THE LENTEN ACTION ON MARCH 2020 AT MGOLOLE ORPHANAGE
Mater Salvatoris Scholasticate House has a tradition of going to do Lenten action whenever it comes the period of Lent. As a community we have already gone to Aman Centre to visit Mental retarded ones, We have visited at Fungafunga, Tungi small Christian community etc, and on 2020 we decided to go At Mgolole
Orphanage Centre. This year we visited only one place as the community decided that it is better to do our charity actions at one place instead of many centres, the community decided that it is better to collect whatever we have and go with them in one place according to the choice of the community.
LENTEN COMMITTEE MEMBERS (2020)
The
MAIN COMMITTEE for the LENTEN ACTION 2020 was established during the community
meeting on Friday 21st February. Its main task was to organise and
plan out for the LENTEN ACTION. The members who volunteered to be part of the
MAIN COMMITTEE were, Frt.
Francis Kafuru SDS, Frt.
Edward Lupaka SDS, Frt.
Robert Marwein SDS, Frt.
Joseph SDS and Frt.
Andrea SDS.DATE /DAY OF LENTEN ACTION
On 22nd February, the MAIN COMMITTEE had the first meeting in order to organise
and plan out for the LENTEN ACTIONS. In this meeting, the MAIN COMMITTEE
decided to choose a single place for the LENTEN ACTION, and the place chosen was
Mgolole (the Orphanage centre). The date chosen to perform the LENTEN ACTION was on
21st March.
NB:
Apart from the above items we had also one sack of Maize of 100kg 
THE TRAVEL PLAN
In Regard with travel plan, the main committee decided to borrow the car of Br. Philip SDS,
the car of the Benedictine, and to use the community’s cars. After the meeting, the Prefect Frt. Francis
Kafuru, SDS met the Assistant Formator, Fr. Alain SDS to confirm the decision made by
the MAIN COMMITTEE. Fr. Alain accepted it and encouraged the MAIN COMMITTEE to
go ahead with the plan.
PRIOR VISITATION TO MGOLOLE ORPHANAGE CENTRE
Prior visitation was very important, hence On
23rd February, three members of the MAIN COMMITTEE, Frt. Lupaka, SDS, Frt. Joseph, SDS and Frt. Adrea, SDS went to visit Mgolole to inquire about the place and to
inform those who are in charge about
the community’s intention to visit them.On
24th February the MAIN COMMITTEE had the second meeting; this time the
meeting was about hearing the feedback from the last visit made to Mgolole. The
Members who visited Mgolole gave the feedback. There
were 51 children between the ages of 2-5 living in Mgolole in 2020. The
times for various activities of the house begin at 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM. At 13:00
hour the children take siesta or rest. The
Sister in charge of Mgolole proposed that a preferable day for them to receive
quests was Saturday, which was compatible to the MAIN COMMITTEE’s plan. Rice
and cooking oil were the two major things that the community would provide as
gifts. The
children eat ugali during noon and they want rice during the night. The
Sister also agreed that our community can share lunch together with the
children. our committee also planed to assist them working manually such us slashing, or colleting leaves, cleaning toilet.
E EFFECT OF COVID-19
The outbreak of Corona virus affected our plans, the main committee arranged that all community members should go to visit the orphanage centre, to eat lunch together with children, play with them, and even do some manual works together but due to Corona virus all these turned upside down. On
20th March, Frt. Lupaka and Robert went to Mgolole to remind them
about the visitation. At the same time, to inform them that the entire
community will not be able to come due to the Coronavirus outbreak. The Sister
in charge was not available on that day, but Mr. Sephrain who was also the
member of the house agreed to take the information to the sister. The MAIN
COMMITTEE received clear instruction from the Formators that they should be
very sensitive about the spreading of the Coronavirus, therefore to avoid having any contact with the children. Following
this instruction, the MAIN COMMITTEE decided that only its members should go
and represent the community to Mgolole.
A JOURNEY TO MGOLOLE FOR LENTEN ACTION
On
21st March at 9:00 AM all the five members of the MAIN COMMITTEE and
Frt. John Nsenye (as a DRIVER) went
to Mgolole together with some groceries. The following are the groceries;
ITEM | AMOUNT | DESCRIPTION |
Rice | 40kg | 40KG
@2000= 80,000 |
Oil | 20kg | 20LT@2650
= 53,000 |
Sugar | 20kg | 20KG@2350=
47,000 |
TOTAL | 180, 000/= | |
Once
the members of the MAIN COMMITTEE arrived at Mgolole, they met with the incharge,
Sr. Maria Mbenna and talked with her about the program and its intension. Sr.
Maria acknowledged that the gifts the community provided for the children were
very important as they were in real need of them. Following the instruction
from the Formators the members of the MAIN COMMITTEE did not have any contact
with the children, except Peter who was a spokesperson of the children. Peter
thanked the members of MAIN COMMITTEE for the visit and the gifts. The members
of the MAIN COMMITTEE in return gave thanks to Sr. Maria and Peter, and before
departing from the place a short prayer was made by Frt. Joseph. At around
11:30 AM the MAIN COMMITTEE departed from Mgolole and returned to the community.
SOME
CHALLENGES AND FAILURES
1. Since the financial situation of the
house is not that good, the community failed to contribute more.
2. Unfortunately this year due to the
coronavirus outbreak not everyone in the community experience the LENTEN
ACTION
ACHIEVEMENTS/SUCCESSES
1.
Regardless of the Coronavirus outbreak the MAIN COMITTEE managed to fulfil
the LENTEN ACTION as it was planned.
2. The gifts provided by the community
for the LENTEN ACTION were valuable.
3. Active participation among the members
of the MAIN COMMITTEE.
SOME PROPOSALS FOR FUTURE
IMPROVEMENTS
The
Main Committee suggests the following;
1.
The
LENTEN ACTION to be continued
2.
To
consider choosing a single place for the LENTEN ACTION because it is more
effective and practical.
3.
To
add more contributions like financial support, clothing, and food commodities.
CONCLUSION
in the final analusis, let our community be more active in these charity actions, let us help people in need. And he said them "Go into the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation" (Mk. 16:15). We salvatorians, we are supposed to help people in need by doing lenten action oftenly.
OTHER PICTURES
Reference
Most of the information were obtained from the Secretary of the Matery Salvatoris Scholasticate Frt. Robert Marwein, SDS in 2020.
