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.

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.

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.

Last Friday, at Startup Lions ICT Hub Loropio, we MCSPA missionaries of the Kokuselei mission held a two-day workshop with the 40 women volunteers of the committees responsible for our eleven Mother-Child Centers and the child-care agents of each centre. This celebration marked 15 years since the nutrition program was firmly established and has been running throughout in the mountain area of Nariokotome Parish. Two days in which we celebrated the generosity and perseverance of many people who have participated in concrete ways to the success of the program: hundreds of Turkana children every year who can eat twice a day and grow up healthy!

Our special thanks to the men and women of the committees of our mother-child centers, who have voluntarily and cheerfully served and unconditionally loved the children. All the families in more than 14 communities covered by the Kokuselei mission appreciate that these volunteers take on the daily responsibility of preparing breakfast, lunch and assisting in the daily hygiene of the children in a part of Kenya where hunger is still the main challenge to be solved.

We all thank the benefactors who have been part of starting and maintaining these children’s centres, thanks to which infant mortality caused by hunger has been reduced in this area. Our thanks also to the child-care agents, young women and men who help us to monitor the nutrition and health of the children and with various educational activities in each centre.

As missionaries, we want to continue to serve the most vulnerable and respond concretely to the needs of the children of Turkana.  And we trust that these children’s centres will continue to encourage their communities to transmit the virtues of generosity and perseverance, both essential to achieve true development.

Diana Trompetero MCSPA

For Mechela Kindergarten, Under Muketuri mission in Ethiopia, 15th of January 2023 will remain a remarkable day as they inaugurated new kitchen and toilets within its fence. The whole village of Mechela, young and old, gathered at the compound of Mechela Kindergaten to celebrate the opening of its new facility. From the entrance of the kindergarten, one could clearly see the grass which was spread on the ground to mark a traditional fragrance of the celebration.

The Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) has always believed that integral education is a key to transform lives. With that intention, MCSPA has emphasized on quality education from the early stage of a child. It is equally important to note that poor health of children does not only compromise growth of the child but also result into educational setbacks and lowerperformance of the student. As a result, MCSPA rendered it an imperative to run centers which cater for the two principle needs of the students. Thus, education and nutrition. Mechela is an example of such centers which operate as an education unit and at the same time as a nutrition hub. The two-fold needs of the children are given a priority.

For some time, Mechela lacked proper facility like a kitchen and toilets to meet the required delivery of quality education to the children. This compromised the dream of MCSPA to always compliment education with pleasant nutrition and health of the student. Consequently, Josephine Amuma took an initiative to close this gap through a construction of a kitchen and toilets. Now the Kindergarten is also equipped with its own vegetable shamba (garden) and a wire fence to ensure its security.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony, Fr. Fernando stresses that, ¨A child’s early years are the foundation for his or her future development, providing a strong base for lifelong learning and learning abilities, including cognitive and social development. ¨ He also explained in simple terms the importance of early childhood education as an essential building block of a child’s future success.

Josephine was delighted with the collaboration of the local community. In her speech, she urged them to continue with the same spirit of commitment. She also assured them that children are the stronghold of the future, therefore worthy investing in them.

The ceremony reached its climax when the representatives of MCSPA shared a common meal with the local community of Mechela. As per tradition, the community had prepared njera, typical Ethiopian food, for lunch. During the meal, different performances were done by the children and the scouts from Muketuri. The cerebration ended with a coffee ceremony to mark its significance.

By Innocent Letasi

Very recently we had the visit of the Asturian veterinarians David Iglesias, Esteban Iglesias and Carlos Iglesias to Nyangatom, Ethiopia. Their last visit was in 2019, since then they could not come due to the pandemic and local sociopolitical problems. Once again, they have resumed the annual deworming campaign for the Nyangatom animals.

The team has had the significant help of local veterinary assistants and the support of the mission team.

It has been about 10 days of intense work and more than 15,000 goats and sheep have been dewormed. Many more could have been done, but due to the severe drought that is currently hitting the Horn of Africa, many of the herds and their herdsmen have migrated to mountainous grazing areas located north of the Nyangatom region, within the Omo national park, where there is no accessibility.

Despite this, we are very happy with the result and with the good reception by many local herders. We have been able to successfully complete the areas of Kakuta, Lorau, Lomuria, Naturomoe and Kaderinyang, benefiting about 5,000 people.

In addition, the veterinarians were able to carry out castrations of dogs, which will help reduce diseases with a high incidence in the area transmitted by these animals to humans, such as tapeworms, hydatid cysts, rabies and others.

