NEWS

Malteser International, the Order of Malta’s worldwide relief service, is supporting the emergency relief efforts in the Philippines after this weekend’s flash flood. A sudden rush of water caused by tropical storm Washi caught hundreds of families in the Cagayan de Oro and Iligan provinces on Mindanao Island unaware in the middle of the night on Friday. The Philippine association of the Order of Malta has so far airlifted 1,000 kilograms of food and medication to the disaster zone. More than 63,000 families, or 338,000 people, have lost their homes and belongings due to the storm waters. More than 280,000 residents have taken shelter in evacuation centres in the disaster area, and more than 1,500 people are injured. The death toll now nears 1,000.
 

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As food distributions continue in the Marsabit region in northern Kenya, Malteser International is now broadening its relief activities in the country, bringing aid to another 30,000 residents in the neighbouring region of Isiolo. The villagers will receive a basic supply of food and medication over a period of at least four months. With these additional measures, Malteser International’s help is now reaching a total of 73,000 people.

Around 5,000 Isiolo residents with special needs, such as children, pregnant and lactating women, as well as elderly and sick people, are each provided with a monthly ration of 5.6 kilograms of Unimix – a flour enriched with vitamins and nutrients – as well as 560 ml of cooking oil. Malteser International also supplies their family members – another 25,000 people – with monthly rations of 3 kilograms of maize, 1.5 kilograms of beans, 400 ml of cooking oil and 60 g of salt. “Only then can we be sure that the weakest people are truly getting enough to eat”, says Ute Kirch, emergency relief coordinator for Malteser International. “In the region, it is custom to divide the food among the family members in the household.”

 

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Rome, 23/07/2011

Over 10 million people are at risk of dying of hunger in the Horn of Africa. The worst drought in 60 years has brought on what the United Nations have defined as the world’s greatest ongoing humanitarian disaster.

 

In this first emergency phase, the Order of Malta is working to bring aid to a population of over 20,000 in Marsabit, in the north eastern region of Kenya – including 1,200 pregnant women and over 3,000 malnourished children. More than 17,000 people will receive food, and 3,000 with be provided with emergency medicines. The food kits consist of rice, beans, oil and basic foodstuffs; the emergency medical kits include vitamin A, iron, folic acid and anitfunghus drugs for intestinal parasites. The Order of Malta will be assisted in the distribution of these survival measures by the Marsabit Dioceses and their medical units.

 

For days, these mothers and small children have struggled over the arid eastern plains of Kenya in a desperate search for something to eat and to drink. Exhausted and hungry, many have died along the way. The situation in the badly overcrowded refugee camps is now critical: there is very little food and insufficient medicines to meet the demand. And in the remote rural areas, many wait for help – help that so far has not arrived.

 

How you can help

Every donation, however modest, is most gratefully received. It will mean the Order of Malta can give support to those who are suffering, to avoid them dying of starvation and with the Government of Canada's matching program for donations your contribution will go even farther.  Please click 'here' or select the Donation button from the menu on the left and reference "East Africa" in the Add special instructions to the seller section on the final donation review page.

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Just in time for the season of Lent, the Canadian Association has begun a foray into Prison Ministry through the distribution of a newsletter to Catholic inmates in Ontario and British Columbia.  This new ministry for the Canadian Association is a joint venture with the American Association of the Order of Malta, who has been publishing such a newsletter since 2009 and currently oversees distribution of 25,000 copies in 25 States.  Working with prison chaplains in these two provinces to start,  “The Serving Brother,” offers “Catholic Spirituality to the Incarcerated.” Recognizing the disparate conditions that Catholic prisoners find themselves in, the publication is intended to represent a “spiritual lifeline” to those readers finding themselves in conditions inhospitable to the Catholic faith.

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Ethical and Loving Care of Persons Living with Dementia and Their Families (Summary by Bridget Campion) On November 24, 2010, Dr. Bill Sullivan delivered the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute’s Annual Lecture, “Ethical and Loving Care of Persons Living with Dementia and Their Families.” The Founding Director of the CCBI, and currently the Executive Director of the International Association of Catholic Bioethicists, as well as, a Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Canadian Association of the Order of Malta, Dr. Sullivan is also a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and Surrey Place Centre. He brought his expertise as both a bioethicist and family physician to his lecture. more...

Sunday June 27, 2010 in Halifax, Fra' Matthew Festing, head of the Order of Malta, will assist at Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica and take part in a number of governmental-level ceremonies, some associated with the Centennial of Canada's Navy, that flow from relations that exist between Canada and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (as described below in a Government of Canada website): On June 4, 2008, Canada established official relations with the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta,through an exchange of letters between Canada¹s Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Order¹s Grand Master.  The Grand Master (center) is pictured with The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and The Honourable Noel Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate.

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On Thursday June 10, 2010 Archbishop Collins celebrated mass for the Knights and Dames of the Canadian Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the chapel of the Cardinal Flahiff Centre at St. Michael’s College in Toronto. In a ceremony following the mass, His Excellency Peter Quail, President of the Canadian Association welcomed His Grace as a Conventual Chaplain ad honorem of the Order. In keeping with the ancient tradition and rule of the Church, The Holy See recognizes that clerics may not be made papal knights. more...

The Order of Malta’s 52nd annual international pilgrimage of the Order to Lourdes will take place 30 April - 4 May 2010. 35 members of the Canadian Association of the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta (the Order of Malta) will join in excess of 6,000 Order members, malades and volunteers, from some 35 countries who attend annually. For 152 years, pilgrims from around the world have converged on Lourdes to seek healing, purification and graces from God. more...

March 17, 2010, His Excellency Peter Quail, President of the Canadian Association of the Order of Malta expressed the Order's opposition to the Euthanasia Bill presented by Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde. “Deliberately taking a human being’s life, or being an accessory to this, is the ultimate act of disregard for the inherent value of the one who is killed, even if he or she requests or does this, or if the motivation allegedly is compassion, says Mr. Quail. “We strongly urge you and all legislators to enact laws and promote health care priorities, such as those listed above, that would genuinely value and support those Canadians who are older, sick, or with disabilities.” The Order of Malta is one of the oldest lay Catholic orders in the Church, founded in 1099 A.D. The charism of the Order is personal sanctification of members, defense of the faith, and service to the sick and poor. To read the Order of Malta letter to Mr. Lalonde click the link. http://www.orderofmaltacanada.org/Lalondeeng.pdf

Friday, the Canadian Association of The Order of Malta officially signed a contract with CIDA for funding of its second generation project to help the people of the Altiplano Tapicari. This follows the approval of Minister Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation received on January 10, 2010. The Canadian Association has partnered with AGRUCO, a center of excellence for agricultural research and development at the university in Cochabamba, to improve the quality of life of the people in the Bolivian Altiplano. The Chuño Project leverages AGRUCO’s expertise in improving indigenous agriculture, making it sustainable with local practices, materials and customs. more...