It has been a while since we started construction of St. Bruno church and most recently, the priests’ house. Finally however, all those efforts have paid off as St. Bruno Mission church. Was on December 3, 2017, elevated to the newest Catholic parish in Hoima Diocese, Uganda.

We are grateful to all our friends, who over the years, have supported us and prayed for us. May the good Lord bless you all. In a series of photos, we see the bishop, Rt. Rev. Vincent Kirabo, blessing the church’s altar, the priests at Mass, the huge crowd, that showed up for the launching of the parish.

One of the conditions the bishop gave to mission churches, if they are to be upgraded to full parish status, is for them to construct a permanent church building and to build living quarters for the priests, often two, they would receive to run the parish.

I grew up in this area and at that time it was 15 miles to the parish and one of the largest mission. Today it is 9 miles to the nearby parish, St. Bruno. Because most people walk to church, 9 miles is very way to walk to attend mass.

I worked very hard with the help of friends to build the beautiful St. Bruno church which cost over $100,000 to construct. For the parish house (or priests’ house), the people in the area are supposed to collect rocks and sand and also raise money for its completion. Many of the people live on $1 a day and with inflation at nealy 40%, help is desparately need.

The foundation of the house has been completed but there’s still a lot to do:

• A bag of cement sells for $20 and they need some 600 bags.
• A piece of timber sells for $3-4 each and they need close to 400 pieces.
• For the roof, an iron sheet costs about $20 each and they need some 500 iron sheets.
• Labor is another big expense which will cost close to $10,000.
• A trip of sand (just transport) costs $10 and they need many trips of sand and stones.

It has been very hard for the community of some two thousand families to even raise $3,000. Yes, they have plenty of rocks and sand collected ready for transporting to the site, but they have no money to pay to transport it.

The total amount needed to complete this structure is $40,000.

Christina Carpenter visited St. Kirigwajjo Secondary School in January 2008 and saw how miserable it was for the students in terms of infrastructure to study. When Christina went back to the USA she organised a swim-a-thon with her parishioners and friends to fund raise for St. Kirigwajjo Secondary School. The fundraiser was so successful because $25,000 was raised! This money was used to construct a new girls’ dormitory to improve on the sleeping conditions of the girl students at school. One of the objectives of this school is to create conditions that will enable the girl child survive dropping out of school.

Fr. Ken Criqui also visited this school and found that we had not been able to complete the dormitory with the $25,000 and when he returned to the USA he contributed $7,000 for its completion.

By the time Christina came to visit, the school had a dormitory accommodating 70 girl students. The new girls’ dormitory was to accommodate 120 girls, two female staff members, and a sick bay. However, this new dormitory now accommodates 180 girls. At the beginning of 2012 we had no choice but to turn the sick bay into an ordinary room for girls accommodation. This is because every parent wants her/his child at St. Kirigwajjo Secondary School.

St. Kirigwajjo Secondary School has become the most outstanding school in providing integral education to its students with out standing commitment.

The enrolment of the school now is 798 students. There is no more space for accommodating more students but there is a lot of space to construct other buildings since the school has a lot of land. At the moment we urgently need three buildings i.e two dormitories (one for girls and the other for boys) which will cost about $35,000 each, and a single storied structure consisting of a multi-purpose hall five class rooms and a board room.

St. Kirigwajjo S.S. is a Diocesan private Secondary School with no intention of making money out of the students for profits but with the aim of providing the quality education needed in the current world circumstances. It is located in one of the remotest districts of Uganda called Kibaale in western Uganda.

Any assistance for further development of St Kirigwajjo S.S. by any kind people or donor agencies is highly appreciated.

We are very grateful to Christina Carpenter, Fr.Ken Criqui for their contribution and to Fr. George Ssebadduka of Be a Christ to the poor Foundation, who brought these wonderful people to us.

They left unsure about what they would find on their first trip to Africa, Uganda to be exact but their two weeks in Uganda went so fast that they wished they had had more time. The people welcomed them with open arms. We, at Be a Christ to the Poor, Inc. are proud to have had them as partners on this trip.

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While on this trip the visitors were able to participate in the construction of the piggery structures at St. John the Baptist parish in Bulindi, Hoima Diocese and contributed generously to the repairs of the Maize Mill At Uganda Martyrs’ Parish in Buseesa. We are very grateful to you all. Thanks.

The people who traveled to Uganda were: Bob Bond and his sister Patricia Bond, Jim and Jean Schmidt, Albert and Doris Taber, and Rachelle Williams.