Sisters of St Charles Borromeo in East Africa

Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo, in East Africa The Presence of the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo in East Africa from 1997. Our first community was established in Iringa , Tanzania. Through God’s intervention and his generosity blessed the community and branched out to be six communities; namely Iringa, Kibao, Mbeya, Morogoro, Dar Es Salaam and Myau. Sister’s missionary zeal, effort and tireless work spring forth in venturing into another East African country Uganda in 2014. Uganda mission is established among the indigenous community in the rural area in the North West Nile Region.

In the Map of Uganda, Nebbi town is highlighted.

Geographical back ground It is boarded by South Sudan in the North, Democratic Congo in the North West, Ruanda in the South west, Kenya in the North East and Tanzania in the South East. The longest river Nile originates from Jinja in Uganda and flows through Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and finally empties itself into Mediterranean. Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo Formation house lies 3 Km to Nebbi Cathedral parish, in the Catholic Diocese of Nebbi District has a total land area of 1984 km 2 with a population of 585, 220 (Male: 48%; Female: 52%), 306, 583 females, 291, 018 males as per the national population and housing census. The main languages are Alur and Jonam. Over 85% of the District population is engaged in subsistence farming. Much of what is produced is consumed at the household level and less than 40% is marketed. The main crops grown are cotton, coffee, simsim, sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes, beans, cassava, maize and vegetables. Agro-processing is done in small scale.

• According to the profiles of higher local governments 2015, Nebbi had a poverty head count of 51 and an average dependency ratio of 102. 8. Literacy rate: 10 years and above (58. 8%), Male 75. 9%, Female 43. 8%. The district has 166 government aided primary schools with a total enrolment of 104, 453, 53% being boys and 47% girls. The overall dropout rate is 4. 67%, for boys and 4. 87% for girls. The overall completion rate stands at 39%; 54% for boys and 24% for girls. • The dominant religious denominations are the Catholic and Anglican churches. However, several smaller groups also exist. About 80% of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church while the Anglican society accounts for about 15% and the rest of the population is of other beliefs.

Rock view -‘Shalom’-Formation house and convent in Nebbi

Oriyang village in Nebbi Town Oriyang means acacia tree (Thorn bush). Earlier it was bush of acacia where people cleared it and settled. Mostly people build their homes in the middle of the farm, each family builds at least five mud houses one used by parents alone, one for girls, one for boys one for visitors and one for kitchen during the day, and at night for cattle. They also build small local granary near their homes. They burry their dead behind the house or the clan will decide and set apart a consign close to the houses. We have poor road infrastructure, most of the time women have to walk miles to sell their farm products. In some villages no transport facility at all or may be (Bodaboda) or motorbikes to pick and drop.

• Our main apostolate is Vocation promotion and Formation. • Mean time we do family apostolate such as visiting families, Praying with the families, listening to the owes of people, teaching school dropouts and children who cant afford to go to school, counseling, visiting the sick and the aged. • According to the statistic done by sisters in Oriyang and Onjuko villages , 59 families have no electricity or solar facility, poor sanitation and no water facility. • Most of the children don’t go to school lack of school fees; those going to school have no conducive environment to study. • We organize evening study classes in our convent premises but of late we could not continue as it is too sunny and rain as well. • Meantime we applied for funds to put up multipurpose hall and we had negative reply for brick and cement but books and other equipments approved.

• If we don’t address this issue now, in the long run we may lose many of our young people for unwanted and early pregnancies, drug addiction, alcohol, theft and child marriage. • Students performance in general in National exams are poor due to above mentioned. • By nature they are very clever and smart but they don’t have opportunities and poverty that makes their living miserable. • We are making them understand the human resource is the power to generate our own income and not to complain and to work hard. • Yet to day we are here seeking for your generous help to support our children and our young people to built a better human society. • In general they have passion for music, therefore we recruited youth of our village produced a DVD to create environment awareness in our village, in our Town and in our municipality. • We also registered people in St. Charles Eco-Club and promoting tree planting and clean environment. • With the help of the parish priest , Eco club members were able to plant more than 2000 trees in and around our villages.

Children of our village

Home of a affordable person who has two meals a day.

These children are from a polygamous family who are semi orphans looked after by grand parents in their homes as they do not encourage orphanages.

Regular Family visits and preparing for sacraments in our village in Oriyang-A

During family visit in Onjuko village

One borehole for the whole village and women have to go long distance to fetch water.

Oriyang village market

Visiting the sick and liturgical celebration with the our villagers and our first Ugandan sister

This is the traditional home in Uganda especially in West Nile

This is inside the kitchen

Children who don’t have clothes, most of them can’t afford fresh clothes and they are satisfied with the secondhand clothes or nothing at all.

Pictures below show the school drop outs who have no school fees to go to school, and sisters distribute stationary and refreshments after evening study programme