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A group of women gathers with Sisters Ruth and Mimi
in front of Casa Ursulina. |
Friday, June 12, was an exciting day at Casa Ursulina, as the long awaited response from the Raskob Foundation finally arrived. The news was positive: Casa Ursulina will receive an outright grant of $12,000 for a much needed remodeling and expansion project.
The grant request, filed December 2008, requests funds for demolishing a dilapidated part of the house, mostly used for storage, and replacing it with a room for classes and workshops. In particular, the growth of our spinning, weaving, and felting programs over the past three years makes this expansion crucial.
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| This photo shows the west side of the house, with the area to replaced at center left. This is the last "shack" remaining of several once attached to the house. The building behind the house is now used for weaving and needlework classes, all of which have outgrown it. Also visible (center, above) is the partial second floor that serves as the sisters' living quarters. The Raskob grant will allow expansion of this area into living quarters for volunteers. |
Enrollment at Casa Ursulina has grown to almost 200 women in classes, workshops, and other activities that assist them in developing their talents in order to help support themselves and their families. There's a healthy mix among the participants: some women have been coming for many years, while every year there are new and eager members of the Casa Ursulina community.
“Sometimes it’s almost standing room only in our classes,” says Casa Ursulina director Sister Mary Elizabeth (Mimi) Ballard. “Building this new classroom will help us cut down our waiting lists and to accept more women.”
Besides the construction of the new classroom, the grant will fund a second floor addition over the classroom (to adjoin the present sisters' living area) to house bedrooms for volunteers from the United States. Since 2002, dedicated young women who are members of the volunteer program of the Sisters of the Humility of Mary of Villa María, Pa., have served 15-month terms working at Casa Ursulina and elsewhere in Chillán.
Moving the volunteers’ living area upstairs will make it possible to transform the downstairs bedroom area into office and work spaces and to create a storage area for materials and equipment, such as looms, spinning wheels, and sewing machines.
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Sister Mimi (standing) talks with a needlework group meeting
in the Casa Ursulina kitchen, which currently serves as an
all- purpose room. For exercise classes, also held here, furniture
is carried outside to create the space needed. Expansion will
help to alleviate some of this congestion. |
Construction will begin in December, the beginning of summer in Chile.
This will not be the first expansion of the house. Since Sister Mimi and seven Chilean women founded Casa Ursulina in 1997 in a tiny house in this poor area of Chillán, the house has been enlarged several times, thanks to grants and many generous donors.
Primarily, the Raskob grant will fund construction. To complete the project, Casa Ursulina continues to seek funds for furnishings, equipment, and much needed storage facilities.
Sister Mimi and Sister Ruth Gehres, who has served at Casa Ursulina for the past two years, along with the women of the Casa Ursulina community, are deeply grateful to the Raskob Foundation for its support of this important ministry.
The Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, Inc., based in Wilmington, Del., is an independent private Catholic family foundation which makes grants and loans worldwide for projects and programs associated with the Catholic Church.
