Our Mission Statement
St. Therese of the Little Flower World Mission, Inc. (STLFWM) supports Catholic missionary work in Africa by funding projects that serve orphaned and impoverished children.
These missionary projects are carried out by the Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Catholic Diocese in Bukoba, Tanzania. In addition, STLFWM supports the elderly
St. Therese Sisters, who devoted their lives to serving these children,
by helping to cover their basic living expenses.
These missionary projects are carried out by the Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Catholic Diocese in Bukoba, Tanzania. In addition, STLFWM supports the elderly
St. Therese Sisters, who devoted their lives to serving these children,
by helping to cover their basic living expenses.
Divine Mercy Girls Seminary (DMGS)
Tanzania, Africa
A Catholic Secondary Boarding School for Girls Founded in 2014
There is an urgent need to educate and empower girls in Tanzania, where many families depend on agriculture and live in rural communities. For many girls, continuing education beyond elementary school is not possible, as most secondary schools are located in urban areas and lack safe, affordable boarding options.
The Divine Mercy Girls Seminary (DMGS) addresses this critical need by providing a high-quality Catholic secondary education alongside safe boarding for girls.
At DMGS, students are free to discern their own vocational paths -- whether to religious life as a Sister or to a non-religious profession. Through a strong academic program rooted in spiritual formation, DMGS empowers young women with the knowledge, confidence, and faith to break the cycle of poverty and become leaders within their families and communities. To read more, click below:
The Divine Mercy Girls Seminary (DMGS) addresses this critical need by providing a high-quality Catholic secondary education alongside safe boarding for girls.
At DMGS, students are free to discern their own vocational paths -- whether to religious life as a Sister or to a non-religious profession. Through a strong academic program rooted in spiritual formation, DMGS empowers young women with the knowledge, confidence, and faith to break the cycle of poverty and become leaders within their families and communities. To read more, click below:
DIVINE MERCY GIRLS SEMINARY CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
New Dorm Construction Update
The original dormitory at Divine Mercy Girls Seminary could no longer meet the needs of its students. Built in the early 1960s to house just 60 students, the aging structure was accommodating 175 girls and had deteriorated beyond repair. To address this urgent need, plans were developed for a new dormitory capable of housing up to 600 students, ensuring a safe and dignified living environment.
In March 2023, the original dormitory was demolished, and construction of the new dormitory began. By 2024, the exterior structure was completed, marking a major milestone in the project.
Phase Two of construction focuses on completing the interior of the building, including electrical and plumbing systems, windows, doors, fixtures, painting, and flooring. In 2025, interior work on the ground floor was completed.
On July 19, 2025, students joyfully moved from temporary hostel housing into the new dormitory, an important and long-awaited moment for both the girls and the Sisters who serve them.
Interior work on the second floor is currently underway. To complete the remaining interior construction on the third floor and fully finish the dormitory, an additional $231,700 is needed. Your support will help provide a safe, dignified, and permanent home for generations of students at Divine Mercy Girls Seminary.
In March 2023, the original dormitory was demolished, and construction of the new dormitory began. By 2024, the exterior structure was completed, marking a major milestone in the project.
Phase Two of construction focuses on completing the interior of the building, including electrical and plumbing systems, windows, doors, fixtures, painting, and flooring. In 2025, interior work on the ground floor was completed.
On July 19, 2025, students joyfully moved from temporary hostel housing into the new dormitory, an important and long-awaited moment for both the girls and the Sisters who serve them.
Interior work on the second floor is currently underway. To complete the remaining interior construction on the third floor and fully finish the dormitory, an additional $231,700 is needed. Your support will help provide a safe, dignified, and permanent home for generations of students at Divine Mercy Girls Seminary.
St. Therese of the Little Flower Orphanage (STLFO)
Burundi, Africa
2007
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2025
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Two milestones this year marked the completion of the St. Thérèse of the Little Flower Orphanage and Child Sponsorship Program (2006–2025), a twenty-year journey sustained by the devoted service of the St. Thérèse Sisters and the extraordinary generosity of our donors. This year, our final two children departed the orphanage: one graduated from college, and the other, who has special needs, was lovingly welcomed into her brother’s home.
This mission began when the Sisters opened their hearts and home to 49 children in response to the genocide in Burundi, and sponsors lovingly shared in providing for the children’s care and education. Today, we rejoice in seeing these children grown, educated, and living independent lives rooted in the Catholic faith. They were given what matters most, and they have become a blessing in the world.
Thank you, dear donors, for your love, prayers, and countless gifts offered for the children and the Sisters throughout the years. And heartfelt gratitude to the St. Thérèse Sisters for your many years of faithful, tender, and unwavering service. We are forever grateful to each of you! To read more click below:
This mission began when the Sisters opened their hearts and home to 49 children in response to the genocide in Burundi, and sponsors lovingly shared in providing for the children’s care and education. Today, we rejoice in seeing these children grown, educated, and living independent lives rooted in the Catholic faith. They were given what matters most, and they have become a blessing in the world.
