Congo and UN World Widows' Day

We are all familiar with the troubles in Congo: the murders, the use of rape as a weapon of war, the great number of militias fighting the people, the army and each other: it is a disaster.

But in this disaster, there are people just trying to go about their daily lives, to educate their children, to find work and earn a reasonable income, so that those children can attend school, and – God willing – avoid the trauma that has been suffered by their mothers and fathers.

If work is only available in any form by going into what can only be described as holes in the ground, to try and dig out those minerals so much desired by those of us in the west, so be it: there is no choice in the matter. But there are no safety regulations; there are no hard hates, no steel toed boots, and no protection: and men die.

And the wife is left: often with several children: with a little adobe mud brick hut, a small plot to grow a little food, and nothing else: except the church, the one place where they can find community, in a place where this has lost much of its meaning.

The Anglican Catholic Church in Sud-Kivu has some projects to help: but they need your support: the first is simple: the goat project. If you give a widow a goat, she has milk for her children. The goat can be bred and then there are more goats, more ‘capital’ more milk, and perhaps the chance to sell the extra goats to provide a little income.

But if these women group together: form a cooperative venture, & they can lease some land, they can plant crops: they can market these crops in the town or city: and they have the possibility to provide the very future for their children that they had dreamt of when their husband left for the mines.

It doesn’t take much: one project is looking for $1500.00: it will allow land to be leased for 6 months, crops to be planted, harvest to be made, produce to be sold.

On this UN World Widow’s day, can you help? Contact:

The Africa Appeal,

Treasurer, Parish of St. Bride
20895 Camwood Ave
Maple Ridge, BC
V2X 2N9

or, in the USA:

The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle at

The ACC Mission Fund

The Anglican Catholic Church

c/o St. Stephens Church

PO Box 5223

Athens, Georgia 30604

Fr. David R. Marriott SSC