President General of SSVP International visits Malaysia

Renato Lima de Oliveira, the President General of the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SSVP) International was in Malaysia recently for a visit to gauge the activities of the SSVP Malaysia and to enhance the brotherhood with the local Vincentians.

Mar 24, 2017

By Bernard Anthony
Renato Lima de Oliveira, the President General of the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SSVP) International was in Malaysia recently for a visit to gauge the activities of the SSVP Malaysia and to enhance the brotherhood with the local Vincentians.

Renato, 46, from Brazil, was accompanied by SSVP Officials Terry Brown from UK, Kathryn Weswick from Canada, Thomas Tan from Singapore and Karl Michael Hila from the Philippines.

Upon their arrival on March 12, the local SSVP Officials met Renato and team and feted them to a dinner in Petaling Jaya where the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Joseph Marino and Archbishop Julian Leow attended. SSVP National President, Watson Peters was also present.

Renato also visited Rumah Ozanam in Batu Arang, Selangor and the Second Chance Community Home in Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur.

He attended two meetings here to get to know how far the Vincentians have progressed in their mission to help the marginalised and the poor.

At the end of his visit on March 15, Renato, with his team and local SSVP Officials, visited the Pusat Dialisis NKF- Good Health in Kg Pandan. On hand to welcome him was S Perry, SSVP President of the Conference of the Sacred Heart and Chua Hong Wee, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation Malaysia (NKF) and SSVP National Treasurer, Dunstan Dominic.

The dialysis centre was blessed and opened in September 2010 by Archbishop Murphy Pakiam. The centre is wholly owned by the SSVP Conference of the Sacred Heart (under the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). NKF manages and runs the said Dialysis Centre.

Perry gave a briefing on how the Dialysis Centre was setup. The centre has 18 hemodialysis machines; and other equipment and facilities.

Today, the dialysis centre provides assistance and support to 92 kidney patients who need 13 sessions of dialysis treatment per month.

Renato and SSVP Officials were taken on a tour of the double storey dialysis centre where he met several patients.

Perry said all the patients are the hardcore poor, the self-employed, the unemployed and retirees staying around the vicinity.

Chua said the actual cost per session is RM160. NKF pays RM70.00 and RM50.00 is by government subsidy. The patient pays only RM40.00 per session. Perry, however, said that if any patient could not effort to pay, the Conference will assist.

After lunch at Archbishop Emeritus Pakiam’s residence, Renato and Archbishop Emeritus Pakiam had a meeting. Renato highlighted how a Diocesan priest introduced him to SSVP at the age of 16 years. As a Vincentian, thirty years later, Renato was elected as the XVI International President of SSVP and took office on September 9, 2016, for a sixyear term.

Renato said that, in Brazil alone, there are 180,000 SSVP members, half of whom are young Catholics. There, the Society, in partnership with the Church, takes the Confirmation students (who are given materials to read about the activities of SSVP) into the mission. They visit homes, where the students encounter the poor. It has been a great success, highlighted Renato, because many of them join the Society.

Today, the SSVP serves 30 million poor people in the world. They have 800,000 members worldwide, from 151 countries. In Malaysia, there are currently 780 SSVP members in 63 Conferences.

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