The Rev. Simon Taabu, an assistant pastor of Holy Family Church in
Lincoln, spoke about his homeland and the needs of the people living
there.
Taabu, a native of Tanzania, is in the United States studying for
a doctorate in educational administration at the request of the
Catholic bishop of Rulenge-Ngara Diocese. He plans to return to his
homeland to serve as an administrator in a new Catholic university
to be established in Tanzania.
Rev. Simon related that he was more than 45 years old when he
went back to school. He said that won't make it easy for him to go
back to school and work as an administrator of the only Catholic
university in the country. "But that's where I will be working,"
Taabu said, "if the bishop doesn't change his mind."
"I'm not too nervous talking about Tanzania," he quipped,
"because I know most of the facts and most people don't know what
I'm talking about."
He went on to describe his homeland as the location of Mount
Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, and of Lake Victoria,
the largest tropical lake in the world.
Taabu, whose parents were first-generation Christians, said
Tanzania is made up of about 65 percent Christians, probably 45
percent of them Catholics; 20 percent Muslims; and a small number of
traditional African religions.
He grew up in a village of about 1,500 people about 30 miles from
Lake Victoria. He saw few cars and "if you saw a motorbike, you knew
it was a Catholic priest," he said. "Probably, that was how I was
attracted to the priesthood."
The second of seven children, Taabu said he came from a
"medium-sized" family. "Big families have up to 15 children," he
said, "although family sizes are shrinking."
The pastor spoke about the poverty of his homeland, where most
people make less than $1 a day. He said hospitals are very small
with minimal facilities. When he left, none of them had dental
chairs.
"According to our constitution," Taabu said, "we must host
refugees who have no home." He served as director of a refugee
program for 3 1/2 years before he left. He mentioned that the people
he served were very traumatized, and so they were unable to
appreciate much of what was done for them.
He said challenges of his country include lack of educational
facilities. "We want to give a high school education to every
Tanzanian, but one school has 250 students and three teachers," he
said.
"The water supply is poor. People must walk five miles to bring
water home on their heads. Some of it is not safe and must be boiled
before it can be used. We also need health facilities."
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To help solve the problems, Tanzania wants to build and furnish
more schools. The country hopes to develop rain harvesting programs,
water tanks, drill bore holes, put in gravity water systems and
clean existing water systems. Well drilling is expensive, because
equipment must be moved in from the coast, more than 1,000 miles
away.
New hospitals and hospital supplies are needed, as well as new
health clinics and health education. "We wanted to ship some used
hospital equipment from Springfield," Taabu said, "but we needed
$10,000 and we didn't get the money."
In addition to the general poverty of the country, Taabu said
that most aid efforts take place in the more urban areas. Life in
the very rural area on the edge of Tanzania where he grew up is very
hard, and few aid organizations target their operations there.
"Only people who have guts go there to serve," he said. "One
reason we want to start schools is to bring services like
electricity and water."
Many children of Tanzania have lost their parents to HIV-AIDS and
make up a portion of the 12 million orphans in Africa.
Taabu said he now has enough money to send six or seven orphans
to school, but he is attempting to raise funds so more can attend.
The average cost of sending one student to high school for a year is
$600, including board and lodging.
Asked who cares for the orphans, Taabu replied, "It is an African
tradition for them to live with relatives or extended families. We
do not have a lot of orphanages."
However, families with many children of their own and few
resources often cannot care for the orphans. "They have to walk five
miles to get water and collect wood to cook, so there is not enough
time to do school," he said. "So we try to place them in boarding
schools."
Following Taabu's presentation, Nancy Davis of Elkhart,
coordinator for Bridges of Promise Midwest, invited those in
attendance to contribute to the relief effort. All contributions are
tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law.
For more information, visit the organization's website at
www.bridgesofpromise.org
or the blog at
www.bridgesofpromise.blogspot.com. Bridges of Promise is also on
Facebook. Davis can be contacted at
nancydavis608@gmail.com
or 217-737-7706.
Contributions are sought for scholarship funds and project funds,
and individuals who wish to do so can also sponsor the education of
a specific child.
[By NANCY SAUL] |