We have experienced a multitude of anecdotes in a short time, and we have had very direct contact in the daily life, both full of difficulties and joys, of this very authentic Nyangatom people.

We thank the veterinary team from Spain, and all those people and institutions that have supported this much-needed project, remembering that the health of human beings is closely linked to the health of animals.

Thank you very much!

Fr. Angel Valdivia. MCSPA

We have recently returned from Ethiopia, from the project that the MCSPA is carrying out in Muketuri and that MOSSolidaria NGO supports, supporting the kitchen and checking the nutritional status of children under 7 years of age, pregnant and lactating mothers in the village of Gimbichu.

World Food Day is celebrated every year on October 16th, the anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) which was founded in 1945. This day aims to promote healthy eating and eradicate hunger, according to the 2030 agenda, by this year world hunger should be eradicated. I am very afraid that, although it could be achieved, it will not be so.

There are large pockets of poverty and a lot of hunger, for the few people who work on the ground, from the base. We have to be there, but also make known what the missionaries do, here, without our moral support and solidarity, it is very difficult that they carry so much forward. It is sad to know that, while some Western countries allow us to waste food, because we can pay for it and we have it within reach, others suffer from diseases derived from an insufficient and monotonous diet, which prevents them from developing their most essential capacities.

Boys and girls are born with low weight and suffer from the deficiencies presented by the wasting, that their mothers suffered. Then, their babies suffer, due to the lack of such basic and essential nutrients as proteins, vitamins and minerals.

The MCSPA mission in Muketuri, and its responsible, Lourdes Larruy, make an effort to maximize the feeding of the more than 370 boys and girls who attend the Muketuri mother and child center, plus the soup kitchens in the surrounding villages. The combination of the food is properly done, so that it is sustainable and provides the maximum of varied and complemented nutrients. This is not an easy task, if we take into account that to obtain milk you have to feed and care for the cows. To offer eggs you have to buy corn for the hens and that to provide vegetables you have to take the water to the garden, plus complement it with rice, pasta, vegetables, bread etc. Even so, the missionaries achieve it. In the kitchens they prepare delicious stews, which fill the atmosphere with a special smell, a traditional home, all of us, young and old, enjoy those delicious meals, simple but complete and well accompanied.

But hunger is not only alleviated with bread, it is also satiated with love, lots of love, with hope, with assistance and listening, with faith, a strong and powerful faith that is contagious and brings more faith and conviction that a more equitable world is possible. Because of that faith the missionaries continue there and in so many other difficult and hostile places, which they soften with their iron conviction, because they know that they are not alone, that God protects them and that other men and women are attentive to their needs. To continue with the mission of assistance, listening, health, personal growth, which they offer to those who request it. Thank you for enabling us to  hope that hunger can be alleviated!

Mari Olcina (10/16/2022)

Today in Lobur mission, the Furrows in the Desert marked the 17th Graduation Ceremony. This time, 14 graduates completed the 6 months of training which marks a full course.

The invited guests including our people from Lobur witnessed the colorful ceremony. Few members and guests were given a chance to say a word of congrats to the trainees, encouraging the graduates.

The term Food Security kept on being repeated by several speakers. The graduates promised to bring to reality what they have been learning at FID in the regions where they come from. Those who graduated came from different parts of Turkana county and one trainee from Nyangatom in Ethiopia, this made a great impression on everyone including government officials who were present during the graduation. May the Peace continue to reign in our region as we all work together in order to produce our daily bread.

Let’s make a green Turkana!!!

Fr. Joseph Githinji MCSPA

October 2022 will mark 10 years since the start of the Furrows in the Desert (FID) program. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the MCSPA program management has convened a participatory evaluation to assess the performance of the project during these 10 years, as well as to discuss the direction the program should take in the years to come.

The evaluation took place from 24th to 28th January, during which a team of MCSPA and FID together with external evaluators from the Turkana County, Utawala, Baraka College and others, visited different places to meet with farmers.

We had a very successful mission where the farmers shared their challenges and successes through open discussions about all the different aspects relating to farming, water, irrigation, infrastructures, and marketing among others. So far there are 221 farmers have been trained and 16 additional assistants have been installed in the last 10 years.

The evaluation ended and was crowned with planting trees in the model farm of Furrows in the Desert in order to mark the 10 years for the FID existence in Turkana.

Thanks to all the team involved in the assessment, and especially the Lobur Mission team plus Arava Institute, our Israeli partners for all of these years of effort, that has helped many families begin to realize that fruits can grow in the desert, to produce and improve life.

Fr. Joseph Githinji MCSPA Lobur Mission

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