OUR NEEDS

The charity forthcoming from our generous friends in North America is the parable of the Good Samaritan in action.  It is a response to the call of Jesus who cared for those in need—the hungry and the sick.  Through the sacrifice of our benefactors and the Missionary Cooperative Plan, we are able to fulfill the command to bring Jesus to others, by attending both to their spiritual and material needs.

Below is a summary of SOME OF THE NEEDS that we meet with financial support we receive from our benefactors.

1. PARISHES

This area deals with the need to establish new parishes.

From the time of the Missionaries in Tororo, parishes and their numerous sub-parishes (missions) have been the main centres of evangelization activities in terms of religious instruction, formal and informal education and sacramental life.  We currently have 45 parishes and about 800 mission stations.

In order to bring such services nearer to the people, the Archdiocese within the next few years plans to raise 5 sub-parishes (missions) to parish status. Each parish will be faced with the challenge of building a Parish Church for approximately US $120,000, and possibly a Rectory for an additional US $80,000.

2. PASTORAL MINISTERS

This deals with the need to train more pastoral ministers and transportation for them to effectively reach all the people assigned to them.

• Formation

The chief pastoral ministers who serve the aforementioned parishes are priests and catechists.  The formation of priests starts from our high-school seminary, where during their most formative years; young men are provided an all-round education. Currently, we have a record number of about 315 high school seminarians, about a quarter of whom usually proceed to the Major Seminary  

We also currently have about 50 seminarians studying in the national philosophical and theological seminaries.  Their increased enrolment at all levels requires more facilities as well as increased overall costs. 

Once ordained, our priests need to continue their formation, especially by attending educational workshops and spiritual retreats.  Some of the priests are also selected to go on to graduate studies to return and serve in specialized ministries.

While the priests have overall charge of the parishes, they are helped a great deal by catechists who basically substitute for them at the mission churches (sub-parishes).  These catechists also need training if they are to fulfill all the liturgical and teaching duties that they must undertake in the absence of the priests, besides their own proper duties.

• Transportation

As already indicated, much of the pastoral ministry of parishes takes place away from the main centre and rectory and instead takes place in the village mission churches.  This ministry requires transportation both for the priests and the catechists; otherwise they have to walk back and forth to the mission churches, sometimes for about three hours. 

This year the Archdiocese was blessed with the ordination of seven new priests.  They and some of those already ordained need transportation.

A small motorbike costing about $3,000 will usually serve a priest in a rural area very well, as will a bicycle costing about $100 for a catechist.

3. EDUCATION

The need here is to help private schools run by the archdiocese with Solar lighting, textbooks and laboratory equipment for students.

In collaboration with the Government of Uganda (much like the Canadian system), the Archdiocese runs several Primary, Secondary and Technical schools.  The concept of promoting education is as old as the Church herself; namely, to bring out the various gifts and talents in young people, perfect them so that they can effectively participate in the political, economical, social activities of their country and engage in the evangelization work of the Church.  Most of these schools, run by religious sisters and brothers, are in rural settings where there is no electricity, no computers and not enough textbooks and laboratory equipment. The teaching and learning process becomes very difficult in such an environment. Two years ago a Primary Boarding School installed solar lighting which costed $6,000.  This is an example of one of the benefits of the Missionary Cooperative Plan in the area of education.

4. HEALTH

The need here is medical supplies and equipments for these non-government medical units run by the archdiocese.

The Archdiocese has one hospital, three sub-hospitals and twelve small medical facilities through which we try to fulfill Christ’s ministry of physical healing. In order to run them efficiently, qualified and committed personnel are a must as are adequate supplies and equipment. These facilities are not funded by the Government; therefore, they must depend on user fees to purchase drugs and equipment and cover the cost of personnel.  The religious sisters who minister in these facilities do so only with great difficulty.  Funds from the Missionary Cooperative Plan have in the past helped out some of the health facilities with funds for supplies and equipment.

5. SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

In 1973, when they first sensed the presence of Missionaries dwindling, the Bishops of Eastern Uganda began planning what to do when most Missionaries would leave the Region.  They came up with the following formula: “The Church in Eastern Africa should aim at becoming self-evangelising, self-administering and self-reliant.” Today the Church in this Region is indeed self-evangelising and self-administering but far from self-reliant.  It is the reason why the Church still needs external financial intervention.  That is one more reason why the Mission Cooperative Plan is of such great help to the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese of Tororo, through its development arm CARITAS, empowers the laity with skills that can improve their economic base.  Eighty-five percent of the people are peasant farmers with small plots of land on which to cultivate their crops.  Because of this, most of them live from hand to mouth, which has an adverse impact on their income.  Through CARITAS-Tororo, the Archdiocese runs programs, especially in the area of improved agricultural methods, so that families can better sustain themselves economically.

On a similar note, since majority of our Ugandan WIDOWS are burdened by their inability to support their families, the Archdiocese of Tororo makes an effort to reach out to the widows and others of the like in the Archdiocese so that she can fulfill the command of God spoken by Jesus to IGNORE NOT ‘the least of these’ (cf. Mt 25:40).

One of the ways the Archdiocese reaches out to the Widows is through the Archdiocesan Women’s Desk, a department in the diocese that focuses on the realities of women such as these.  When empowered, women can do a great deal to improve their families’ economic situation as well as the sanitary condition of their homes.  The Archdiocese subscribes to an African saying that, “If you educate a man, you educate one person.  But if you educate a woman, you educate the whole nation.

6. WATER

The need here is Portable water

Our Five-Year Strategic Plan included a program to increase access to clean, safe water.  Most of the wells we have built over the past few years have been located near schools so that we can be assured that the children have good water to drink; of course, the people in the vicinity of the well also share in its bounty.  Presently 65% of our people have access to adequate amounts of potable water.  The cost to install a well is estimated to be $10,000.  We hope that this coming year we will be able to dig additional wells—so many families benefit from each well.

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 HOW YOU CAN HELP THE ARCHDIOCESE

Our work is supported entirely by the providence of God noticeable in free will contributions.  Below are some of the ongoing projects:

Any contribution—no matter the size—is acceptable, most appreciated and is tax deductible. 

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