WALK FOR WOMEN

Dec 13, 2014

On the 8th of December, 2014, the Good Shepherd Sisters of “Good Shepherd Center” community organized a significant social activity in Macau. Called “Walk for Women,” the social activity was sponsored by “JML Properties International Ladies’ Club of Macau”. The people taking part in the event gathered together at the Park called “Garden of Vasco Da Gama,” which is near “Royal Hotel” and not far from our Priory of St. Dominic. The walk began at 2:30 in the afternoon and ended half an hour later at about four in “Sintra Square.”

The theme of this social activity was “to raise the voice or conscience of society to respect the dignity of women, to ask for equal rights for women in society and to stop all types of violence against women.”

There were around 200 people who participated in this activity. They were women and men belonging to different associations, institutions and religious congregations, including the majority of our Dominican Brothers and Sisters. After the walk, a two-hour program followed at “Sintra Square.” The main speech was pronounced by the Mother Superior of the Good Shepherd Sisters, Sr. Mary Juliana Suzanne Devoy, who runs the Good Shepherd Center for Women. There is a need to raise awareness on the social issue of discrimination against women. As human beings, as Christians, we are all asked to denounce any kind of discrimination and to be on the side of the victims and help them. After the inspiring talk, other numbers of the simple program followed: an interesting skit, some songs, dances and games. The whole program was conducted in Cantonese.

The social activity “Walk for Women” was indeed an important and relevant social activity in Macau. As human beings, as believers in Jesus, we are all social beings and belong to the human and/or Christian family and therefore concerned with the well-being of one another, in particular the needy and marginalized like the victims of discrimination, including women who are the group most discriminated against in our world. Let us close this brief report with the words of Pope Francis on a kind of discrimination against children and women, which is human trafficking: “Human trafficking is a crime against humanity… Our efforts must be accompanied and reinforced by the mercy of the Gospel, by closeness to the men and women who are victims of this crime.”

Bro. Francis Nge Nge, OP

St. Dominic’s Priory, Macau