User:Gpogrowski/Sister Domingas Loureiro

Sister Domingas Loureiro was born into a Catholic family in the rural province Kuanza North in Angola West Africa. At the age of 6 she moved to Luanda to live with her aunt. She studied in Luanda until the 4th grade, at which time she returned to her homeland and met Sister Fernanda Reis and began her journey toward becoming a missionary.

She entered the Congregation of the Dominican Sistars of Santa Catarina de Sene in Luanda, based in the Church of Carmo on September 14th, 1981 to begin the formal process of becoming a missionary. She studied until 1986 and was given her first assignment in the community of Ndlantando in the Paroquia de San Joaa Batista. She worked in this community for 3 years and then fell very ill and was sent by the church to Portugal for treatment. It was in Portugal that her vision for education and the structure of her future schools was born. She saw boys and girls, rich and poor studying together and vowed to bring the format to Angola.

When she returned again to Angola, it was between wars and again she was spreading mission of hope and rebirth. She began literacy programs and began to gain confidence in her abilities and innate qualities, but as the Angolan Civil War escalated, it halted the project. She stayed on helping the needy during the next 2 years, but again fell into a severe depression and requested time to heal again and returned to Luanda for treatment. In the capital she encountered many dislocated peoples and began to organize efforts to help them to organize camps and shelters. She was determined to help the children become literate and she asked the congregation to build a school for the many children. She was granted funding by Songol and built a school, The School of Peace, with 22 classrooms, playing fields, a church, a medical clinic, and a home for the missionaries who worked there. She then received another grant for an expansion of the school.

August 23, 2002: she finally had the legal status for the Obra de Caridade de Crianca Santa Isabel. There were already 15 children in her mother’s house. She got additional funds from various sources and with an initial budget of 70,000 she began her work. There were 5 young girls who worked with her in the organization. In the beginning of 2003 she was granted more funding after visits showed great progress in her work.

They were given support by the Missionaries Salesianos de Dom Bosco and they helped her immensely. She later contacted her friends to come on the weekends and help train the young girls. She gained credibility as word of their work traveled. She eventually was working in 25 neighborhoods. She later built 4 schools. The 15 kids gradually grew to 50. She left the convent for a year and then had to ask the Vatican for time to continue her work.

In 2010, she was visited by Eliot Yamin and Kara DioGuardi of the American Idol charity program Idol Gives Back to begin work on a school based on funding from a donor.