of the family house. For
example, a toilet was built for a poor old man who was unable to go to his
toilet downstairs. The society arranged someone to build for him upstairs for
easy access.
Apart from
giving aid, they also become good listeners to their problems, give counsel, to
arrange the EMC for the communion and some members bring the family to attend
Mass or confession at the church.
THRIFT STORE
The SSVP thrift
store which is located in the old canteen building at Holy Trinity Church
compound officially opened its door on Sunday, 21st August 2016
selling clothing, books, magazines, bags, toys and kitchen utensils, all
pre-owned and donated by parishioners and the public. All profit of the sales
will benefit for any charity projects and the education programme undertaken by
the Society. They also contribute goods and used clothing to fire victims.
THE SSVP FATIMA EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Besides, they
also help the poor children who are illiterate. Some of SSVP members
started an English class in April 2016 through The SSVP Fatima Education Programme.
The SSVP Fatima Education Programme is created and compiled for SSVP Malaysia
by the Project Team comprising teachers from the Learning Centre project of the
SSVP Conference of Our Lady of Fatima, Kuala Lumpur with the mission to provide
free basic education for children communities-in-need. The classes held once a
week on Saturday for 90 minutes at Jalan Sin Onn Tiku in a small chapel called
St Jude.
In the beginning, the children study with no
ceiling. When the society got the materials they managed to get the ceiling
done. They have about 40 children ages from 6 to 14 years old. 15 children do
not go to school due to financial difficulty. Others attend the Migrant School
in Holy Trinity Church Tawau. Recently, one teacher from the Migrant school has
initiated to teach the children Bahasa and Mathematics. A dental talk was given
to the children last August. Toothbrushes and toothpastes were sponsored. Some members
have encouraged their children to help in the weekly class. This came to be an
eye opener to start a Young Vincentian group.
YOUNG VINCENTIANS
The 1st Formation for Young
Vincentian was held on 20 August 2016. About 23 children from ages 11 to 14
attended. They were given the knowledge of the founder and patron and how it
started. The society hopes that children through The Young Vincentian will know
they can do big things too in their little own way like raising funds through
their activities or making cookies for
sale and others. They can help in promoting the collection and selling of second
hand clothes and things. They can visit the poor, the old and the handicap
children.
SHARING THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS WITH
THE NEEDY
The society has even brought Christmas
joy to poor children in an estate last year 2015. Gifts were given to them
through generous sponsors. The conference hopes to reach out to more families
in need. The conference in Tawau depends on generous donors and sponsors to run
their activities. Like St. Theresa of Calcutta said “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things
with great love.” So let us do our part to make this a better world for
all.
“Let us continue to offer one another to God and to love each other
in our Lord, as He has loved us” – St Vincent de Paul, patron
saint of the SSVP.
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