Fr Steven – Karonga Parish

Fr Steven of St Joseph parish Karonga distributing solar lights for Christmas 2022

RIP Vicar General, Monsignor Denis Chitete

It’s with great sadness we report the news that Vicar General, Monsignor Denis Chitete died aged 53 in the capital Lilongwe on Friday, 24th December 2021 from a heart attack

Income generating projects in St. Joseph The Worker, Karonga, Malawi

This is a newly established diocese in the far north of Malawi; our twinning began in 2011. There are two primary schools: one for boys and one for girls.   We have an ongoing project to aid the supply of electricity to both schools.   This allows the teachers pupils to work beyond daylight hours. There is also a Micro Loans project underway.

March 2021

Apprentices & Training project – March 2021

There are two groups: 1) The girls making garments & clothing, all by hand.

2. The boys training in carpentry, making furniture.

Covid fund raising has allowed Karonga Parishes to buy vital supplies – March 2021

Sunday School children at St. Michael’s Outstation washing their hands before Mass, using the donated buckets, wearing linen face masks. 3rd March 2021

March 2020

UPDATE FROM ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER CATHEDRAL – KARONGA. 2020 FLOODS AND STRONG WINDS.

Since January 2020, Karonga district has experienced heavy rains and strong winds, which have led to many families being displaced either because of flooding or roofs of their homes being blown-off. The children and the elderly are the most affected.

The floods have washed away the household assets such as; food reserves, livestock, chickens, bedding and kitchen utensils.

The victims of the floods have been re-located to a few camps which the government and some non-governmental organisations have created. The camps are generally congested. This means that the occupants are prone to communicable diseases due to poor sanitation. Some camps do not have enough toilets, posing a serious health problem to the occupants. The children are also sleeping without mosquito nets and this is exposing them to malaria, which is the highest cause of deaths among children in Malawi.
The education of the children has also been affected because some of them are locked out in the camps and it is too dangerous for them to walk to school. On 10th March, one school pupil was carried away by the flood water on his way to school in Kalongolera village. His dead body was recovered after several days. On the other hand, some schools are being used as temporary camps for the victims of the floods, and so all school activities have been affected.

Just as children are not able to go to school, in the flooded areas, the children and their parents also find it difficult to go to church to pray. So, Sunday attendance has dropped.

At the moment, the following are some of the immediate needs that are required to support the affected people; Food items ( Maize, beans, cooking oil), Mosquito nets, Water guard/chlorine, Clothes, Tents, Bedding, Cups and plates, Mats and Mattresses.

We hope and pray that the government and other well-wishers will find ways of assisting the victims of the floods to recover and return to their normal life as soon as possible.
Pray for us as we pray for you. With best wishes,
Fr. Denis

January 2020

REPORT OF THE ELECTRICITY PROJECT

In 2019, we submitted a request to a request to the Malawi-Twin Committee to assist with financial assistance to connect the school blocks to the national electricity grid. This would enable the pupils to study in the evening since most of them come from poor homes where they do not have lights in the evening.

The project was worth MK616,200.00 (£650). The Malawi-Twin Committee funded the whole project.

We are pleased to report that this project was successfully implemented and the pupils have started benefiting from it. Here are some pictures of pupils studying in one of the class-rooms.

Update April 2019

Greetings from St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral, Karonga, Malawi. Herewith an update on the projects that have been implemented with the financial assistance from the Malawi-Twin Committee, Corpus Christi, Tonbridge.

1. BAKING PROJECT

The baking project has made very good progress. We have so far trained 65 women in the Parish. For the sake of acquiring baking skills, we attached them to Ms. Veronica Chihana for three months. Apart for the baking skills, they were also trained in how to manage a small scale business.

Initially they were baking together and selling the products as a group. But now they have graduated and all of them are doing their personal businesses. For us, this is a positive development because, they are able to plan and manage the small businesses on their own. From time to time, Ms. Veronica Chihana convenes them to follow-up on how they are faring. She also helps to build their capacity in how to run a small scale business.

