Today, 25th May 2019, there was a great celebration at the Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Todonyang. The celebration was marked by several events which include; confirmation of 82 people, blessing of Class 8 2019 candidates, and blessing of the newly completed multipurpose hall (dining hall and kitchen inclusive).

Three years ago, we lost one of the elders from the Dassenech community in the school compound, when all were gathered to celebrate ten years since Todonyang mission re-opened and there was peace.

Today we have remembered that all who lost their lives in this border area from both Turkana and Dassenech communities. We pray that peace will prevail in this corridor and all who pass by Our Lady Queen of Peace School, will be ambassadors of peace wherever they go.

In his homily and speech, Bishop Dominic called all to be peace ambassadors.

Todonyang Integrated Centres was the best in Turkana North in last year’s KCPE exams. We thank all MCSPA members who previously worked in Todonyang and the current ones in the persons of Frs. Andrew and Wycliffe. We also thank the mission staff for making Todonyang what it is today. God bless you all!

Lillian Omari – MCSPA

St. John the Evangelist Kare-Edome Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD) is one of our nurseries at Todonyang Mission. It has 100 children who receive education and meals (breakfast and lunch) from Monday to Saturday.

It is now 1 yearsince the children of Kare-Edome moved from studying under a tree to the present building, and now the ECD is blessed with a new building and a new look. We would like to thank the local community, the parish and the donors who brought St. John the Evangelist ECD to where it is now with a classroom, dining room, an office and a dispensary. It is from there that the children, mothers and the elders are able to receive services like medical attention and feeding programs to combat malnourishment.
The children have a teacher and a helper, and are helped to integrate into the education system at this stage.

The local community is being made aware of the importance of allowing their children to learn, aside from taking care of the family cattle. They are slowly giving in to this but much has to be done still as the customs and beliefs of the community are rather strong.

A borehole was drilled and water is now pumped using solar energy. The families are able to feed their animals as well as have water for their own use. It was possible to set up a garden where people are being taught on farming techniques to grow their own food, hence fighting starvation and malnutrition.
The availability of such facilities has enhanced hygiene and people have made more permanent homes.

This has made the work of evangelisation easier.

We pray that all these projects may forge ahead and that the local families may benefit more.

Josephine Amuma, MCSPA

These past 2 weeks, 55 youth are attending a Summer Camp at the St. Joseph’s Mother and Child Centre, that the MCSPA is running at Muketuri.

We started this Centre in 2008 and, in order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding, we organised a summer camp for former students and youth from the area. Our aim was to encourage them to create the “St. Joseph Youth Group”.
This activity was organised by some members of the Catholic Scout Movement from Spain together with members of MCSPA present at Muketuri.

The main idea is to create awareness among Ethiopian youth about their potential in volunteer work as promoters of change among children, youth and families of the area.

Different activities have been organised: sports, drama, fabrication of musical instruments with recycled material etc.

The topics of the drama plays have been chosen by the participants themselves with the idea to present them at the different villages and schools: How to fight gender discrimination; Importance of hygiene; Causes and consequences of child malnourishment; Peace and conflict resolution; Inclusion of people with disabilities and Taking care of the environment.

The drama groups are presenting the topics in 5 villages and at Muketuri town to create awareness on these social realities and how the community can improve the situation.

It is the first time that an activity like this is being organised in the area and this has been an extraordinary opportunity for building up the local community.

Lourdes Larruy MCSPA

Two years ago we met Bilise, a 5-year-old girl. Her mother, Workinesh, brought her to Andode Health Post because the child had a fever. She was severely malnourished and with bone deformation in all her body due to rickets and pneumonia. Then, she was very fragile and it was almost a miracle that she was still alive. She was crying, because of the pain and the difficulty in breathing.

When Workinesh was pregnant, her partner left her and since then, she worked as a day labourer carrying Bilise on her back while working. She had totally lost hope and thought that her daughter’s only destiny would be death.

