Kasia Revisits After Many Years


Our first Mercy House volunteers were Comboni Lay Missionaries – Kasia Wawiernia from Poland and Amy Lou Anderson from the USA.  They came to us at the end of 2000 and left a huge footprint behind, being very enthusiastic and inventive. It did not take long before they became an integral part of our work. Amy started English classes for refugees while Kasia started a crèche to help refugee women who were forced to go out to work, but had to leave their children in safe care. In short, they assisted with anything and everything. Amy Lou returned to the USA after one year, while Kasia stayed about four years, before moving on to work for the United Nations, in Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and other African countries. Currently she is the head of the UN in Kazakstan in Eastern Europe.  By happy chance, she had to attend a conference in South Africa during November 2024, this providing a golden opportunity to visit us, much to our delight.  This happened on Saturday 23 November. We invited all reachable refugees who had known her during her stint with us.  It was a hugely enjoyable occasion, sitting catching up in the shade of our beautiful pergola. She even sent some of us to buy lunch for all from MacDonalds, which proved to be an extra joy – it was delicious.  We are so grateful that she made the effort to visit us.

The photos show her in 2001 with Simon Donnelly, at that time lecturing at Wits, Pascal from Sudan and Amy and the second photo was taken at her recent visit with Dr Bernard and Jean Chrysostom

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