Communication issued by the Vincentian Family Nigeria at their Annual General Meeting held in Benin City from February 25-28, 2016.

The annual meeting of the Vincentian Family in Nigeria was held at Our Lady of Apostles, Maryland, Lagos State, from February 25 to the 28, 2016.

The Vincentian Family in Nigeria is made up of:

1. Ladies of Charity (AIC)
2. Congregation of the Mission (CM)
3. Daughters of Charity (DC)
4. Association of the Miraculous Medal (AMM)
5. Society of St. Vincent De Paul (SSVP)
6. Vincentian Marian youth (VMY)

The leadership of the various arms of the family were present and others were represented.

The meeting had 80 persons in attendance.

The meeting had as its theme: “Together in Christ, we Vincentians make a difference.”

The meeting was constisted of two sessions. The first session was the Family General Meeting while the second session was Workshop.

At the end of the workshop facilitated by Rev. Fr. Manuel Ginete, CM a Philippian on mission in South Sudan, we acquired knowledge on better collaboration amongst all the arms of the Vincentian Family, and how to give quality services to the poor together.

The Vincentian Family in Nigeria agreed that many forms of poverty in Nigeria today call for working together of all arms of the Family, and this collaboration affords the unique opportunity of putting together our resources to better serve “our lords and masters.” There is need for more innovative ways to engage all branches of the Vincentian Family to work together on specific areas of intervention especially during this jubilee year of mercy. We therefore resolved to work together for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) spread across Bornu, Yobe, Benue, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau, Adamawa and Taraba States.

We the Vincentian Family have also agreed to do a collaborative project in this direction, hence a committee has been set up to gather resources that will enable us achieve these objectives and deliver materials to the affected persons.

The Family also called on Governments at all levels to tackle youth unemployment and other social injustices in our country which are some of the causes of restiveness among the youth.

We also commend the on-going fight against corruption and call for an all-inclusive war; while the institutions of state responsible for this fight should be strengthened to be more effective.

The Family in this gathering also held an election which all our former executives were returned unopposed.

The Vincentian Family thanked the Lord for His mercy before, during and after this meeting. We pray He will bless all the Vincentian Family in Nigeria and give us the grace to achieve all we have planned for better service of the poor. Amen.

St. Vincent De Paul – Pray for us!

Very Rev. Fr. Cyril Mbata, National President
Barr. Sylvester Ojubiaja, Executive Secretary