On 10th December 2021 took place the 16th graduation of “Furrows in the Desert” Programme of St. John the Evangelist-Lobur Catholic Mission, with the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) within the umbrella of Caritas Lodwar of the Diocese of Lodwar.

Once more, one more course has ended with an exciting graduation to celebrate the good work of the 13 new farmers. We counted with the presence of representatives of World Relief who have been partnering with the programme for many years and other members of the MCSPA of Kokuselei mission, who are supporters of Furrows in the Desert, were also present. The guest of Honor this year was Eva Laukamp, representing Kindermissionswerk from Germany, accompanying us after six years being one of our major benefactors to thex programme. We want to thank them all and also to the ones that were not able to come but are so important for the programme as TIPA, Rotary International, Foundation Emalaikat, New Ways UK and many others at the local level.

Also, taking advantage of the graduation, many of the members of SITFA (Saint Isidore Turkana Farmers Association) had theor yearly assembly and an ongoing formation workshop to improve and motivate the farmers to continue persevering and giving hope to Turkana showing that to produce food is possible and real.

Congratulations to all the team who makes this program possible and specially to the new farmers!!!!!

Maque Falgas

MCSPA

During the feast of all Souls, at Ave Maria and St. Thomas Parishes all the Christians come together to join our brothers and sisters who lost someone during this on-going war in our area.

There are many people who could not bury their families, some because they had to run away from the fighting, others were killed trying to protect their families. Many people we left on the same spot they died. For this, we asked all those who could not bury their families, to write down the names and come with a symbolic leave wrap to bury their families. It was so emotional, as some families had 8 to 10 names of their loved ones.

We at Ave Maria continue praying for Peace. Join us as we enter our 4th month of Rosary for peace in South Sudan especially in Tombura County.

Lillian Omari MCSPA

This week, we blessed the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that was placed at the entrance of Source Yubu to protect the area, especially during these difficult times. The Sacred Heart of Jesus movement, the children of the private and the government schools in the area attended the celebration.

Unlike Tombura, in Source Yubu there has been no conflict so far. However, there are more than 3000 internally displaced persons and tight security by the local militias. All roads to Tombura are blocked to prevent any possible attack.

We ask the Sacred Heart of Jesus to bring peace to this land and its people.

Lillian Omari MCSPA

We would like to ask you to join us (MCSPA) every day to earnestly pray for peace in South Sudan and more so that our mission of Ave Maria is protected from all the fighting going around its mission territory.

Yesterday the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission coordination office in Ezo County of Western Equatoria state registered 23,550 IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) from Tombura due to the ongoing violence in Tombura County.

The majority of the IDPs are women and children who are in need of humanitarian support. All men who were trying to flee the fighting have been captured and forced to fight, sometimes even against their own people.

As of Tuesday, at least 11 people were reported killed, including the former Commissioner of Tombura County Hon. Babiro Charles Gbamisi.

Things are very difficult and tense, and many children are affected and are in need of food and shelter. Let us join our hands to support them with prayer and in kind.

Thank you!!!

Lillian Omari MCSPA

Recent violence has affected many people in the area of Tombura, where MCSPA members are running Ave Maria Parish.

A peace convoy lead by Bishop Eduardo Hiboro from the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, and other bishops and priests from other denominations, came to visit the victims of this unjustified and abrupt mayhem.

Let us direct our prayers to the victims, especially to the people who have lost parents, children, siblings, and property. Above all let us pray that peace may prevail and leaders stop this nonsense.

Lillian Omari

When we rebuilt the mission of Our Lady Queen of Peace Todonyang 14 years ago, after many many years of being a “no-go-zone”, our main aim was to bring peace in the area. However, peace has been built and also destroyed on several occasions.

As MCSPA members living and working in Todonyang we will not stop striving to bring peace. Apart from the school, which is one of the main projects we run in the mission, we have been for many years building and distributing boats.

This year we are planning to build 18 more boats and distribute them to several families that will have from then on an income. With these boats, families will be able to take their children to Todonyang integrated school, and these same children will be one day the peace promotors in the area. These are not mere boats but boats that build peace and bring life.

Lillian Omari MCSPA

Last week we held a workshop on peace and non-violent communication in Kibish. The talks were conducted by Fr Fredrick Rubbino from the Philippines and two other facilitators from Nairobi. Those who attended the workshop were only the Turkana community.

