THE MAALGO PROJECT

BY EDNA ETHINGTON

ST. IRENAEUS PARISHIONERS recently gathered to raise funds and receive an update on The Maalgo Project- a special project many of them have supported for years.

Parishioners Jim and Mimi Di Rosa and Ruth Burns hosted a fundraiser for The Maalgo Project on April 22, at the Di Rosa home in Cypress.

Sixty-four guests came out in support – they included parishioners from St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Cypress, a few parishioners from Holy Family Cathedral in Orange and other friends from the community.

The Maalgo Project is a non-profit organization with all donations fully tax deductible. Ninety-five percent of funds raised go directly to pay for water, food, school supplies and building supplies.

Fr. Rudolph “Rudy” Alumam is the founder of The Maalgo Project, which is set in his home village of Vea, Ghana.

Fr. Rudy started the project in 2005 while he was parochial vicar at St. Bede Catholic Church in Hayward, CA, where he and parishioners helped to raise funds to build a library in Ghana. They also provided lunch items of rice, beans and smoked fish for students, so they would want to come to school and would not go hungry all day.

Fr. Rudy then served as parochial vicar at St. Irenaeus Church from 2015 to 2017. He and parishioners held a school supplies drive at St. Irenaeus which sent 80 boxes of supplies to the schools in the villages in Ghana. St. Irenaeus parishioners continued to support The Maalgo Project when Fr. Rudy was assigned to Holy Family Cathedral in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, parishioners of both churches worked together to raise funds to send school supplies and school furniture, such as desks.

Maalgo means “progress” and during last month’s fundraiser, Fr. Rudy showed the progress that has been done thus far and is ongoing - in his village of Vea with a visual presentation. Two wells have been dug – one of which is solar powered which provides clean water for families. He also showed students sitting at their new desks as well as the start of construction of the first two-story school in the village. Fr. Rudy also showed the village’s men physically digging the trenches for the school’s foundation by hand. The first level of the school was completed by villagers, but work is needed to finish the second story of the school. The need for more help is ongoing to finish the job and continue to provide food and school supplies for the students.

Anyone interested in helping to provide the necessities of life and to improve the students’ education opportunities, can donate directly online by contacting www.themaalgoproject.org/, or by writing a check to The Maalgo Project, c/o Fr. Rudy Alumam at 566 S. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866.

Fr. Rudy can also be reached at his e-mail address, rbalumam@themaalgoproject.org, or fr.alumam@oc.rcbo. org. C

We all can recall many memories of Mother’s Day. My brothers and I certainly do this a lot, especially in the month of Mary! One of mine is that Mom (because we always celebrated Mother’s Day and my birthday together) always would recount how worried she would be that she would not be a mother by Mother’s Day in 1951. But I made it by about an hour!

When my mother passed away in June of 2012 (shortly before I was assigned here) Cardinal Francis E. George, then-Archbishop of Chicago, called me personally to express his support and condolences and reflected that no woman knows a priest as well as his mother. That was certainly true in my case.

I have written and spoken about Mom to many of you, especially about her love and concern for mothers and babies, as a maternity nurse at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois.

However, I thank the Lord every day for her teaching me about the importance and priority of relationships. Relationships for her were always rooted in her Catholic Faith. She maintained so many of those relationships all of her life. Some of her friends still contact me! And, another part of life, rooted in her Catholic Faith, was to be a voice and an advocate for the helpless and indigent. She worked constantly to make sure that her mother, my grandmother Jones, got fair and caring treatment in a nursing home in Springfield, Illinois. This nursing home was not known for its care and attention to its residents. However, Mom, on more than one occasion championed the care and rights of those residents who had no one…! She was absolutely unafraid to advocate for those who had no one to care for them. I remember this so clearly. In addition to the value of relationships, I learned from my mother how to speak up for just care and equitable treatment for those who are in hospital and care facilities. I will remember all of our mothers in these coming days and know that those memories will be a source of blessing to us all. C

—Kevin W. Vann