Our newsletters and visit reports

In addition to the latest quarterly letter, you will also find on this page the archives of past letters, downloadable in pdf format (Acrobat), the latest visit reports from our director and the external evaluation reports. 

LETTER TO FRIENDS OF SISTER EMMANUELLE

« Every being, at the moment of giving to another being, in the very act of depriving oneself for the benefit of the other, is similar to Christ who deprives himself for humankind. »

Dear Friends,

For this somewhat particular letter, I leave it to Michel Bittar to address you these few words.

"Dear Friends of Sister Emmanuelle and of our Association,

I have had the honor of presiding over our Association since I founded it with Sister Emmanuelle 43 years ago, and I have guided its development with your precious support and the help of our small team. In a few days I will be 86 years old and I had to reflect on the most intelligent and fluid way to ensure the future of our Association.

Before our Annual General Meeting on April 23 (by videoconference, Covid obliges), I made a proposal to our Treasurer, Mrs. Florence Rivollet, whose generous commitment and quality of work I have been able to appreciate over the past ten years: that she takes on the function of President and I the one of Treasurer.
This will change almost nothing in our personal routine work and will avoid a delicate situation if an accident were to occur and I were no longer able to assume the presidency. In due course, finding a Treasurer will indeed be a less delicate step.

After careful consideration, Florence accepted my proposal if it was adopted at our GA.
Which was the case, unanimously.

At the GA, my daughter Lucienne, who has been on the Committee for 9 years, proposed her candidacy for the position of Vice President to help Marie-Claire Ricou, who had been carrying this responsibility alone for some time. This nomination was also unanimously approved.

I like this solution very much because it allows a close-knit group to continue working without fearing the future...
This, dear Friends, is the news I wanted to inform you about...

Thanks to your faithfulness, your compassion for the world's poor and your generosity, ASASE has always been able to persevere on the path traced by our big-hearted sister Emmanuelle.

 At first with the ragpickers in Cairo, then, in Sudan since 1986, with the creation of many programs: homes and farms for abandoned children (more than 700 at the peak of the program!), 18 babies feeding centers, vocational training centers for adults and children of our farms, several medical care centers.... And the famous "rakubas" (bamboo schools), where children received a solid education and a daily meal.

A page was closed in 2014 when our friend Kamal Tadros, deacon and program manager in Sudan, had to leave his country and the attitude of the authorities hardened towards our local partner in Khartoum, the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Society.
Our action then shifted to the South, where the needs were enormous after more than 40 years of a deadly civil war with the North, and which became a country in 2011 after the partition of Sudan.
I must remind you that our historical partners have participated and still participate in the financing of the programs set up in South Sudan: The Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Society England and Wales, Opération Orange (France), Caritas Graz and Hilfswerk (Austria), to name only the most important ones. Thanks to them, these programs have taken on a remarkable dimension.
In Geneva, we benefit from the crucial help of the Canton and the City, which I would like to thank here for their remarkable constancy.... Without them, as without you, nothing would have been possible.

For the past 26 years, ASASE has also provided financial support to the Geneva-based association Haiti-Cosmos, created and managed by Jean Claude François, a native of Haiti who lives in Geneva.

Yallah, forward! Let's continue with confidence to face our future and that of our protégés.
May God bless you..."

Here is some brief news from our programs in South Sudan.

The new session of the 8 vocational trainings started in April for 390 trainees.

At the end of April, a storm damaged many of the buildings at the Lologo Vocational Training and Community Development Center: sheet metal roofs and their frames were torn off, electrical connections were damaged, etc. ASASE and its Austrian partners (Missio, Caritas Graz) have sent funds to finance the repair work.

Thank you in advance for your donations, and have a great summer!      

Patrick Bittar
Director