Since 2016, there has been an ongoing socio-political crisis in the North and Southwest Regions of Cameroon. This crisis has caused the displacement of thousands of families, raised villages to dust, and caused several towns and villages to be abandoned by their inhabitants due to insecurity. Worst of all, the education of children and young people has been jeopardized, there by laying a bedrock for generations of illiteracy. It has also opened venues for immoral behaviors among idle young women and men who have been displaced. For over three years now, thousands of displaced children have not gone to school, and hundreds have been led to prostitution as a means of survival.

Missy Kisob, the administrative assistant for the Dominican Sisters of Hope, is friends with a Catholic Sister ministering in Cameroon, Sr. Jackie Atabong, SST. Sister Jackie works with SUPPORT AND EMPOWERMENT OF VULNERABLE PERSONS FOUNDATION (SEV). The Dominican Sisters of Hope are supporters of Sister Jackie’s ministry: she is a Ministry Fund recipient. And, Missy sent Sister Jackie a container of prayer books from Development, which Sister Jackie distributed to prisoners.

Sister Jackie has currently created a home for girls who have been kidnapped and forced to work in brothels: Sister Jackie provides them with rehabilitation, shelter, and education. The spaces houses thirty girls, ranging in age from nine years old to their 20s, in an abandoned night club.

“I’m really impressed with her,” Missy said. “There’s a war in Cameroon. Children are being lost abandoned. She gathered up any lost children and helped them any way she could. Her main thing is to make sure they go back to school.

“Out of the blue, I thought ‘I wonder if I can get a couple of quilts,'” Missy said. She approached Sister Donna Brunell and asked if Patchwork and Prayer Ministry would be willing to make 30 quilts for the girls’ rooms. She requested colorful quilts that would brighten up their space and provide them with comfort.

Sister Donna was happy to oblige.

“We just get a lot of joy out of doing this,” she said, poring over the beautiful quilts. With the help of the Patchwork for Prayer Ministry members, Sister Donna rolled up the 35 total quilts into a shipping container that will be shipped to Cameroon later this summer. The girls will likely receive the quilts in the fall or early winter.

Working on the quilts from January through May actually brought the group closer together, said Sister Donna. She pointed out that this is more creative and fun for the group than commission work: in making the quilts, the group took wide creative liberty in color and style. The result is a beautiful, eclectic, prayer-ful rainbow.

Patchwork and Prayer quilters display their quilts

Quilters put quilts in the container for shipment

“There will be a design hopefully that will be suitable for every taste,” Sister Donna said. “We’re not going to designate who gets what, but we’ve been holding the girls’ names in prayer. Every quilt is different, but they’re all colorful.”

“This here is a miracle,” Missy said, when she saw the final quilts. “The way [Patchwork and Prayer] jumped on it, it just reminds you, in spite of all the horrible things going on in the world, there are still good people.