{"id":3553,"date":"2024-12-02T23:19:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T23:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=3553"},"modified":"2025-12-31T15:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:19:23","slug":"sharing-light-in-a-circle-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/sharing-light-in-a-circle-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing Light in a Circle of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Zimbabwe, Maryknoll Sister Chiyoung Pak<\/a> is known by a radiant name. \u201cAs I walk along the street, people greet me jovially, \u2018Sister Chiedza, how is it going?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cChiedza<\/em> is the Shona word for light and brightness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to tell from her sunny disposition, but Sister Pak\u2019s optimism has been sorely tested in this country of southern Africa<\/a>. The missioner had to persevere for two decades to find a home for her ministry to impoverished children and adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assigned to Zimbabwe in 1999, Sister Pak first spent a couple of years in Harare, the capital. She explored the city, practicing the Shona language and getting to know the capital\u2019s street children. One of them told her he came from a nearby township called Norton<\/a>. A township is an area where the black population had lived under apartheid before Rhodesia gained independence in 1980 as the new country of Zimbabwe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visiting Norton, about 25 miles west of Harare, Sister Pak saw that many children did not attend school. For those who did, sessions lasted only half the day. There were high numbers of orphans due to AIDS and displacement of families. The already overpopulated town was growing rapidly and had few services and little infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maryknoll
Maryknoll Sister Chiyoung Pak spent her first years in Zimbabwe in the capital city of Harare, where she began working with street children and promoting education. (Maryknoll Mission Archives\/Zimbabwe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018This is the place for me!\u2019\u201d Sister Pak recalls. In 2002, she moved there. The Norton Youth Center<\/a>, as it would later come to be called, began with 10 children simply doing arts and crafts. Sister Pak found the children eager to learn, she said at the time, \u201cin spite of the fact that they are poor and hungry and many don\u2019t have their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unable to find adequate rooms for a center, Sister Pak rented a schoolyard and divided it into separate spaces for activities. By 2008, she had enlisted the help of six Zimbabwean teachers. The Norton Youth Center was offering a variety of classes including theater, traditional and modern music, art, dance, sports, academic tutoring and HIV\/AIDS prevention and counseling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sister Pak \u2014 who had earned a black belt in Tae Kwan Do in Korea \u2014 also taught martial arts classes to foster discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2012 over 1,000 children ages 9 to 14 were attending classes daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in December of 2012, Sister Pak and the students and teachers of the Norton Youth Center received devastating news. The school principal had decided to no longer rent them the schoolyard. The children of Norton lost one of the few places in the community where they could strive for a better life. \u201cI can\u2019t forget the disappointed look on their faces when we closed our center,\u201d Sister Pak says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The first Norton Youth Center activities took place in a rented schoolyard, with children divided into groups for programs such as tutoring. (Maryknoll Mission Archives\/Zimbabwe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the missioner\u2019s dream suddenly seemed to come to a dead end, her faith renewed her hope. Born in Seoul, Korea, to Buddhist parents, Pak had become Catholic at the age of 12. Her parents were supportive, even when their daughter, at 30, joined the Maryknoll Sisters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sister Pak held fast to her goal. In 2014, still unsure about the future of her mission in Norton, she wrote, \u201cEach day, I try to grow in God\u2019s love and understand God\u2019s unconditional love. I have received so much love and care in Korea, and I will share all that love here in Zimbabwe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before losing the schoolyard space, Sister Pak had already begun the process of registering the project in Zimbabwe as a nongovernmental organization under the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare. Encouragement came in December of 2015 when the organization received official recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince our registration as an NGO we have been focused on community development programs,\u201d the missioner says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reassessing the changing needs in the growing community, Sister Pak expanded the project\u2018s age range. Some of the children she had worked with had grown into young adults. She invited participants up to 22 years of age for skills training. \u201cThe scarcity of jobs is very apparent,\u201d she says. \u201cThe majority of the youths who were coming to the center are still unemployed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also became concerned about the lack of training for older adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the 85% unemployment rate, there are currently no special programs tailored for this older age group, which is in dire need of job skills,\u201d Sister Pak says. After the COVID-19 lockdown was lifted, the Norton Center welcomed adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing space at the St. Padre Pio Poly Clinic, the project offered workshops in African bead jewelry, computer skills, and life skills and personal development for adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the arrangement with the clinic was not conducive to learning. Apart from one room, classes were still being held outdoors. Wind and rain often disrupted activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeptember 28, 2023 is a day I will never forget,\u201d Sister Pak says happily. \u201cAfter 16 years, we finally found a place, a block of five rooms to rent as our center!\u201d The building is a space students and staff can call their own. Although the rooms are small, she says, they manage by having double sessions each day. \u201cNow we are more focused on the quality of teaching, with four fully qualified professional teachers,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants are organized in two groups: youths ages 17 to 28 and older adults ages 29 to 65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 10 laptops, the center accommodates 10 students in morning sessions and another 10 in the afternoon. This is a favorite workshop for the youth, Sister Pak says, because there is no other place for them to learn computer skills for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Norton Center offers the only free computer classes for adults in the community. Ten laptops are shared in two sessions, serving 20 students. (Courtesy of Chiyoung Pak\/Zimbabwe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The African beads workshop also has 10 students in each session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking with adult women, the joy and excitement they bring as they learn to make jewelry has been a great source of motivation,\u201d says Olinda Makara, one of the teachers. She says she enjoys \u201cthe sense of pride and achievement I witness on their faces as they successfully finish their projects. It\u2019s an honor to continue working with the women, witnessing them proudly embracing themselves and others, forming new support systems, bonding and gaining confidence in themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sister Pak, 59, particularly enjoys working with women ages 40 to 65 in sessions about the challenges of midlife. She teaches them skills to help them deal with stress and anger, and offers them the opportunity to integrate any suffering from problems they have faced in their lives. It is \u201ca safe place to share, cry, laugh and have fun together, freely discussing and sharing their life experiences,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs new groups of women join the workshops, they bring new insights and energy,\u201d she continues. \u201cOur center has gained popularity since there is no other community development program operating here in Norton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missioner with the Shona name meaning light and brightness finds joy as she regards all that has been accomplished: \u201cI am grateful to witness students who came out of our children\u2019s center now rejoining our center as grown-up mothers and fathers, even grandparents, too. It is really a complete circle of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Featured Image: Maryknoll Sister Chiyoung Pak (first row, seventh from left) and members of the Norton Center in Zimbabwe have found a place to call home. (Courtesy of Chiyoung Pak\/Zimbabwe)<\/em>

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Maryknoll Sister Chiyoung Pak brings joy and hope to a poor area of Zimbabwe through the Norton Center she founded, serving youth and adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":3554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,25,43],"tags":[72,71,70,60,73,74,69,68,75,76,77,80,79,78,81],"class_list":["post-3553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-departments","category-featured-stories","category-winter-2025","tag-adults","tag-childrem","tag-korea","tag-maryknoll-magazine-winter-2025","tag-maryknoll-sister-chiyoung-pak","tag-maryknoll-sister-mary-ellen-manz","tag-midlife","tag-norton-center","tag-norton-youth-center","tag-older-adults","tag-shona","tag-tae-kwan-do","tag-township","tag-youth","tag-zimbabwe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSharing Light in a Circle of Life - 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