With Hand and Heart: My Life for Africa
Händler, Raphaela & Prasske, Bruni
April 2014
250 pages, with numerous illustrations
250 pages, with numerous illustrations
With Hand and Heart: My Life for Africa
Energy through trust in God Fascinated by the life of Albert Schweitzer, Raphaela Händler has only one goal: to be a doctor in Africa. Trusting in God to show her the way, she begins her medical studies in the Order of Saint Benedict missionaries. With this radical step she leaves her old life behind. In 1969, she is sent to Tanzania. As a gynaecologist, Sister Raphaela brings thousands of children into the world, and as a pioneer goes to meet bush doctors and traditional midwives. The disease AIDS has her facing new challenges that go far beyond medicine. In a wise and cheerful manner, the dynamic nun tells us about hopeful success stories, but also painful periods of loneliness and exclusion. Her path inspires us to follow our own dreams and to have faith in life.
Sister Raphaela Händler, born in 1940 near Münster, Germany, studied medicine and joined the monastery in 1962. In 1969, she was sent to Tanzania, and in 1996 to Namibia, where she founded Catholic Aids Action, the largest non-government programme fighting AIDS. She has been living in Ndanda, Tanzania, since 2005.
Bruni Prasske, born in 1960, studied intercultural pedagogy and worked with asylum seekers as a social worker. She has learned exotic languages and has travelled the world, which also led to her travel report May Your Hands Never Hurt. The writer lives near the River Elbe.
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