Fr Vincent has been coming to our Parish every summer for the last four years. Below he tells us a little of himself and his work. "I am a Diocesan Priest of the Diocese of Jinja in Uganda. I always look forward to coming to the Parish of the Holy Spirit and Our Lady of Grace. I enjoy every moment of my stay in the Parish. You are very wonderful people. I could live here." Back home in Uganda I am the Parish Priest of a very big, rural and poor Parish called Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Namunyumya in the Eastern part of Uganda close to the River Nile. Namunyumya Parish has a Catholic population of 20,000. Besides the main church there are 55 outstations (Mass Centres) covering an area of 2,000 sq km. Each outstation has a catechist who conducts Services and prepares candidates for the Sacraments. My assistant Fr John and I tour the outstations to say Mass and administer the Sacraments. It can be very difficult in the rainy season to reach these places due to poor roads and tracks.
As well as the outstations, the Parish has 22 Catholic founded primary schools. I visit these regularly and am sad to say they lack books, pens, pencils and especially textbooks. In some schools, children sit on the floor in grass thatched huts. My parishioners are poor subsistence farmers with a very strong faith and always enjoy the Priest's visits. They live in mud brick huts with thatched roofs and plant crops of maize, sweet potatoes and, in swampy areas, rice. It is a hard life made more difficult when the rains fail. It is almost impossible for these poor parishioners to maintain the Parish. The weekly collection is 4,000 Ugandan shillings - equivalent to £2. It makes it very hard for a Priest to work effectively in these circumstances. The missionaries who founded our Parish were supported by friends, families and donations from Europe. Unfortunately we do not have access to such funds and find it difficult to run our institutions. Safe drinking water is a major problem with women and children having to travel many kilometres to fetch clean water.
Thanks to the efforts of a prayer group at St Thomas Moore, Leicester, who raised £10,000 over 2 years, I was able to drill a bore hole at St Matia Muiumba Primary School (1,350 pupils and 21 teachers) and another bore hole at St Rafael Primary School (800 pupils). These bore holes provide clean drinking water for the school and its neighbouring villages. With the generosity of the Holy Spirit and Our Lady of Grace parishioners I have recently been able to drill 2 more valuable bore holes. I also have responsibility for 10 orphans, whose parents died from AIDS. They go to boarding schools which cost £100 a term in fees and school materials. We have founded a Girl's Senior School to educate girls, who are often excluded from education, by tradition, in African society.
To those of you who already contribute in supporting my Parish I say a very big 'THANK YOU'.
If you would like to help me with my work please sign a standing order form or by giving whatever you can when you can to Fr Greg for `Fr Vincent's Projects'."
With:-
£5000 I could drill another bore hole for safe and clean drinking water for a school and neighbouring villages.
£300 I could educate an orphan for a year.
£20 I could buy Communion Hosts for a month
£10 I could buy 2 bottles of altar wine for a month.
£10 I could buy altar candles for a rnonth.
Every little helps!
Thank you very much indeed for your generosity and support. God bless you.
Fr Vincent