The John-Henry Westen Show - The Poor Have a Name. Silent Children's Mission is Dedicated to Serving Them

00:00:00.000 rest effect children are slave children. So presently in Haiti, 10% of children are slaves.

00:00:07.160 And I remember the very first time I heard about that, I was really shocked and angry and

00:00:14.060 judgmental, to be honest. And Mother Teresa always says, if you judge people, you don't have time to

00:00:19.940 love them. Very often pro-lifers, Catholics who want to be faithful to the teaching of the church,

00:00:27.600 really have to search far and wide to find charities, especially charities that deal

00:00:33.760 with overseas, that are faithfully pro-life, that are faithfully Catholic. Very hard to find at

00:00:40.840 LifeSites. We've profiled many of these groups that aren't truly that, but we found one for you.

00:00:48.300 It's called Silent Children's Mission. This is your Don Henry Weston show. Stay tuned.

00:00:57.600 Frankie Berg-Ferrett, welcome to the program.

00:01:22.160 Thanks for inviting me.

00:01:23.260 Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father,

00:01:26.880 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:01:30.620 Your mission is beautiful. Why don't you tell us something about it?

00:01:34.300 Silent Children's Mission was granted charitable status in 2011, but it was started earlier before

00:01:41.440 then by Joan and Andrew Simone. And Dr. Andrew Simone is a Toronto dermatologist. He still has

00:01:50.000 practice in Toronto and his wife, Joan. And I think that today is kind of a sad day for me because we

00:01:59.460 just heard this morning that Joan has gone to heaven. And she was very beloved to our charity.

00:02:07.380 Her and Andrew founded it as a sister charity to Canadian Food for Children. So I'm sure that many

00:02:12.800 of your viewers might know Canadian Food for Children. Absolutely.

00:02:16.820 So in the late 70s, early 80s, Joan and Andrew had a conversion experience. You may have heard

00:02:24.000 their story, but I'll just tell you a little bit about it. They felt that God was asking them to give

00:02:29.900 everything away to the poor. And so they started to work with Mother Teresa. And as a matter of fact,

00:02:35.340 Andrew was the treasurer for the Missionaries of Charity for North America. And so they started

00:02:43.160 working very closely with Mother Teresa, many letters back and forth, and they met her on many

00:02:49.480 occasions. And they were sending containers of food and clothing and medical supplies to her sisters.

00:02:57.060 And it got to be so much that they couldn't accept anymore. And so with her blessing, Joan and Andrew

00:03:05.200 started Canadian Food for Children, and they presently still work out of the Mississauga warehouse,

00:03:10.060 where they send almost every day a container, a 40-foot transport truck of donations to many

00:03:16.800 different developing countries. But in around 2004, 2005, they decided that there were many

00:03:22.880 missions that couldn't accept containers, whether geographically or for many other reasons.

00:03:30.080 And they started sending money to help missionaries with school fees and health care costs,

00:03:37.940 things like that. So they'd send the money directly. And they decided that, you know,

00:03:41.880 it was really speaking to them that these children had no voice. That's why they named it Silent

00:03:46.620 Children. And so later on, Dr. Simone, I was volunteering with Canadian Food for Children. Dr. Simone asked

00:03:53.100 if I would be the executive director and seek charitable status. And that's kind of how it started.

00:03:58.040 But we run it very much like Mother Teresa, because that's how Canadian Food for Children is. So

00:04:04.120 we rely on divine providence for our donations. We spend zero on fundraising. So as much as we

00:04:10.700 possibly can, we send directly to the missions. And the people that we work with are Catholic

00:04:15.600 priests, nuns, and lay people, mostly consecrated. And right now, Silent Children's in about 12

00:04:24.380 different countries, developing countries. Nobody gets paid at Silent Children. So it's all volunteer,

00:04:31.920 just like Canadian Food for Children, no one gets paid. And even our mission trips are self-paid.

00:04:39.180 I think many, many know Canadian Food for Children. Dr. Andrew Simone has been so faithful and so wonderful

00:04:46.920 in terms of providing pro-life, pro-family Canadians with someone they could give to without thinking

00:04:54.000 twice. His charity was such that it was so self-giving and so faithful that no one ever had to have a

00:05:00.840 question about Canadian Food for Children. And knowing that he and Joan founded the Silent Children's

00:05:09.180 Mission is just beautiful. And it's something else that people can give to without worry.

