In Ethiopia, despite the strong measures taken due to the pandemic, cases have been increasing every day and growing faster in the last couple of weeks.
In the cities and semi-urban areas, the main problem for the population is the drastic lack of income, since in many cases people work every day, either in small commerce in markets or in construction work, services, which during the pandemic have been reduced to an unprecedented minimum.

Many families are living from day to day, and now obtaining the necessary food has become a challenge.

Farmers, 80% of the Ethiopian population, have seen market trading activity reduced and the prices of all products they cannot produce gradually rising.
Since March, the supply of products of all kinds has been affected and prices are constantly rising. The livelihood of the rural population is their grain harvest, which they harvest from November to January, and those who have cows sell what little milk the zebu cows produce. But now the sale of milk is difficult, income is reduced and last year’s harvest is further and further away, so food in the houses is becoming more scarce than “normal”.

In Wuchale Woreda, in the Oromo Region, where MCSPA has been working since 2007, child malnutrition was already a reality before the pandemic. Twin births, women who are anaemic during pregnancy and poor nutrition mean that many babies do not receive adequate nutrition before the age of two, those thousand days that are so important for the physical and psychological development of the human being.

In view of the current situation, many families in the countryside express their great concern: how will they be able to cover their alimentary needs until the next harvest, which will not be until November?

Since 2011 MCSPA has been carrying out a program of digging artisan wells that supply 5 families with each well, for sanitation, consumption and planting of family gardens, adding vegetables to the family diet and with the possibility of harvesting food 3 times a year.

To support this situation of precariousness and distress, we have started planting potatoes, taking advantage of the rains that begin in June, so that families can harvest potatoes in September. During the rainy season, temperatures drop drastically and many children are affected by respiratory diseases, making good nutrition even more necessary.

Since May we have distributed 3,200 kg of seed potatoes to 320 families in 4 villages in the area of Muketuri, so that each family can produce 120 kg of potatoes for consumption in September. They will also be able to keep 10% of that production and plant in the next 10 years.

This activity does not solve all the problems but it does improve the diet of families in difficult times and it strengthens their self-confidence and ability to cope with adversity.
Rumours has spread and all the villages want to be able to plant potatoes, but funds are limited…

When we arrive in the villages a line of people is ready, all of them with bags to receive the potatoes and patiently greet us with blessings: “May God give you a long life.”

We hope that we can continue to share hope among the most needed, who with their gratitude and welcome remind us that we are all brothers and sisters!

Thank you to those who have supported us for years and have kept us in your prayers. May we continue to plant potatoes for many more families!

Lourdes Larruy, MCSPA

Now that COVID-19 has forced so many to be locked down, we, in Malawi, are no different. The seminary where we study in Balaka closed and we had to go to stay at the mission in Benga. Another colleague and I asked Fr. Fernando and Fr. Steven to teach us how to make cheese. They happily accepted and agreed to teach us that very evening. Being a doubtful person, I was somehow hesitant but decided to give it a try. I am happy to confirm that it has been for me a learning experience helping me to be more determined to explore what my talents are and not being afraid to fail because it is through trial and error that we learn and move forward.
This is how this time of uncertainty for many has become a moment for reaffirmation for me and my colleague Sylvester, a “come and see” who has been at Benga Mission for the last six months. Processing the milk of the mission cows into various types of cheese, yoghurt, and cream has been an opportunity for us to grow personally as missionaries in the making as well as to contribute to the wellbeing of our community. This has helped us to learn that our mission should not be deterred by setbacks or difficulties but, on the contrary, it is precisely the setbacks and difficulties that can enhance our missionary drive. Because it is when we reach out and empty ourselves that the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, fill us with its love and helping us to achieve extraordinary things in spite of us being ordinary beings. I must acknowledge, that I was gladly surprised to see the joy of His Grace Archbishop Ziyaye when we took cheese to him at his residence at Maula, Lilongwe.
Being missionaries in the making, this experience has taught us that it is through little things that greater things can be achieved. The patroness of the Missions Teresa of Liseux, advocated for doing little thing with great love and this is truly what mission is about.
Some other lessons we have learn that cheese making is not just an activity but a craft. The lactic bacteria used to do cheese, often called “starter cultures” play a key lowering lactose’s PH turning it into a place not suitable for spoiling organisms and what can later be, or not, a delicious and nutritious cheese. In our case we are still learning and hope that with time and humility we might improve and turn cheese making from an activity into a craft.
Another lesson milk processing has taught us is that hygiene, time management and patience play a key role in its success. We still wonder how a negative thing like the COVID19 has taught us a lesson that we will be with us forever.
Having done the cheese for 37 days has also help us to have some practical lessons, which we here share with you.
a. Average milk production from our two milling cows is 18 liters per day
b. We make 2 cheeses of 350g each from 9 liters of milk.
c. We drink 7 liter of milk daily in our community house of 20 people.
d. We share also them milk with our 4 workers to get 2 liters daily.
It is our hope that this activity will help us in the future to make our mission station sustainable and help us to improve the nutrition of people in the area who have a deficit protein intake.

