These days we are especially attentive to our students from Riokomor and Kokuselei who are taking their national exams in the public schools of these two places.

They have all been part of a journey started by the families of these children and the MCSPA missionaries present in these communities. It is a journey in which we all continue to learn that only generosity in favor of the little ones will guarantee a better present and future, especially when water, nutrition, and health are assured.

We are happy that many of them are completing their primary school studies and that, little by little, they can open the doors to new opportunities to improve the lives of their families and communities.

We thank all those who make it possible for children and young people in this beautiful place in the north of Turkana to have the possibility of studying. And we encourage more people to join us and support the education of all of them, so full of talent and enthusiasm to improve!

Since its opening in 2006, the Mother and Child Centre of St Joseph of the Mountain in Mizan Teferi, has a manually dug well that offers water for cleaning and watering plants; it also receives a supply of clean water from the town which only arrives for a few hours once a week. Sometimes this supply of water breaks down, having our Mother and Child Center without water for a month. Also, this water has been seen to not be enough for the demand required by 200 children that attend the center daily.
Thanks to the help of the parish of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Madrid, we have been able to perforate a well of 60 meters of depth inside our center. Also, with the help of the diocese of Rottenburg and a charity race organized by the parish in Madrid, we were able to buy and install the submersible pump with its pipes and water tank, that can store and distribute up to 10,000 liters of water.
Through this project, we are able to improve the health of the community, especially focusing on these 200 children that can now take clean water daily, avoiding many illnesses and parasites that are extremely common in the area.

Dear friends and family,
We would like to share with you the summary updates of the activities that we have done in the previous months in ‘El Paraiso’:

Psychological support to families:

• A professor and some of the students of Psychopedagogy from Emiliano Zapata University visit us every 15 days, organising some activities with the children and youth.
• Two outings have been organised to visit Cumbres High School, north campus, together with children and mothers from Paraiso. Activities such as; celebrations, sports games and recreation, impacted positively on coexistence and the creation of bonds of friendship between youth, children and their families

. We would like to thank all the friends who took part in the Children’s Day celebration, where 150 people attended joyfully. 

• UVM students and professors also conduct workshops with the youth and children twice a week to implement Psychosocial intervention. Moreover, constant visits by Psychologists and therapists provide psychological support to different groups of people and individuals in Paraiso, as well as sharing some advice to the most committed volunteers.

Health and Nutrition:

• Hygiene evaluations, reviews and workshops on dental health have been carried out by a Dentist every 15 days. We are looking forward to receiving more support to provide dental treatments.
• Students and teachers from Cumbres high school, implemented a study among people with a high level of diabetes, they formulated evaluations, and specific care guidelines in each case and supported several families with glucometers and lancets.
• Slowly, we continue to equip the dispensary with medicine donations. Through this, we have a “mini pharmacy” in which patients can get medical prescriptions.

We continue with our support for the chronically ill people with their treatments, physiotherapy, transport and shopping of medicines.

• With the collaboration of UVM-Medicine University and some friends, we distributed 60 pantries to different families in Paraiso.

Veterinary Campaign:

• The organisation of a cat and dog sterilisation campaign was done in Paraiso. To make the campaign successful, 100 animals had to be sterilised, we achieved 122!

Housing Programme:

• With the special collaboration of ‘Dibujando otra Realidad, AC’, training was offered to the families on the construction of houses. So far, we are almost finishing another wooden house. 9 houses were built with the help of ‘Moviendo a Más’ group and  ‘Un techo para mi país’ in El Paraíso.

We thank God for allowing us to achieve an impact on the actions of love, hope and solidarity between the families, friends and close collaborators of the MCSPA in Mexico for supporting the mission of El Paraíso in Xochimilco in its different dimensions. Lastly, we also extend our gratitude to appreciate all the collaborators from different trenches of the world for the love and support that keeps us going.

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On the 17th of February 2023, the village of Lobur experienced a very strong wind which caused a lot of damage to the village. Within the damages, there were the solar panels of Lobur village water point which were blown away. This destroyed all panels of 200W 24VDC Crystalline solar and the structure.

Once we had the funds, the MCSPA Pump Maintenance Unit (PMU) team went to the ground and reinforced the structure. We purchased all the solar panels and they were transported from Lodwar to Lobur (210 kms away). The team fixed all the panels at the site and did a pump test to check if it worked. After the test, the pump gave a yield of 5000 liters of water per hour. The community of Lobur were glad to have water once again in their taps. There is much water now for both human consumption and for the consumption of hundreds of animals around. Water availability in Lobur villages is restored after 4 months of absence. This is a great joy. On behalf of Lobur community, we would like to thank New Ways UK who have made this possible with your support.