00:05:14.880 Joan's passing that just happened today. I know people are seeing this a little bit later, but

00:05:21.560 let's all continue to pray for the Simone family, for Andrew particularly, and amazing work that

00:05:27.920 they've done. Very, very special couple. I mean, just deeply Catholic, holy, following. You know,

00:05:35.380 I don't know anybody that gives all their money away to the poor. Like, they live on divine

00:05:41.100 providence. They rely on people to even the food that they eat. So it's just remarkable. They're a

00:05:48.340 remarkable couple. And Joan is a, was a very, very holy woman. Tell us about Silent Children's Mission.

00:05:56.880 We'd love to hear perhaps some of the stories that you might have about what you do, what folks do with

00:06:02.860 the funds they receive. Silent Children really accompanies our missionaries. So we're really very,

00:06:09.360 very careful about not telling anybody what they need to do, but letting the missionaries lead.

00:06:16.540 You know, I don't know if you've read Target Africa at Kyocha. Target Africa. She talks about,

00:06:22.040 she's a very pro-life woman, but she talks about how, you know, people in the West go to African

00:06:29.200 countries where she's from, and they tell people, you know, what they should be doing.

00:06:34.620 Right. I've seen the, I've seen a film from Uju. So it was really on the same theme.

00:06:40.860 Yes, exactly. And so that really speaks to me because we in the West need to be more humble.

00:06:48.840 We need to be culturally humble in how we approach people because they know their people and they know

00:06:55.120 their needs more than anybody. And so we here in the West, I feel should be accompanying them,

00:07:01.780 giving. We have a lot and we should share, at least as Catholics, we should, right?

00:07:08.320 Yesterday was September 26th and the gospel was about Lazarus sitting at the gate. And I was

00:07:17.600 listening to Bishop Barron's talk yesterday and he was saying that the church is to evangelize,

00:07:24.300 to worship God and to serve the poor. And, and he talked about how Lazarus was named,

00:07:31.700 but the rich person wasn't. And that was really profound for me too, because I think we need to

00:07:37.380 really give a face to the poor. And I'd love to share some stories of some children that we've

00:07:42.880 worked with, if that's okay with you and how, you know, cultural humility is really a way that I

00:07:48.100 think we need to approach helping others in other countries. And so I remember the first time I went

00:07:55.460 to Haiti and, and that is, you know, a tragic country, you know, if it isn't a, an earthquake,

00:08:01.760 it'll be something else. Right. But I met through one, through one of the members of our, on our board

00:08:07.640 of directors who spends a lot of his days, at least half the year in Haiti, helping the poor.

00:08:13.760 And he told me about this little boy who I had the great privilege of meeting at one point,

00:08:21.100 but he taught me a lot about resilience. And that's what we need to see in these children

00:08:27.020 and these families. They have a lot of resilience. I don't think that I could do or say what they do

00:08:32.880 sometimes. So it was when I first learned about rest effect children. Have you ever heard of that?

00:08:37.860 Rest effect children are slave children. So presently in Haiti, 10% of children are slaves.

00:08:45.200 And I remember the very first time I heard about that, I was really shocked and angry and judgmental,

00:08:53.240 to be honest. And mother Teresa always says, if you judge people, you don't have time to love them.

00:08:58.760 And that, that quote always sticks with me because my first thought was how could a mother sell her

00:09:04.620 child. But then when I went there and, and I see the poverty and I understand the depth of sorrow that

00:09:14.500 a mother must be feeling when she sees her children starving and her only way out is maybe to sell her

00:09:22.320 child to maybe someone who has more money because in her mind, she's thinking that at least her child

00:09:29.580 will be fed. And it doesn't always work out that way, of course, but it gives you a deeper understanding

00:09:36.880 of where these mothers are coming from. People in developing countries, the mothers, they love their

00:09:41.980 children just like we do. And when they die, they grieve just as, as much as we do. So I, and I think we

00:09:49.440 forget that. I really do. But anyways, I was able to meet this little boy named Dustin, who was a rest

00:09:55.880 effect child. And he was living in this home and they made him carry bricks all day. And he was

00:10:03.700 maybe at the time about 10 years old. So he, he worked all day. He was given some food. He slept

00:10:11.960 outside. If it was raining, he was allowed to sleep inside on the kitchen floor. He was treated very

00:10:18.240 poorly. And so the person that I'm talking about on our board of directors tried very hard to convince

00:10:25.500 this, these people to let him take this little boy Dustin to the market. And eventually he was able

00:10:32.540 to convince them. So he, he took dust in the market and he says, you've got $5 and you can spend the

00:10:37.680 money on anything that you want. And so he spent $2 on a belt. And when he asked him why Dustin

00:10:45.580 purchased a belt, he said, because now my clothes will fit me. Because of course he only ever had

00:10:52.200 hand me down clothes, clothes that were too baggy or, and, and then my friend said, well, you have

00:10:59.880 $3 left. What would you like to spend it on? And so he said, well, here's $1. I'd like you to give

00:11:08.060 that dollar to the church because God has been good to me. And he thought, okay, you have $2 left.