Remarks: The project was successfully implemented and is bearing good results because the trained ladies have been empowered to generate their own money for their household expenses. The training in how to run a small scale business is being used outside the baking project because some of the ladies have diversified into growing and selling vegetables.

Given more financial support we could train more ladies.

2. TAILORING AND DESIGNING

In this project, we trained 20 ladies. They have mastered the skill and are able to use the sewing machines very well. They can make dresses, shirts/blouses, especially for children. Their instructor Ms. Bertha Msukwa is very impressed with the commitment of the ladies, who work with very little supervision now.

The ladies, capitalised on St. Joseph Primary School in the vicinity to make uniforms for the school going children. This presented a ready market for them. With the money they generated, the ladies were able to buy farm inputs and so we expect increased production from their farms this year.

During the agricultural season, the ladies slowed down on the sewing in order to concentrate on their maize/rice/cassava fields. They will resume the full-time sewing in April.

Remarks: This project has been successfully implemented and has positively contributed to the economic welfare of the ladies who were trained and their families.

During the agricultural season, the business slows down. But this doesn’t completely disrupt the group.

However, the ladies do not have a shelter from where they can work. They are exposed the hot sun, dusty winds and rains. A simple shelter could be constructed at MK450,000.00.

The ladies may also need some financial “push” to buy more and diverse clothing materials. MK500,000.00 would be enough.

3. GOATS PROJECT

We changed a little on arrangement of the goats’ pass-on project. Instead of targeting women only, we also distributed some to poor families. In Malawi, the herding of domestic animals is predominantly the responsibility of men, except where the woman is widowed and has no male children.

So far, we have distributed 30 goats in all the three zones of the Parish. Am pleased to inform you that all the goats are still alive and 20 of them have kids. Four have twin-kids. We are hopeful that the remaining goats will also have off-springs soon.

Some of the beneficiaries of the goats’ pass-on project.

Remarks: This is a viable and self-sustaining project. Given an opportunity to expand it, I am sure we could assist many vulnerable families. We are proposing to buy 40 more goats. The total cost is MK500,000.00

4. Solar Lamps

80% percent of Malawians live in rural areas and of those, only 2% percent have access to electric light. Therefore the provision of solar lamps is highly appreciated. This project does not only provide for a source of light for the families, but also assists students from poor families to study in the evening. So, the solar lamps are contributing, significantly to the further education of pupils and students in poor families.

5. Floods

You have probably seen many pictures on the Television and through social media of the flooding in Malawi. These are the effects of Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique, Zimbabwe and parts of Malawi.

The Southern, Eastern and parts of the Central regions were the most severely hit. I hope Fr. Francis has submitted a report. Mzimba and Karonga are the only districts that were affected in the Northern region.

The devastation includes the loss of lives, houses, crops in the fields, livestock, houses, roads, bridges…etc. I have attached a report from Karonga District Council regarding the situation in Karonga. Here-below are some of the pictures of the floods in Karonga.

I hope this report gives you a picture of the projects that have been implemented in St. Joseph the Worker Parish with the assistance from the Malawi-Twin Project.

We are sincerely grateful for the support that you give us through the various interventions that we make to try and improve the lives of the poor people in our parish.

Pray for us, we pray for you too.

Fr. Denis S. Chitete

Previous news…. SEPTEMBER 2017

Baking in Karonga: We have funded a new project in the parish of St Joseph the Worker in Karonga.  This has enabled Fr Denis to purchase all the equipment needed to enable his ladies to start baking.   This will make a welcome addition to their usual staple diet of maize.  Below is his report on progress so far, together with a few photos shown below:

REPORT ON BAKERY AND BUSINESS TRAINING

Duration: This training took place from 21^st to 26 August 2017 at St. Joseph the Worker Cathedral.

Participants: We had 30 women drawn from the three zones of the Parish. Each zone sent 10 women.

Rationale: The 30 women have qualified as Trainers. And so they have been commissioned to go and train 30 other women in their respective Parish zones.

Monitoring:Each zone has appointed five women who will monitor the baking activities in the zones and produce a monthly report which will be made available to the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) Leaders and the Parish Priest.

Fr Denis Chitete