Covadonga (Cova) Orejas is a member of the Carmelite Charity Sisters of Vedruna. Originally from Spain, she is now a member of the African Province. She is in charge of child protection programs in Togo and Gabon, West Africa. Orejas has been working in child protection and Justice and Peace commissions in these countries since 2005 and in collaboration with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Laine refugee camp (2002-2005) during the Liberian civil war and Ivory Coast conflict. She also worked in Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009. Orejas has collaborated with UNANIMA International (a non-governmental organization of women religious that advocates at the United Nations) to bring a Togolese girl to the U.N.; she represented UNANIMA at a U.N. Executive Committee in Geneva; and facilitated the presentation of an alternative report on child protection by Arc en Ciel at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva in 2016.
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Enslaved children: Sisters work for their freedom
In the West African countries of Gabon and Togo I have watched Sisters Rita, Julienne, Lucie, Clarisse, Gaby and Elisabeth get up each morning with one goal: to offer children an alternative life and to protect the most vulnerable.
Lessons from refugees
Sr. Cova Orejas, a Carmelite Sister of Charity, Vedruna, spent three years Lainé refugee camp in southeastern Guinea, where knowing refugee women, her teachers, was a gift from God.