00:11:16.320 And he thought in his mind, for sure, he's going to buy candy or a toy or something that a typical

00:11:21.260 child would buy. And he said, no, no, I want you to keep it because one day I'm going to see my mom

00:11:29.020 again and she's going to need it. And I just thought, wow, these children are incredible,

00:11:37.020 right? Incredibly resilient and their faith in God is profound. So that's Dustin. And I have so many

00:11:45.220 stories like that. You know, I remember, I think it was the second visit 2007 to Malawi and sister

00:11:53.180 Bernadette, the sister that we work with, collaborate with. She said, there's a beautiful woman. She has

00:11:59.500 nine children and she's helped at our hospital for so many years, but she's dying of AIDS and she's

00:12:06.520 really worried. And I'd like you to meet her. And so we went over to the hospital and I met this woman

00:12:12.140 and she was very sad. She had an eight-year-old girl whose name is Thokozani. And she was so worried

00:12:19.520 about what was going to happen to her children because of course her husband had abandoned her.

00:12:24.420 And I promised her that I would pay the school fees for Thokozani. Now, presently, Thokozani is in her 1.00

00:12:32.420 third year of nursing school. And that's because of Silent Children benefactors. The benefactors

00:12:40.080 help with paying for school fees because as we know, education raises the level of health.

00:12:47.300 It helps people to come out of poverty. And if you ask any of our missionaries, the number one thing

00:12:52.920 they always say is school fees. Could you help with school fees? Right? You want to help a child to get

00:12:59.640 out of poverty, then educate them. And that comes straight from them. We help with healthcare costs.

00:13:05.580 There's times when the sisters will let us know that, you know, they were able to help

00:13:12.440 a mother who wanted to have an abortion. And they encouraged her not to. And they needed help with

00:13:20.960 that mom and we gladly helped, you know. So there's many, many instances, but certainly listening to our

00:13:28.800 missionaries. Another project that we do that we're very, very happy with is our farm project.

00:13:36.520 Ekiocha in Target Africa talks about, you know, the best way to help people is to help them to help

00:13:41.280 themselves. And so we have three farm projects that are doing very well. One is with Sister Bernadette

00:13:47.900 again in Malawi. And this was her idea. She says, I would really like to have a farm where, you know,

00:13:56.200 the people can raise chickens and grow food and we can teach them how to do that. And I said, well,

00:14:02.520 where do we start? And so we got a beautiful benefactor who donated $10,000. And Sister was able

00:14:10.820 to purchase 70 acres. And that's under the name of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa, which are all,

00:14:18.300 you know, they're all native to Malawi, no longer sisters from Ottawa, actually, but that's where

00:14:23.400 they originally came from. And so she purchased these 70 acres and Father Michael, our spiritual

00:14:30.340 director, and I went there and he was blessing this land. And I remember looking around and thinking,

00:14:35.900 my goodness, I can't even keep a house plant alive. But I'm looking at 70 barren acres, at least they

00:14:42.340 looked barren to me, you know, very dry. And I thought, what are they going to do with this land?

00:14:47.360 But, you know, fast forward to today, and there's a big house with 2000 chickens that produce eggs for

00:14:55.020 the poor children in the villages, and hire local villagers to do that. They were trained how to do it.

00:15:02.640 There's pigs, there's acres and acres of mango trees and banana trees, and maize, which is their

00:15:09.400 main staple. And now presently, our latest project on this farm is a home. And it's just about built.

00:15:16.840 It was a little delayed during the pandemic, they had a hard time finding supplies, etc. But it's it's

00:15:22.980 going to be finished really in the next week or so. And this is a place where young people can come

00:15:29.900 and stay and learn agricultural skills. So it's just wonderful. But this was all led by Sister

00:15:36.960 Bernadette Densani. And we accompanied her by providing her the funds.

