President James Michel has met with the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta, Sister Mary Prema Pierick, and a delegation of sisters. Sister Mary is currently visiting seventeen communities of the Missionaries of Charity in the Indian Ocean and Southern African region, having been recently to Madagascar and Mauritius.

" I would like to congratulate the Missionaries of Charity for the 30th anniversary since the establishment of their mission in Seychelles.  On behalf of the people of Seychelles, I would like to express our gratitude and thanks for the work of the sisters in the community, with children, with the elderly and infirmed, in the orphanages as well as in education," said President Michel.

The President and the Superior General spoke about the work of the Missionaries of Charity in Africa, as well as the islands of the Indian Ocean. The religious order, which was founded the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1950 in India, was first established in Seychelles on the 10th of July 1983. The Blessed Mother Teresa visited Seychelles in 1984.

Mr. Michel recalled that he met the Blessed Mother Teresa in Calcutta in 1991, during a visit to India, and the importance of her legacy in Seychelles.

Sister Mary continues her journey tomorrow, as she travels to South Africa.

Editor's Note

•Sister Mary Prema Pierick, M.C., was born Mechthild Pierick on 13 May 1953, in a farming community in Reken, Germany. In 1980, after reading the biography of Mother Teresa, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge, she went to meet Mother Teresa in Berlin. She felt called to join her work and moved to India to join the Missionaries. Pierick eventually became the Regional Superior of the institute for the Sisters in Europe. She succeeded Sister Nirmala Joshi as Superior General on 24 March 2009, heading an institute which had over 5,000 members worldwide at that time.

•Mother Teresa was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Recognised and honoured around the world, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.