5 Volume 34 No. 2 | Winter 2024 Society Matters were very happy with this educational program and are most grateful to the Australia Province and all our cherished sponsors of the project. They hope to have more similar programs in the future.” As well as the education assistance program, the St Arnold Janssen Parish has been working on a program of home support for elderly and sick parishioners. The parish is composed of the main church in Mwandi and 11 outstations. “In the outstations, the people mainly live as peasant farmers and those who stay close to the river do fishing,” Fr Roman said. “In these villages quite often, there are no proper clinics and health facilities, and they are without medicines to treat patients. “This is why our people have to walk a long distance to get to the nearest mini hospital available. Through the help of this project, we helped those patients to buy their medications. In some cases, we also helped them with transport to get them to the nearest mini hospital.” Fr Roman said the parish has also helped the farming families to repair their housing. “The rainy season is very good for farming, but at the same time, it destroys poorly built houses,” he said. “This year, our community, with the help of this project, managed to rebuild partially collapsed houses. “There was a great spirit of cooperation and commitment from the villagers themselves. Also, our community was involved in identifying people with various needs. From that identification of their main and pressing needs we helped them accordingly. Generally, this project was quite successful. “The SVD ZAM Mission together with all our beneficiaries of this project are very grateful to our cherished donors and the SVD Australia Province. God bless you all.” Meanwhile, in the Parish of St Francis in Dambwa, the SVD has been empowering the local youth by establishing a poultry farm. “This project was a huge blessing for our youth,” said Parish Priest Fr Wendefredus Natun SVD. “The reason is that many people, including our youth, were affected economically by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The majority of the people, including our youth in Simoonga Outstation, lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Through this Poultry Project, our youth have been encouraged to learn new skills, especially the skills involved in managing a community project by keeping, feeding, nursing and selling the chickens.” The Poultry Project got underway in February last year with the arrival of the first 100 broiler chicks and has now gone into its fourth round. “The little income received from the selling of chickens is used for two major priorities. The first is to manage the continuation of the project, and the second is to give a small loan to five identified youth for the duration of three months to do personal business activity, with a little interest on top so that the other youth can have the chance to benefit as well – it is a pass-on project,” Fr Wendefredus said. “We sincerely thank the SVD Generalate in Rome, together with our beloved benefactors from the SVD Australia Province for your great support and generosity. May the almighty God bless you abundantly.” The parish has helped families repair their housing Chidwin Youth
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