Success Stories
Success Story: Peace education for young people in Cameroon
category
For many years, Cameroon, located in Central West Africa with a population of almost 26 million, was regarded as relatively stable in comparison with its crisis-ridden neighbors. However, in 2016, protest marches began because many people in the English-speaking part of the country felt themselves to be oppressed by the larger, French-speaking part and began to demand independence. Subsequently these protests escalated into an armed conflict that endures to this day between separatists in the Anglophone provinces and the Francophone ...
Success Story: A parish house for a new parish in Bangladesh
category
Dinajpur is one of the poorest of the eight Catholic dioceses in Bangladesh. As they do everywhere in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, Catholics represent only a tiny minority of the population. Most of the faithful belong to ethnic minorities and are thus doubly disadvantaged: on account of their Christian faith and because of their ethnic background. They face discrimination and often actual violence in their daily lives. The Church is alone in caring for them and helping them to live ...
Renovation of building for pastoral center in India
category
Bishop James Thoppil of the Diocese of Kohima in the state of Nagaland was concerned for the religious formation of laity, and identified a great need for the training of catechists, marriage preparation courses and intensified work with the women, children and young people. Until now, he had no pastoral or training center to use for this purpose. The Catholic faith first arrived in 1948 in the region with a community of religious Sisters. Initially they faced great opposition, and ...
A car for a Catholic radio station in Malawi
category
In many parts of Africa, the faithful have a great longing for God and for the Gospel message, but there is a great challenge of vast distances and poor road conditions, making it difficult for pastoral outreach. In the Diocese of Karonga in northern Malawi, the Catholic radio station Tuntufye FM urgently needed a vehicle. The diocese contacted us with a request of an all-terrain vehicle to help the station offer outside broadcasts not only from the central station itself ...
Success Story: A Riverboat for Pastoral Outreach in Brazil
category
Father Washington Dioleno Araújo Taveres is a happy man. Thanks to your generous help, he now has the riverboat he so urgently needs for his ministry to his Catholic faithful. His parish of John the Baptist, in Curralinho, is situated in Brazil‘s Amazon delta region. The distances he must travel are vast, as he has 57 scattered riverside settlements to minister to along the river and its adjoining waterways. Until recently, Father Vageres had to navigate these waterways with a ...
Success Story: A New Chapel for a Village in Bangladesh
category
Sonka is the poorest and remotest of the 35 villages of the parish of Nijpara in the Diocese of Dinajpur. While it is more than 11 miles from the main parish center, there are 20 Catholic families living there, devout believers who are actively involved in the life of the Church. Until recently, the village only had an old, mud chapel. It had already become too small for the growing number of the faithful, and it was then rendered unusable ...