Care For Creation In Response To Laudato Si’ And Mercy Challenge

The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home. The sustainable development goal 13 calls for care of environment and Mother Earth as a whole to curb the issues of climate change which is so connected to other vices such as racism, human trafficking, global pandemics and the plight of detained immigrants among others. Mercy Learning and Spiritual Centre aka Mercy Education Office (MEO) with the rest of Mercy world is committed to Pope Francis call through Laudato Si’ to people all over the world to “move towards an “ecological conversion” in which we can listen to the “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”.

Marching to create awareness

For several years since 2015, MEO has been organizing Mercy Day celebrations where participants are Sisters of Mercy together with learners and staff from schools/colleges affiliated with Sisters of Mercy around Nairobi. On 22nd September 2019 over 1000 children, youth and adults from Mercy associated institutions and others participated at the Mercy day feast. That Mercy day went a notch higher when MEO worked with other partners like Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation Franciscans Africa, Catholic University, Interfaith Laudato Si generation and the Nairobi County government to hold a Mercy & Peace day with the theme “Climate Action for Peace”. The day started at MPC grounds where all gathered for prayers and guard of honor followed by a march to St. Elizabeth Lungalunga. The march was accompanied by General Street clean up and messages on placards and by loudspeakers.

Objectives for the day were:

To remind all of our interconnectedness and our duty to care for all of creation through little daily actions of Mercy and Social Justice.

To learn how to tackle the twin challenges of environmental degradation and climate change, from the perspective of Catholic social teaching, and the teaching of other faith traditions, on care for creation. “One creation, one earth, many religions one goal”.
To deepen the understanding of our role and potential, as adults/youths and re-energise youth to be ready to take a lead on the challenge of climate and halting biodiversity loss.
To get an opportunity for collection of best practices across institutions and faiths.

To create an opportunity for networking and advocacy for environmental sustainability.

Tree planting session at St. Elizabeth Lungalunga

The event was marked by

Awareness creation of the industries and residents within Mukuru slums environs to dispose of their wastes properly and to avoid pollution.
Tree planting at St. Elizabeth Primary school. The school has been experiencing intense flooding during rainy seasons at times calling for suspension of learning due to risk posed by the waters. Planting the trees went a long way in controlling the floods and providing carbon for the nearby industries.
Clean up exercise within the school and in Mukuru slum. The county government gave a helping hand by donating 400 tree seedlings and in cleaning the Nairobi river that flows through Mukuru slum

Clean up exercise within Mukuru slums

As part of our annual calendar, every June MEO with our partners at Justice and Peace Africa mark the Environment day through Mercy Associated schools participating at CUEA in different activities. However this year as in all parts of the world COVID-19 has made us see that things can be done differently and therefore in the absence of the students from the schools we marked the day with activities closer to home. On 6th June 2020, we celebrated the World Environment Day and marked the event through tree planting in our various Mercy Education Centres courtesy of Nairobi City County who donated 200 seedlings. With the current situation of only 15 people in a gathering the work was done by youth who came from Eucharistic Youth Movement group of Christ the King Church Kangemi and Pioneers of Our Lady Queen of Peace South B in addition to Mary Immaculate boys who planted trees in their Centre. We managed to plant 100 trees that is 50 at Mary Immaculate Rehabilitation Centre and 50 at Our Lady of Mercy primary school South B. The other 100 trees were planted the following week at both Our Lady of Mercy Primary and Our Lady of Mercy Secondary schools in South B.

Mary Immaculate Rehab Centre boys before tree planting

Following the tree planting event we had some moments of reflection on personal and group responsibility in care of Mother Earth followed by fun in Praise of Our God the Creator and giver of Life by dancing and singing the Laudato Si Generation song. This is the Praise to God following the example of St. Francis of Assisi, a lover and champion of Nature from whom Our Holy Father the current Pope Francis took the inspiration and wrote the encyclical, Laudato Si’.

With EYM and Pioneer Youth during tree planting at Our Lady of Mercy Primary School South B

MEO has continued to sensitize and encourage its community to be ambassadors of environment conservation which is a free gift from God. One of the ways has been through the embracing the birthday tree planting campaign, an initiative that was started two years ago and whose aim is to encourage students and teachers to plant at least one tree whenever they commemorate special rites such as birthdays. Some schools such as Huruma Girls have owned the idea and made it their culture. And we also have different categories of Mercy Environment Champions.