Kiyogawale (Tanzania)
[May 2024]

Congregation of Benedictine Sisters of St Agnes of Chipole for their House in Kiyogawale (Mbinga, Tanzania)

Project 3556: Renovation of a house of formation

The indigenous congregation of Saint Agnes came into being in 1912, when some indigenous girls from East Africa began to live a religious life; in 1923 they were helped in the formation and organisation of their lives by the Benedictine Missionary Sisters of Tutzing. Canonically erected in 1938 by Bishop Gallus Steiger, the Congregation has grown to include over 600 sisters, including 130 young sisters in temporary vows and around fifty novices and candidates. The sisters are grouped in two priories, Chipole (Songea) and Imiliwaha (Njombe), to which all the missions are attached.

The sisters are engaged in numerous health care services for the population: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc. The dispensaries provide clinical services to local populations and are fully integrated into the national health system of Tanzania, so that health card holders insurance can access the necessary medications free of charge.

The sisters founded eight schools, from kindergarten to secondary school. The latest school founded in 2021 in Mbenga already has around forty children. They also founded an orphanage which welcomes seventy children whose parents succumbed to the AIDS virus.

The sisters are involved in several development programs: continuing training in IT, accommodation, bakery, hydroelectric power stations, one of which supplies electricity to the municipality of Songea, corn mills capable of grinding around twenty tonnes of corn per day allowing several regions and villages to grind their products, sixteen-room inn on the shore of Lake Nyasa…

The sisters make liturgical vestments, candles, have a sewing workshop, a bakery and other workshops which, with the inn and the electricity sold to the state electricity company, partly finance the various commitments of the sisters.

Request

The house of formation was established in Kiyogawale, a few kilometers from the main house in Chipole. It welcomes 80 candidates and 20 members for the management of the place. This house of formation was built in 1980, and the buildings had been covered with asbestos. To this day, all the buildings are dilapidated and the roof leaks when it rains. Some parts of the walls have numerous cracks and the safety of residents is therefore threatened.

In addition, asbestos is now recognized as dangerous for humans. During the rainy season, candidates and staff fall ill due to the unsanitary conditions of their buildings. The majority suffer from coughs, lung cancer and pneumonia. For this reason, major repairs are urgent.

Renovation consists of changing the roof, repairing the walls, floor, windows and doors.

Financial assistance requested:  8,000 euros.

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