Bayadeya

In the Kindergarten

At the Center for the development of Young Women

Project for handicapped children

Faces of Bayadeya Photos: Cecilia van Zon rscj and Lolín Menéndez rscj

Bayadeya is a village of 22,000 inhabitants. They are mostly Christians of three religions  (Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant) and about 1,000 Muslims. This village is in Upper Egypt, 300 kilometers south of Cairo, on the banks of the Nile. Most of the inhabitants are peasants (fellahs).
 
We work with an NGO, the Association for Development and Education in Upper Egypt, and because of this we were able to open a center for the advancement of young girls. We take in mostly poor girls who have not been able to go to school because priority is given to boys over girls.
 
In every situation of poverty and injustice, it is women who suffer the most. The Chapter of 1988 called us to commit ourselves to the development of women. Madeleine Sophie said, “When you educate a man you educate a person; when you educate a woman you educate a family.” Today we can add, “To educate a woman is to change a population.” We have about 240 girls in this center, ages 9-15. During their seven years of formation, over an above learning to read and write, they learn sewing, knitting and other manual skills. We also teach them religious education and other life skills such as hygiene, health, cooking, marriage preparation, education of children. Most of all they learn to express themselves, to know themselves, to make choices, to reflect on the mores of their country. We caution them about the consequences of marrying very young and about the consequences of excision, those things that affects their dignity as women. 

The effects of this formation are especially evident once they are married and settled into their situations, “the formation of persons to their human dignity as children of God.”

We do some staff work and teaching in two kindergartens with this NGO, in the Catholic school and in “el Pagr el guedid” (a new project). 

We also run a kindergarten for 280 little ones between the ages of two and half and six and a half and we prepare children to go to the public schools where there are 80 students crammed into a classroom, making teaching very difficult. We teach them the basics through educational games and give them a love of learning. By teaching the children, we educate the whole family. At the same time we collaborate with the aides who share our mission, and so they too give and receive an education that is transformative: formation to critical thinking and learning to use technology. And this in turn impacts and strengthens the educational process. 

This project gives us the opportunity to live what the General Chapter of 2000 asks of us: “an education that transforms”, “helping women to become conscious of their situation by recognizing their own dignity and discovering their potential”, “living collaboratively in reciprocity” with the aides who share our mission, living “the dialogue of cultures” with respect and openness to the other religions, both Orthodox and Protestant, and respecting the traditions of the people. We believe that the motivating force in all of this is the conviction that “our lives, given in love, are the strongest expression of our spirituality.”