Bernard Okuku, apprentice MCSPA

Hello everyone!
We would like to share with you how we have been here at our Formation House in Manila, Philippines. Ever since this Covid-19 lockdown was officially announced on 15th March 2020 here in Manila, with immediate effect, all movement came to a halt. Life changed suddenly for most people. We imagine that it is the same with you all there where you are.
Only one person is allowed out of our housing village for doing our groceries and purchasing medications if needed. We organised ourselves to do the daily responsibilities in the house – the pilotship, the garden, cooking, laundry, cleaning, liturgy – and we also have time for exercise. We are spending very much time together under the same roof and at the table – more than before. And we are happy for this! We enjoy the cooking even, learning new dishes, and we have our supply of greens from the backyard vegetable plot!
For the four of us studying theology, we officially end the semester this week. We had to submit all our assignments online. The others are still having online classes and exams until the end of this month. Some of us are learning Spanish online in the meantime. Our two Come and See candidates from Timor Leste are still continuing with English classes in the house. The older ones among us are giving them classes in grammar and composition writing. They are improving very much!
Besides the life in common in the house, during this lockdown, we have been helping the families who are constantly in touch with us through our apostolate areas of Payatas, Parola, Ronas Garnens and Daan Tubo. Those of you who have been to Manila know some of these places. Majority of the families are daily wage workers and in this time of lockdown, there is no work and so they are not in a position to put food on the table for their families. We have been channelling the help via the barangay (or neighbourhood) officials due to social distancing regulations or through point persons.
To give you an idea, since the start of the quarantine on 17th of March we have been able to assist with cash and relief food (rice, meat, milk) disbursements to about 380 families and groups, from the above-mentioned depressed areas, on a weekly basis. We were able to give one-off aid to relief efforts of church organisations and faith-based charities operating in the Diocese of Cubao and at Central Manila.
Thanks to friends and well-wishers from the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, we were able to carry out this relief effort, and we will continue to do so until such time as when the lockdown restrictions will be eased and families are able to fend for themselves again. We appreciate all the help they have given!
This time has been a very big learning experience for all of us. Learning to stay together, study, work and pray; reaching out to needy families in a coordinated way, and accounting for the help received; looking out and supporting each other.
We look forward for our lockdown here to be lifted or modified by end May. We will have to learn to live with the virus in our midst, trying to carry on with our lives but taking all the necessary precaution and adhering to standard operating procedures. And of course giving thanks to God for all the blessings, big and small, everyday.
We pray for the end of this pandemic. And we pray for all of you too, that you stay well and healthy.

From the community at Quezon City, Philippines.

Edward and Theresa got married when they were young in a small village called Source Yubu in South Sudan, just at the border with the Central African Republic. The two were blessed with three lovely children whom they loved so much. Years passed by and their love grew weaker day after day until they divorced. Edward remained in South Sudan and married. Theresa on the other hand went to Central African Republic, and married there too.

Sometimes because of our youth we do things that we may regret when we are older. This happened to Edward, even though he remarried, he was not very happy and always thought of his first wife. One day he made a journey in search of his wife. They met, but Theresa was not willing to come back.

The years went by, and now they were both old and had lost their spouses. They did not know, but fate would bring them back together. They both fell sick and became blind. Theresa had to come back home and her daughter would take care of her. The two met again and love flourished once more between them, and they came back together. Though now both blind, and unable to see each other, they have reunited and are happily living together.

When he hear stories like the one, we realise that the most important thing in life is to be happy and united with our loved ones.

We would like to thank all those people who act as bridges, to try and bring people, who were once divided, together again, to find happiness with their loved ones once again.