But Bilise resisted the enormous malnutrition and pneumonia. They began to live in one of the rooms that the MCSPA built in the compound of Andode Health Post to monitor severely malnourished children and their mothers, women with complications of pregnancy who need rest and good nutrition and the chronically ill who need daily medical control and who live far from the health post.

When Bilise improved and began to smile and talk (by the way, she speaks a lot these days!), Workinesh completely changed her attitude to the care of her daughter. Previously, she did not follow the medical instructions for the treatment of Bilise.

In this way, they started to live again, both Bilise and her mother. Our little one is now 7 years old and goes to the MCSPA nursery at Andode, very close to the health post. She is one of the best students, because of her interest in learning and her desire to play and live.

For me, it has been a precious gift from God, to have been able to continue caring for both Bilise and Workinesh, who now helps in the agricultural work of Andode Mission and has discovered her dignity as a woman and mother.

THANK YOU BILISE, WORKINESH AND ALL THOSE WHO COLLABORATED AND WHO CONTINUE TO HELP IN THEIR CARE AND MEDICAL TREATMENT!

Maria Josefa Nuñez (Pepi) MCSPA

The members of MCSPA are happy today, on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to celebrate 21 years since Frs. Antonio, Francis and Manolo were ordained to the priesthood by the late Bishop John Mahon of Lodwar. They were ordained for the Diocese of Lodwar, were they have worked and served the people of Lowarengak Parish, Naiokotome Parish, St Augustine’s Cathedral and Kaikor Parish in Turkana.

Fr. Antonio is now the priest-in-charge of Nariokotome Mission and has done much work in developing water resources in the area and whenever there is emergency he, as a pilot, is always ready to fly patients from the most remote reaches to Lodwar Hospital and beyond.

Fr. Francis on the other hand crossed the Indian Ocean to work in the Philippines. He is in charge of the MCSPA formation house in Manila and at the same time doing pastoral work and animating social outreach with in the depressed neighbourhoods of Payatas II and Parola in Manila. He and the community there also try to build bridges between Asia and Africa regarding vocations, missionaries congregations and volunteers who would like to go to Africa.

Fr. Manolo on the other hand went down to Malawi to bring the Good News to our brothers and sisters at Benga Parish of Lilongwe Archdiocese where he is the Parish Priest. Benga Mission is a beautiful parish not far from the capital and he works with the children and women giving them an education that would improve their lives in the future.

“Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News” – this is what these three priests have been trying to do wherever they have been sent.

We join all our friends and families in wishing them God’s blessings in their ministries!

Lillian Omari MCSPA

At Nariokotome Mission and at all the other MCSPA missions, cultivation of vegetables and fruit, livestock and poultry farming is one of the five main elements that we focus on.

We try and produce food for the mission personnel and also to feed the children at our nutritional units. This year we have been blessed with a good harvest and yield of milk and eggs. Many years ago when I first came to Turkana, I could not believe that agriculture would be possible.

Thanks to our founder, the late Fr. Paco Andreo, who insisted always on planting and transforming this dry and apparently barren place to be a “garden”, where people are able to eat and be lifted from a permanent situation of hunger.

We have been able to harvest plenty of tomatoes and Lucia, the mother of one of our missionaries from Italy, Patrizia Aniballi, taught us to make tomato preserve.

Just as we made tomato preserve, this time round we have also been able to produce and conserve mangoes, and vegetables of different sorts. The women around are eagerly learning this skill.

Thus, the words of Genesis 1:11 may come to pass: “And God said,
‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so.”

Thanks to all for supporting our agricultural programmes!!!

Lillian Omari
MCSPA

Aprovechando la visita de de nuestros amigos Juan y Begoña ,  junto con una delegación de IFC , inauguramos el centro materno infantil ( Saint Rita Mother and child center) en Nyjiburin cerca de la misión de nariokotome y donde la MCSPA construyó la primera presa hace 21 años , han sido unos días muy agradables  de convivencia, visitando los distintos proyectos que la IFC llevan apoyando  desde hace 20 años . Muchas gracias  por el apoyo recibido para poder llevar acabo tantas cosas entre el pueblo Turkana y sobre todo por esta larga amistad

Patrizia