In 1991, the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (SFIC) started adult literacy classes for communities of indigenous people in the mountain villages of Subic, Philippines, and now run a school for the younger generations. Their mission is to empower people of the Aeta tribes to live as equals with the rest of the community, not second-class citizens. Founder and overall coordinator SFIC Sr. Mary Francis Borje: “Our boarding school aims to help them preserve their culture."

Sr. Mary Evelyn Jegen, one of the co-founders of Pax Christi USA and the group's first national coordinator, died July 4 after a long illness. She was 86. In 1982, she became the third recipient of Pax Christi USA's Pope John XXIII Teacher of Peace Award.

Sr. Mary Germina Keneema is the executive secretary for the Social Communications Commission of the Archdiocese of Mbarara in southwestern Uganda and in June was appointed by the African Sisters Education Collaborative to be assistant coordinator for its leadership program in that country. She now coordinates the courses sponsored by the collaborative, recruits sisters to attend them and oversees finances.

I believe my community (Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration) is called to continue the tradition of being healers, but my sense is that our religious vocation ought to compel us to serve in new and unique ways, ways which are particular to the needs of now. At Integrative Therapies, for example, Sr. Eileen McKenzie works to make acupuncture affordable and accessible to all, regardless of income.

GSR Today - When we were working on designing Global Sisters Report, we had several conversations about how people access information in 2014. Surprisingly many of our conversations revolved around the reality that more and more people around the world are connected to one another through mobile devices – increasingly more so than through computers or traditional telephones.

I was born in Nairobi but was raised in a little-known rural village of Kiptangwanyi in Nakuru County, Kenya. Though relatively poor, the environment shaped the person I am today. Several people have influenced my life in significant ways, including my family, teachers and peers, but I especially cherish the impact my parents had on me. You never know where the circumstances of life will lead you.

GSR Today - In the weeks since I first reported on a group of Iraqi Dominican sisters refusing to leave Mosul after an ISIL takeover, the situation has taken a drastic turn. According to emails I’ve received from Iraq, the sisters left Mosul in late June after a particularly violent interaction between ISIL – the Islamist group also known as ISIS – and the Kurdish militia known as the Peshmerga.

Commentary - As we see citizens of Murrieta, Calif., turning back buses of women and children headed for a federal processing center, a day after Mayor Alan Long told them to let the government know they opposed its decision to move recent undocumented immigrants to the local Border Patrol station, we now await a moral conscience moment in the welcoming of children and others escaping the violence in Central America.