00:15:43.660 Just a quick note before we return. If you would like to stay up to date on LifeSite's coverage of

00:15:48.420 the latest life, family and culture news, subscribe to one of our many newsletters by going to

00:15:53.300 LifeSiteNews.com slash subscribe. And if you'd like to help us bring our truth telling coverage

00:15:58.920 to millions around the world, please consider making a one time or monthly donation at

00:16:03.700 Give.LifeSiteNews.com. And now back to the video.

00:16:07.480 I wanted to let all the LifeSiteers know that there is a LifeFunder set up for Silent Children's

00:16:15.620 Mission. You can go to LifeFunder.com and support this great work there. You know, I loved what you

00:16:22.400 said, Frankie, about being culturally sensitive. Pope Benedict talked about a kind of cultural

00:16:29.180 imperialism, where the West, particularly actually North America and Europe, have thought to

00:16:36.900 foist their own cultural impressions, which are really anti-life and anti-family, upon the third

00:16:43.700 world, and kind of do it holus bolus. So much so that sometimes development loans and things like

00:16:51.140 that are withheld if they refuse to follow the cultural dictates of the West. And it's so beautiful

00:16:58.220 that, especially in Uju Ekinosha's work, she's pointed this out about how inappropriate this is.

00:17:05.260 So we try really hard at Silent Children's Mission to accompany our missionaries, to learn from them.

00:17:12.560 And we certainly have. I mean, we've been so blessed to work with amazing people. We have another

00:17:19.880 missionary in Liberia, Father Samuel, and he's a spirit and priest. It was interesting because one

00:17:26.420 of our benefactors, she called me up on a Saturday morning. She was surprised that I answered the phone.

00:17:32.800 And she said, I was wondering if we could give a donation, but if it could honor St. Joseph.

00:17:41.680 And I said, I know our missionaries, and I know none of them will say no to that. She said, but we

00:17:48.780 wanted, you know, some kind of plaque or something that says that this was built in honor of St.

00:17:54.220 Joseph. And I said, absolutely. So I contacted Father Samuel, and I said, this woman would like

00:18:00.060 a well to be built. And it was funny, because when I was chatting with her on the phone,

00:18:06.060 she said, I was reading your newsletter. And, and I noticed that you've built a water well,

00:18:11.260 how much does that cost? And I said, around 5000 Canadian dollars, depending on which country.

00:18:18.080 And she said, and it was silence, actually. And then she said, that's the exact amount that I had

00:18:24.740 promised to St. Joseph. So that was like, there's all these little God moments that happen with this

00:18:30.760 charity, of course. And so I called Father Samuel, and he said, absolutely, absolutely. And so in the

00:18:38.440 last two years, we've had several anonymous donors who have read about, you know, a well to St.

00:18:45.200 Joseph. And we have now, I think there's, we're just finishing off the fifth well, the Holy Spirit,

00:18:50.960 right? We rely on divine providence, and that's the Holy Spirit, speaking to the hearts of our

00:18:56.040 benefactors, and, and responding. On this feast of the North American martyrs, I think it's a perfect

00:19:03.620 day for people to expend a little something to go to lifefinder.com to support Silent Children's

00:19:10.420 Mission. In the great example of the North American martyrs, they gave of themselves all

00:19:14.960 French professors who came to Canada and Northern United States in order to evangelize here, to give

00:19:22.780 of themselves to the Huron Indians. And it was such a beautiful thing. And they were martyred for doing

00:19:29.980 it, but they suffered joyfully in order to serve their brothers and sisters here. Thank you, Frankie,

00:19:35.780 for, for your mission and for the great work of Silent Children's Mission.

00:19:39.840 Thank you so much for the opportunity to share what we're doing and, and what, you know, Joan and

00:19:46.380 Andrew had intended and the, the, on the inspiration of Mother Teresa. So thank you so much.

00:19:53.100 Thank you. And what's your website so people can go and check it out?

00:19:55.800 www.silentchildrensmission.com.

00:20:00.400 Beautiful. Thank you so much. And God bless you.

00:20:03.100 God bless you.

00:20:04.200 And God bless all of you. We'll see you next time.

00:20:06.800 Hi, everyone. This is John Henry Weston. We hope you enjoyed this video. And to see more like this,

00:20:14.140 be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from LifeSite News.

00:20:19.400 So check out our links in the description to read more, sign up for our newsletter,

00:20:23.660 and connect with us on social media so that you can stay up to date with all of the latest life,

00:20:29.200 family, and culture news. Thanks for watching, and may God bless you.

00:20:36.800 Bye.

The John-Henry Westen Show - November 23, 2022

The Poor Have a Name. Silent Children's Mission is Dedicated to Serving Them

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript