Social Action:

The Santa Susanna St. Nicholas Charity Serata is the annual fundraising event held each year as a part of our community’s commitment for outreach to the poor, the ill, the refugee, the aged and the homeless of Rome. While it is often difficult for members of our community to volunteer time to the various charities of Rome due to language differences, the entire community can participate in the event to raise money for these important organizations. Each year, as close as possible to the feast of St. Nicholas, the Patron Saint of the Poor and Homeless, a gala dinner dance, raffle and silent auction are held. Over the last several years, the great success of this event has come from the commitment, creativity and energy of the members of our community. And we continue to need everyone’s involvement.

The 2010 St. Nicholas Charity Serata is Saturday, December 4th, 2010. This parish-sponsored Roman charity fund-raising event takes place at Marymount International School, from 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM. The entire proceeds of this event go directly to our nine charities.

Who are the recipients of the proceeds from the St. Nicholas Serata? The Centro Astalli Refugee Center, which operates dormitories for men, women and children, serves dinner every night and provides a health clinic, Italian language school and social counseling (including job and house search, and legal aid) The Casa Famiglia Villa del Pino in Monte Porzio Catone which houses and cares for men who have AIDS and who have been rejected by their families and local communities and have nowhere to go. Archè is an organization which works with children who are HIV positive or who have AIDS, and helps their families as well. More than 600 volunteers, trained by qualified doctors, psychologists and social workers, help with home and hospital care, a residential home for mothers and children, family support, school support, prevention projects and sensitization in schools and counseling.

The Joel Nafuma Refugee Centre is just down the street at St. Paul’s Within-the-Walls Episcopal Church on Via Nazionale and Via Napoli. This is a wonderful place that serves refugees every single day and offers job assistance, information and a place to rest and talk. We have always had a very special connection with this Centre and work hard to keep it going. The Missionaries of Charity provide a home for the homeless – men and women are housed and fed twice a day and cared for on a daily basis. This includes a home for single mothers and care for their babies when they work. Caritas (the Vicariato di Roma) reaches all nationalities and helps the homeless as well as the needy in local neighborhoods. Shelter, food, medical facilities and miscellaneous items are provided on a temporary basis until individuals, many of whom are refugees, are able to find their way.

The Istituto di San Giuseppe and Santa Teresa is located in beautiful Rocca di Papa and serves troubled children. Half of the children are Albanians, others Polish and the rest Italian. Education in local schools, as well as food, clothes and lodging are provided. The Di Liegro Foundation works hard to change the structures of society that limit the protection of human beings and collaborates with the public administration, private and volunteer organizations that operate within the field of solidarity and social politics. And finally, our St. Nicholas Fund, which helps individuals who come to the Church’s door with legitimate needs.

We are always looking for special gifts and services that can be auctioned off for this event and getting appreciate any donations.

LENT 2010

Every Lent, Churches Together In Rome (of which Santa Susanna is a member) invite each of us to give up just one meal per week during the season of Lent and donate the money we save to the Rice Bowl Appeal. This year, we are supporting an orphanage in the Philippines. Rice Bowl 2010 will respond to the needs of the Saints Joseph Orphanage in Roxas City, Capiz (named after St. Joseph the Worker and St. Joseph Cottolengo of Turin), which serves young girls from newborns to 18 years of age, who are abused, neglected, orphaned or abandoned, as well as young girls in poor homes nearby. Programs and services include 24 hour residential home care, case management, formal and non-formal education, counselling, legal, and socio-cultural activities, an outreach program to poor families and a food program, prepared by the older girls (and local high school volunteers), as an outreach to their classmates at six local schools, a prison and a Home for the Aged. The Orphanage is run by the Rosarian Dominican Sisters. Churches Together in Rome invite you to give up just one meal per week during the season of Lent and donate the money you save to the Rice Bowl Appeal. There are cardboard rice bowl giving boxes that you can take home as a reminder and there are information sheets available in the vestibule.

We also invite everyone to join us for the Rice Bowl Walk on Palm Sunday, March 28. Here is your chance to take an active role in raising funds for our Rice Bowl Project in the Philippines. Join us for this walk or sponsor someone who is walking. Starting in Villa Ada (Piazzale A. Spinelli) near the entrance on Via Salaria (height Via Nera), we plan to set a round of 3 km that you can walk as often as you like. Look for the St. Andrew’s of Scotland Flag! Sponsor forms and specific directions can be found at the Visitors Desk. The walk begins at 2:00 PM. Bring your picnic lunch!

Also, we will continue our Collection of food for the poor through Palm Sunday, March 28. We have specific requests: packages of rice or pasta, and canned vegetables, fruit and tomato sauce. That is what is needed. We cannot accept clothes, as we have no space, and we kindly ask that you not use this opportunity to clean out your pantry. There will be baskets in the vestibule, and the food will be delivered during the week to St. Andrew’s Church of Scotland for their work in feeding refugees and the poor in our area. Thank you for your continued generosity and ongoing participation in all of these projects.