Thank you, dear donors, for your love, prayers, and countless gifts offered for the children and the Sisters throughout the years. And heartfelt gratitude to the St. Thérèse Sisters for your many years of faithful, tender, and unwavering service. We are forever grateful to each of you! To read more click below:
A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO OUR DONORS
Now that our final child has graduated, we have begun writing a book to preserve the voices and experiences of our alumni, the Sisters, and the sponsors who have accompanied them. This collection will celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of the children since the orphanage’s founding in 1996 and chronicle the journey our sponsorship program has taken since 2006. We are excited to share with you a special excerpt from the book’s Prologue,
“A Light in Gasorwe.”
Our hope is that this book not only honors the past but also guides our mission forward and inspires future donors to support the ongoing work of STLFWM. If you have a story, memory, or perspective you would like to share for possible inclusion, we would be honored to receive it at [email protected]. Thank you, as always, for the generosity and love you have poured into this community. This project exists because of you, and we remain deeply grateful.
“A Light in Gasorwe.”
Our hope is that this book not only honors the past but also guides our mission forward and inspires future donors to support the ongoing work of STLFWM. If you have a story, memory, or perspective you would like to share for possible inclusion, we would be honored to receive it at [email protected]. Thank you, as always, for the generosity and love you have poured into this community. This project exists because of you, and we remain deeply grateful.
Prologue, "A Light in Gasorwe"
Every great love story begins with a moment of recognition - not romance, not sentimentality, but something deeper: the quiet understanding that another life matters.
This book is a love story.
It is the story of the Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who opened their convent doors in Gasorwe, Burundi during a time of profound national suffering. It is the story of children who arrived emotionally scarred, hungry, sick, or abandoned, and who found not only shelter, but a place to heal. It is the story of sponsors living half a world away, who chose to care for children they had never met, and in doing so became part of an international family.
At its heart, this is a story about healing love, the kind of love that grows slowly and strengthens over time, the kind that repairs what was broken, the kind that builds a home on hope.
When the Sisters of St. Therese first welcomed children in the late 1990s, Burundi was still trembling from years of civil conflict. Many of the children had lost parents; others were brought by relatives too overwhelmed to provide for them; still others came from families marked by illness, poverty, or displacement. Some children arrived severely malnourished. Others arrived too young to remember the day at all. Many stepped onto the convent grounds in silence, unsure of what to expect.
What unfolded in the years after their arrival, the slow work of healing, learning, and becoming a family, is the story held within these pages. It is the story of Sisters who chose to love as mothers, sharing their lives in service: waking before dawn to prepare porridge, tending to fevers, washing clothes, teaching prayers, walking children to school, and cultivating a home where discipline and affection belonged together. As Sister Pudentiana Kirungo Mushumbusi, STH has said, reflecting on her vocation: “Our mission is to be close to the most vulnerable, to educate, to heal, and to be instruments of God’s tenderness.”
It is the story of children who learned to trust again, through shared meals, through studying at wooden desks, through chores done side by side, through soccer games played until dusk, through Saturday gatherings devoted to prayer, forgiveness, and reconciliation, through songs lifted in the chapel. Healing came not all at once, but through the ordinary rhythm of days lived in community.
It is the story of sponsors whose generosity stretched across continents: letters sent, photographs exchanged, school fees paid, mattresses, books, and uniforms delivered, iron sheets for new homes purchased, and, most importantly, the conviction held that each child’s life was precious.
It is the story of what happened next: children growing into adults, becoming farmers, engineers, teachers, seamstresses, business owners, police officers, mechanics, artists, entrepreneurs, community leaders, spouses, and parents. Some settled in Gasorwe; others moved to cities across Burundi; still others forged new lives in Rwanda, Tanzania, or beyond. All carried with them the imprint of the love they received.
This collection of voices (the alumni, the Sisters, the sponsors) is not meant only to remember the past. It is a testament that love, when given freely and consistently, creates ripples that extend through generations. It is a reminder that healing is possible even after great suffering. It is a call to continue the mission that began on a small hill in Gasorwe nearly three decades ago.
We begin this book with gratitude, for the children who shared their stories, for the Sisters who gave their lives in service, for the donors whose compassion sustained the mission, and for God, who has blessed and continues to bless us consistently, tenderly, and abundantly.
These pages are a celebration, a witness, and a promise.
May the story you are about to read bless you. May it remind you that goodness endures, that love never fails. And may it inspire you, as it has inspired all of us who have been part of this journey, to continue the healing work begun by St. Therese of the Little Flower.
© 2025 Katherine Sogolow. All rights reserved. Excerpt from the author’s forthcoming book.
This book is a love story.
It is the story of the Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who opened their convent doors in Gasorwe, Burundi during a time of profound national suffering. It is the story of children who arrived emotionally scarred, hungry, sick, or abandoned, and who found not only shelter, but a place to heal. It is the story of sponsors living half a world away, who chose to care for children they had never met, and in doing so became part of an international family.
At its heart, this is a story about healing love, the kind of love that grows slowly and strengthens over time, the kind that repairs what was broken, the kind that builds a home on hope.
