Vulnerable adults and children are a primary concern at Rosminian schools, parishes and projects. In Tanzania and Kenya we have two designated priests who work in the East Africa Province, to ensure the Safeguarding policy is in place, and procedures followed. Fr. Anthony Marandu (standing in photo) and Fr. Ambrose Chuwa (seated in photo) have many years of experience in the area of Safeguarding training.
At the end of August they ran two staff workshops for Rosminian centres in Tanga district, Tanzania. One in St. Patrick’s Vocational Training Centre, Lushoto; and the other in Kwalukonge Health Centre, Korogwe.
The Safeguarding workshops covered the following topics: the rights of the child; Tanzania and international law and standards of protection; behaviour protocols and how to respond to a complaint.
Skills in how to prevent and respond to abuse are very important, especially for the staff at the two centres (pictured below).
• St. Patrick’s Vocational Training Centre runs a range of practical training courses to equip students with work skills.
• Kwalukonge Health Centre provides in and out patient care and a range of health services, serving the local Maasai population.
Safeguarding Workshop Kwalukonge Health Centre, Tanzania
Safeguarding Workshop St. Patrick’s Vocational Training Centre
We are delighted that both of these projects have recently received funding from Misean Cara to expand and develop their programmes.
Vocations to religious life are growing in Africa, and this is true also of the Rosminian Congregation in East Africa. Rosminian priests spend about ten years preparing for their ordination. Many then work in parishes. But some are appointed as school managers, or community development or health centre directors and they find that they need new skills for these roles. This was the feeling at a recent skills training workshop in Nairobi, Kenya in October, which was attended by 14 managers and staff, currently working in Rosminian projects in Kenya and Tanzania. Over three days, facilitated by the Rosminian MDO, Michael Hanly, and the Misean Cara East Africa Mentor, Paul Gichuki, the focus was on project cycle management skills, budgeting and safeguarding. Participants were keen to learn more, and they also spent time selecting further training opportunities for online courses.
By the end of the workshop, most felt they would like to continue training, so they could perform as well as possible, as project managers, administrators, etc. By the end, the workshop feedback was positive from the participants: “Most of us didn’t previously have the knowledge, but now I have an insight into how to go about asking donor agencies fort funding”. “Personally, I learned new skills, eg. budgeting, and how it is related to the mission I am doing as a Rosminian”. “Above all I have started to learn new skills on planning and management.”
One of the highlights was a practical project visit to a community development project in a Maasia community. The project works on two main issues: advocating for the rights of girls to prevent them being forced into early marriage as teenagers – often as young as 13 or 14; and also to prevent FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). We heard how these problems are being addressed by an innovative project led by Mama Grace and her team, at the MAC Centre, run by the Rosminians. The centre (based in Ewuaso, about an hour outside Nairobi) for over ten years has supported teenage girls who have run away from home because of the danger of being forced into a marriage at too young an age, or FGM. These are daily cultural practices within Maasai communities in East Africa. Mama Grace spoke with passion about girls’ rights and she knows the culture well as a proud Maasai woman. She stresses the need for education for all, up to age 18 and beyond, especially for girls in the local area so they can make their own choices about work, marriage, or family.
Thanks to Misean Cara who supported the workshop, through a capacity building grant.
Group photo – Rosminian skills training workshop, Nairobi, Oct 2024
Mama Grace, Directress of MAC Centre, Ewuaso, Kenya
Maasai Community, Kenya (Oct 2024)
Rosminian Skills Training Workshop, Project Visit (Oct 2024)
OFFICES OF THE PROVINCE
Provost Provincial : James M. Browne
([email protected])
00353 (0)87 8229774
Provincial Council:
Vicar of Spiritual Charity / Administrator: Vinod Kurian
Vicar of Intellectual Charity: Matthew Gaffney
Vicar of Temporal Charity: PJ Fegan
Admonitor: Michael Melican
Secretary: Wilhad Shayo
Member: Rick Pilger
Fr. Nicas Shirima, Director – was appointed in 2023 and leads in developments for both the Rosminian Kwalukonge Health Centre and the Farm.
The Rosminian Health Centre in Tanzania serves the Maasia people who live in the district. The photo shows the vaccine store and fridge.
We plan to construct a new building in the Health Centre which will be for Maternal and Child Health. This will help to improve the health services for children, such as a vaccine programme.
Thanks to Misean Cara for supporting our work.
The Rosminian East Africa Province Assembly took place in Lushoto during the week of the 26th February 2024.
This training centre has a range of practical life skills courses which are held in Lushoto town. These courses are often attended by poorer students who do not get into the more expensive academic type secondary schools.
The photo below showing a motor mechanics training course taking place.
Students in the electrical installation workshop
Students in the Carpentry and Joinery workshop
The Kwalukonge Health Centre responds to health needs in a Maasai area of Tanzania. Funding was given by Misean Cara in 2021 for the Ultrasound and X-ray machines and the building to house them.
Nurse/midwife Isack Ngulo and Doctor Egbert Ngwesheme with the Ultrasound machine along with a photo of the X-ray machine.
Please click here to read the latest newsletter from Rosminian Fr. John Fortune who is leaving Ewuaso Kedong Parish, Kenya after 16 years.
Please click here to read the latest newsletter from Rosminian Fr. John Fortune in Ewuaso Kedong Parish, Kenya.
Please see below for a report by RTÉ News on equine therapy home visits carried out by Childvision, which is under the patronage of the Rosminians.
If you wish to make a donation to support the wonderful work of Childvision, please click here.
Please click here to read a bulletin from the Provincial, Fr. Joseph O’Reilly, and Rosminians around the world on the current Covid 19 situation in their location.