Benjamin Khandi
Apprentice MCSPA

In the face of the Covid19 pandemic, improving hygiene is very important, especially handwashing with soap and using disinfecting gels. This practice of maintaining hygiene has for many years been paramount in Nariokotome Mission, where we have long manufactured liquid soap, bleach, soap bars and disinfectant; that we use in our health centres, nurseries, schools and workshops, to maintain hygiene in our development programs.

Educating and promoting our Turkana community, in the practice of good hygiene in these critical moments of the pandemic, and doing it ourselves showing example, in the situation caused by COVID 19 is very vital. However, it is difficult to have clean hands in a place with a shortage of soap and water and constant dust.

Given the shortage of water and other supplies, we thought it would be a good idea to start producing our own sanitizing gels, and explaining how they should be used as a preventive measure for daily use.

Thanks to the help and advice of Antonio Matji, a pharmacist who knows the mission and its needs, it has been possible to achieve it. We have started producing sanitizer in sufficient quantity to supply the Turkana population living in the mission, for our own consumption, and we are even producing to be able to distribute supplies to nearby populations through our mobile clinics.

Lenny Jillo MCSPA

Very recently, women from Kakuta, one of the Nyangatom villages that the MCSPA missionaries serve from Prince of Peace Catholic Mission (Nyangatom-Ethiopia), received a nutritional talk about the goodness of Moringa Plant.

This plant is an excellent source of green vegetables when there is little alternative food of this kind available.

Its high content of vitamin A, was highlighted during the talk. This is due to the high prevalence of lack of enough this important vitamin in the diet of the people in this area. This lack of such nutrient can cause visual problems in both children and adults in the long run.

Seeds were given to the interested spectators, and we taught them practically how to cook and consume it. We hope that the women who are so important in improving the life of the family, can convince themselves of the goodness of this super-plant. By this, they could improve their nutrition and reduce the risk of having eye problems, or any other problem related with the lack of vitamins in the future.

Javiera Olivares

MCSPA members of the Prince of Peace Catholic Mission, have joined representatives from the Nyangatom local government on Sunday, in order to show solidarity to the people of Kibish, who lost their homes in the recent fire this week.

This initiative is a real sign of love and peace between communities that are still in conflict due to cattle raid and excess of small-fire-arms.

We pray that such kind of signs will be the beginning of a real peace based on a mutual respect for the dignity of every member of the community across the divide.

Fr. Angel Valdivia

During the days 28-30th January, the MCSPA, present in the area of Muketuri, together with a Spanish foundation, called “Fundación Harena”, distributed 120 solar light sets to illuminate the homes in 3 villages, Abo Kaso, Gore Ketema and Jebene. These villages are 21 km, 7 km and 17 km away from Muketuri.

The solar sets have 3 points of fixed lights and one mobile, plus a telephone charger point. The families received a training to install the lights and showed their gratitude y happiness for what will change their lives: to have light in their homes, for cooking, living together and with a great impact in their children´s lives who will be able to study when there is no sun light.

At the 3 villages the people organized a party to celebrate the event with a meal, dances and speeches.
In one of the villages an old women expressed her joy saying:
“we don’t know how to thank all this: first the missionaries brought us the water, a well and after this agriculture with the drop system and then a dining room for children under 7 and pregnant women, and today, with these lights they have given us eyes to see all that we have achieved together!”

Many more families have registered to receive solar light for their homes. We hope to get the funds to extend the program to more people.

Lourdes Larruy MCSPA

During the days 28-30th January, the MCSPA, present in the area of Muketuri, together with a Spanish foundation, called “Fundación Harena”, distributed 120 solar light sets to illuminate the homes in 3 villages, Abo Kaso, Gore Ketema and Jebene. These villages are 21 km, 7 km and 17 km away from Muketuri.

The solar sets have 3 points of fixed lights and one mobile, plus a telephone charger point. The families received a training to install the lights and showed their gratitude y happiness for what will change their lives: to have light in their homes, for cooking, living together and with a great impact in their children´s lives who will be able to study when there is no sun light.

At the 3 villages the people organized a party to celebrate the event with a meal, dances and speeches.
In one of the villages an old women expressed her joy saying:
“we don’t know how to thank all this: first the missionaries brought us the water, a well and after this agriculture with the drop system and then a dining room for children under 7 and pregnant women, and today, with these lights they have given us eyes to see all that we have achieved together!”

Many more families have registered to receive solar light for their homes. We hope to get the funds to extend the program to more people.

Lourdes Larruy MCSPA