The group of the Legion of Mary organized a wonderful pilgrimage to Ave Maria mission in the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio (CDTY), on the 11th of August 2023 for the celebration of the Assumption of the most Blessed virgin Mary on the 15th of August today whereby the new members devoted themselves to the Blessed virgin Mary and the old members renewed their devotion.
This is an annual incident in the month of August that all the members of the Legion of Mary from all the outstations of Ave Maria Parish come walking while carrying their food stuffs and sleeping mats, some as far as 54 Kilometers. They come together for prayers and the priest in charge teach them on what to do in their various places. The group of the Legion of Mary is one of the devotional groups in the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio (CDTY) which consists of both adults and children who have a special devotion to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, the total number of the legion of Mary who turned up for the pilgrimage this year are 207 which 51 of them are the new members who devoted themselves earlier today in the Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Avellino Bassols the parish priest of Ave Maria Parish, who preached to them about humility, as Mary humbled herself to go and stay with her kinswoman Elizabeth after she got the news from Angel Gabriel and he encouraged them to continue praying for peace in the country as the church of Ave Maria is preparing to launch its centenary celebration on the 8th of December this year.
The members of the Legion of Mary were extremely excited to have new members who have made up their minds to devote themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary and also to have their pilgrimage in Ave Maria church which is the second largest church in South Sudan, a proposed shrine of Mother Mary in the country.

If one wanders into one of the buildings in Benga Parish, Malawi, the odds of finding two or more elderly people moving stones around a wooden board are quite high. One does wonder what game they play. This game is called Bao, a traditional Eastern African game. Besides its traditional value, the beauty of the game lies in its possibility of anyone joining in due to its simplicity.

This building would be the agogo center which was inaugurated a year ago. Agogo is a Chichewa word for elderly. Non-coincidentally, this anniversary coincides with the day of St. Joachim and St. Anne, grandparents of Jesus Christ and patrons of the elderly.

A special mass was celebrated to commemorate the anniversary. In his homily, Father Manuel Hernández emphasized on the Pope’s message about the often-forgotten elder members of society. As His Holiness reminds us the unmeasurable value of the elderly, we at Benga Parish thank those who sponsor the agogos and the center. Grandparents are the pillars of society and its families. They have put an enormous amount of effort into shaping the next generations, and nevertheless often find themselves forgotten in the hardest stage of their life.

It was in order to counteract the common occurrence of neglect, which is further highlighted by youth’s constant preoccupation with technology, studies, work, etc… that the agogo project was initiated. The project includes house building, food and sanitary products distribution, medical care as well as water and power access. All the basic needs met, the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle identified the lack of companionship as the toughest challenge faced by the elderly, hence the agogo center.

But what is this center ? It is a multi-purpose building which includes a kitchen, entertainment space, physiotherapy room and showers. The center welcomes the agogos every day. They often arrive early morning, have breakfast and bathe themselves. The morning is spent on weaving, knitting, playing bao, watching tv, listening to music, and perhaps most importantly, talking between themselves or to volunteers. Lunch normally happens at around 12:30, and they can rest or engage in similar activities to the morning ones before departing for their homes before sunset. The whole program includes over 300 people, but only those within walking distance of the building can afford to come to the center daily.

St Joachim and St. Anne are set as role models of generosity, devotion and matrimonial love by the Church. They constantly remind us to honor our grandparents and the elderly at large. Yestarday, around 90 people attended the special function in the honor of Virgin Mary’s parents. After the elderly were greeted and offered seats, a beautiful mass presided by Father Manuel Hernández followed. Once the mass had ended, the celebrations continued as seminarians, agogos, volunteers, sisters and the other attendees engaged in traditional singing and dancing. Before concluding, everyone was served lunch while enjoying each other’s company.

The Missionary community of St. Paul the Apostle is thankful to everyone who’s made the project possible as it is a pleasure to witness the joy all the effort bears. The success of the project so far has grown the desire to maintain and improve the program, which is dependent on more people becoming Godparents to these elderly.

By Innocent Phiri, Marcos Urgoiti and Cecilia Keller.

Members of the MCSPA attended the 25th-anniversary celebration of St. James the Greater Parish in Kaikor, where Fr. Fernando Aguirre and Fr. Manuel Hernandez, members of the MCSPA, began living in tents in September 1998.

Among the many activities to be done in that time was the construction of a new church (the existing one was a small room in the middle of the village). 

Currently, the parish is under the care of 2 Filipino Fidei Domund priests, Fr. Froilan and Fr. Ronald, from the Diocese of San Jose de Antique in the Philippines. Bishop Marvyn Abrea Maceda, presided over the triple celebration, the 25th anniversary of the parish, the patronal feast of St. James the Greater Apostle and the appointment of the 2 Filipino priests, who will remain for 3 years.

It was a very emotional celebration, full of color, joy and the reflection of a mature faith, whose seed was planted years ago and now sees it maturing. The bishop asked the community to pray and take care of their priests. 

The celebration was also attended by the Marianite Sisters, founded in Ecuador and present in Kaikor since 2008 and the Mensa Domini Sisters, founded in the Philippines.

This month, we have enjoyed promoting chess practice in two of our missions in Turkana. We want to help develop the skills of this game to positively impact the children’s academic level and the teachers’ work.

Thanks to Colombian friends and other benefactors of the Kokuselei mission, we have been able to inaugurate 3 chess clubs in Todonyang, Riokomor, and Kokuselei. And to celebrate the First Chess Tournament at the Don Bosco Center in Kokuselei with amazing results and a very good experience for all.