During the workshop, the elderly, both men and women, expressed their deep longing for peace. Some seem tired of these wars, and they are now pleading for peace. The ongoing violent conflict is emotionally affecting the people of all communities living in the area. At the sound of the gun, a life or livelyhood could be lost from either one of the three confronted communities, Turkana, Nyangatom, or Toposa. Young herders usually carry out the raids, and unfortunately, youth from both sides were absent during the peace talks. So those who attended agreed to share what they learned before bringing them together.

After the conference, we had a peaceful pilgrimage to the Ethiopian side. We were highly welcomed by the elders from the Nyangatom community and the security forces from the Ethiopian side. During the encounter, elders from both sides shared the pain the constant killings and raids among the three communities. Elders were also informed that clearing the bush from the Kenyan side of the border towards the Ethiopian border has started. The opening of the way is meant to benefit the two communities, especially to enhance peaceful interaction and trading.

We started a dialogue, which has to continue, and we pray that that they will reach some agreement and attain peace in this wonderful and fertile region. Let’s keep on praying and working for peace since this is the only way of bringing together the three communities for their common good for the generations to come.

Fr. Joseph Githinji MCSPA

During the first half of this year, Turkana mission workers involved in child care (especially in our Mother and Child Centers) have participated in several training activities on Child Protection.

With the support of the MCSPA Safeguarding Committee, we have invited them to create child-friendly environments, to reflect on their role and responsibility in the prevention of child abuse in the communities where we are present.

These have been very fruitful and important meetings for the formation of the whole team, with excellent facilitators who have helped us to improve our mission that the children of our missions grow up in a safe environment, free from abuse of any kind: physical, sexual or psychological.

We thank all those who make this series of meetings possible. We will continue to train, follow-up and promote awareness of this issue in each of our missions. We know that fathers, mothers, entire families, friends, teachers, missionaries, priests, medical personnel, workers and social leaders must work together to prevent child abuse wherever we are present.

Diana Trompetero, MCSPA

In mid-April 2020 we began a food collection campaign to face the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic contingency, to help the neediest families in El Paraiso and nearby villages in Xochimilco south of Mexico City, where the MCSPA has been working for more than three years.

We launched the campaign among friends, family and collaborators emphasizing what Pope Francis mentioned in St. Peter’s Basilica on March 27: “Like the disciples in the Gospel, we were surprised by unexpected and furious storm. We realized that we were in the same boat, all fragile and disoriented; but at the same time, important and necessary, all called to row together, all in need of mutual comfort”.

The response did not take long, those months we felt wrapped by so many generous hearts, full of hope that we wanted to bring to these families along with a bag of food and hygiene items. Then we became aware that the necessary information about Covid-19 that could have saved several lives had not reached these places.

Sadly this did not surprise us, in El Paraiso, live more than 3,000 migrant families from regions that have been devastated by poverty, insecurity or drug trafficking. Most of these families found nothing more than a piece of land “hidden from the authorities” where they live in wooden, plastic and cardboard rooms without the basic services to live with dignity, the rest is unaffordable for them.

These settlements are called “The invisibles”, they are families that do not appear in the statistics, that are not counted in the urban development plans, is social programs, etc. Officially they do not exist. Here we saw a clear manifestation of what Pope Francis talks about in the apostolic exhortation Evangelli Gaudium and which was already mentioned since 2007 in the V General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate:

“Today everything enters into the game of competitiveness and the law of the strongest. As a consequence of this situation, great masses of the population are excluded and marginalized: without work, without horizons, without a way out. The human being is considered in itself as a consumer good, to be used and then thrown away”.

Faced with this, in addition to the bags of food and hygiene items, we took on the task of bringing workshops about Covid-19, in addition to giving them masks and antibacterial gel necessary to follow the prevention protocols.

With this activities and by inviting people to help us to help these vulnerable families, they become less invisible. We are becoming the “voice of the voiceless” and we are turning the good news of the Gospel into concrete actions, not only the members of the MCSPA who are in charge of the activities, but all the people who have wanted to listen to the cry of these families and who want to be co-responsible with Christ in the construction of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Blanca Beltrán

MCSPA