When the Sisters of St. Therese first welcomed children in the late 1990s, Burundi was still trembling from years of civil conflict. Many of the children had lost parents; others were brought by relatives too overwhelmed to provide for them; still others came from families marked by illness, poverty, or displacement. Some children arrived severely malnourished. Others arrived too young to remember the day at all. Many stepped onto the convent grounds in silence, unsure of what to expect.
What unfolded in the years after their arrival, the slow work of healing, learning, and becoming a family, is the story held within these pages. It is the story of Sisters who chose to love as mothers, sharing their lives in service: waking before dawn to prepare porridge, tending to fevers, washing clothes, teaching prayers, walking children to school, and cultivating a home where discipline and affection belonged together. As Sister Pudentiana Kirungo Mushumbusi, STH has said, reflecting on her vocation: “Our mission is to be close to the most vulnerable, to educate, to heal, and to be instruments of God’s tenderness.”
It is the story of children who learned to trust again, through shared meals, through studying at wooden desks, through chores done side by side, through soccer games played until dusk, through Saturday gatherings devoted to prayer, forgiveness, and reconciliation, through songs lifted in the chapel. Healing came not all at once, but through the ordinary rhythm of days lived in community.
It is the story of sponsors whose generosity stretched across continents: letters sent, photographs exchanged, school fees paid, mattresses, books, and uniforms delivered, iron sheets for new homes purchased, and, most importantly, the conviction held that each child’s life was precious.
It is the story of what happened next: children growing into adults, becoming farmers, engineers, teachers, seamstresses, business owners, police officers, mechanics, artists, entrepreneurs, community leaders, spouses, and parents. Some settled in Gasorwe; others moved to cities across Burundi; still others forged new lives in Rwanda, Tanzania, or beyond. All carried with them the imprint of the love they received.
This collection of voices (the alumni, the Sisters, the sponsors) is not meant only to remember the past. It is a testament that love, when given freely and consistently, creates ripples that extend through generations. It is a reminder that healing is possible even after great suffering. It is a call to continue the mission that began on a small hill in Gasorwe nearly three decades ago.
We begin this book with gratitude, for the children who shared their stories, for the Sisters who gave their lives in service, for the donors whose compassion sustained the mission, and for God, who has blessed and continues to bless us consistently, tenderly, and abundantly.
These pages are a celebration, a witness, and a promise.
May the story you are about to read bless you. May it remind you that goodness endures, that love never fails. And may it inspire you, as it has inspired all of us who have been part of this journey, to continue the healing work begun by St. Therese of the Little Flower.
© 2025 Katherine Sogolow. All rights reserved. Excerpt from the author’s forthcoming book.
Retired St. Therese Sisters Sponsorship Program
Sponsors Needed
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The Retired St. Thérèse Sisters Sponsorship Program, established in 2023, was created to help cover the living expenses of our elderly Sisters. These Sisters have devoted their lives to caring for the poor and vulnerable and bringing Christ’s love to those most in need. It is our hope that, in their later years, they may receive the care and support necessary to live with dignity.
Additional sponsors are currently needed. As a sponsor, you will receive annually a personal profile, photograph, and handwritten letter from your sponsored St. Thérèse Sister. Through this shared friendship, including prayers and support, both your life and hers will be enriched. A Retired St. Thérèse Sister Sponsorship is $700 per year or $350 per half-year.
For more information click below:
Additional sponsors are currently needed. As a sponsor, you will receive annually a personal profile, photograph, and handwritten letter from your sponsored St. Thérèse Sister. Through this shared friendship, including prayers and support, both your life and hers will be enriched. A Retired St. Thérèse Sister Sponsorship is $700 per year or $350 per half-year.
For more information click below:
REMINDER TO OUR DONORS
Dear Donors,
Please email or mail your letter/photo for your sponsored student or retired Sister no later than May 30th each year. This deadline will help insure that your message is received in a timely manner. Thank you and God bless!
The STLFWM Team
Dear Donors,
Please email or mail your letter/photo for your sponsored student or retired Sister no later than May 30th each year. This deadline will help insure that your message is received in a timely manner. Thank you and God bless!
The STLFWM Team
A Message of Gratitude to Our Donors
St. Thérèse of the Little Flower World Mission is deeply grateful for the generosity of our donors. Through partnership with the Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, your support directly impacts the lives of impoverished children by providing education and spiritual formation within a loving, faith-filled environment.
Your gift brings hope for a brighter future, one that includes the opportunity to live with dignity and independence. With love and gratitude, the students, the St. Thérèse Sisters, and all of us at STLFWM keep you in our hearts and prayers.
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A Message from
Sr. Pudentiana Kirungo Mushumbusi, STH "The world should know that we are all one in God and we need to support each other on the journey. Amen." Sr. Pudentiana Kirungo Mushumbusi, STH Watch her interview below: |
What does your sponsorship mean to a child?
"My sponsor chose me and cares about me."
"I will work hard in school for my sponsor."
"My sponsor prays for me."
"I want to make my sponsor proud of my accomplishments."
St. Therese of the Little Flower
"Remember, that nothing
is small in the eyes of God.
Do all that you do with love."
St. Therese of Lisieux
is small in the eyes of God.
Do all that you do with love."
St. Therese of Lisieux