Project Kiziba “Many greetings to you and the college staff and students. I admire your dedication to see our village change. Our parish community at St. Paul’s parish is very eager to see the hall finished.We hope to finish roofing by Christmas and it will be good if the College team comes to visit us when they come.” - Fr.Vincent
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Towards the end of last year, a group of Year 12 students travelled to Uganda to involve themselves with the local community of Mannya.As a consequence of connections with St Bernard’s Belmont Parish and the Cotton On Foundation this annual trip in place of ‘Schoolies’ provides our students with a wonderful immersion opportunity. The development of Mannya has been happening since 2004 and much has been achieved. Kiziba is an adjoining village about 25km East of Mannya and Br Russell Peters, who recently visited the village with Fr Nestus from Mannya, described the place as “in desperate need”. St Joseph’s has received a request via Fr Nestus to provide financial assistance for the construction of a multi-purpose building that can be used as a community meeting place. Some of the possible uses include a centre where hygiene and HIV education can take place and where Mass can be celebrated. It is estimated that the cost of this centre would be $10,000. I think this is a worthy first project for some of the money raised on Edmund Rice Day. The rainwater from the roof will be harvested into an underground tank. Br Russell intends to request that a bore be sunk to provide the villagers with fresh water. This follows consultation with the local people to determine projects which would be of maximum benefit for the region. There is a parish priest in the village and Fr Nestus will work with him to ensure that the project becomes a reality. Hopefully the students taking part in the Uganda Immersion at the end of this year can pay a visit. Paul Tobias - Principal
The following is a composition of letters from Father Vincent who has been keeping the College up to date with the progress of the building works on the Parish Centre in Kiziba. Dear Paul, I am very grateful for your mail. It has given me a lot of encouragement in the work going on here. Many greetings to you and the college staff and students. I admire your dedication to see our village change. Our parish community at St. Paul’s parish is very eager to see the hall finished. We hope to finish roofing by Christmas and it will be good if the College team comes to visit us when they come. I will keep you updated of the progress. Looking forward to seeing you when you come. See how far we have gone. As I write, the roof is now fully installed. At this stage we have used up the funds you generously gave for the hall. We can now use the hall for temporary use instead of the wood shelter you saw when you visited. We have not put the floor, shutters (metal doors and windows) plus plastering inside and outside. Our target is using hall by December. However we can use it temporarily for meetings and prayers. Thank you very much. God bless your tireless efforts, Fr. Vincent
