The Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo

Kamba village, Varap post, shahad, Kalyan west,
Thane Dist, Maharashtra, India - 421103

Our mission in Myau is one of the special missions which we launched at the request of the Bishop of Mbinga to attend to the educational and pastoral needs of the area. And we were only very glad to respond to the invitation because one of the recommendations of the Regional Chapter 2012 was to go to the interior parts of Tanzania‘To make our presence in the interior areas. Sr Sagaya the Regional superior along with her council responded to the invitation of the Bishop of Mbinga Most Rev.  John C. Ndimbo  January 6th  2017 to run St. Charles Borromeo pre-primary school owned by the Diocese, named after the Patron of our congregation, for the poor Children of this village to give quality Education.

The first missionaries of the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo to Mbinga Diocese Namely Srs Arphutha Mary, the Superior, Juliana D’ Souza the Headmistress and Neema Elkana. The sisters of St. Charles sincerely appreciate and thank the Bishop, and Fr. Kevin Haule the one who inspired and supported the sisters to venture in to this new mission.

POPULATION, LIFE STYLE AND FOOD HABITS

It has a number of about 10,000 inhabitants of whom 80% are Catholics. They are distributed in 5 sub-stations. Population is high and birth rate is higher still. The people of this area have political awareness but they lack sense of patriotism, human rights and critical thinking. Their only aim is to work in the field to cultivate their livelihood, their food habits they eat mostly Ugali made out of maize flour, plantain with meat, greens, lots of fruits from their own garden, their food is very simple. During summer they lack food at home they wait for the rain and plant their crops. Coffee cultivation main work. Poverty is a serious social problem, especially in Mbinga and it is surrounded villages. The music and dance is a common phenomenon in this area.

The youngsters are so fond of them. The youngsters indulge in pre-marital sex and drug abuse. The young girls give birth to children out of wed log.  The young girls leave their children to grandmothers and get married to a man. Men in these Tribes called Kimatengo have and live with many Wives. So there are so many children some with their Parents and others are with their Guardians. The people of this area spend a lot of time and money for funerals and marriages. If the funeral house does not provide food for people, people are not interested do attend any ceremonies; food is very important for the celebrations. Otherwise very poor response from the people, they travel to far places to participate in such ceremonies.   

Present situation

The Children of St Charles Borromeo Pre-primary School Myau come from Families belonging to below poverty line lacking proper attention and nourishment, education and decent upbringing. So there is an urgent need to pay attention to all round growth and development. This we aim to achieve through our school providing quality education together with giving them porridge, making sure it has all nutrients necessary for their growth. Parents of Pupils are poor materially and morally. They find difficult to pay the school fees to education their Children because of their meager income.

SISTERS PRESENCE IN THIS AREA

St. Charles Borromeo Pre-Primary School in the remote Myau village, 22 km away from Mbinga town in Mbinga diocese. Since then tremendous progress has been made in the life of the children and parents, and the village itself.  There is change in the thinking pattern of the people.  The sisters have been like leaven influencing the people positively. There are a lot of challenges in this rural village but we are encouraged to continue our missions because our presence brings changes in the lives of the people through education. Through family visits by the sisters and formees awareness is brought to the people to educate their children and live a good moral life. With the repeated guidance and counseling and awareness programs on the need of formal education for children given to the parents and people of the village. Though having lots of challenges yet our presence has brought new hope to the people of the place.

The people in Myau do not know the value of education since most of them are illiterate. The children who have joined school also dropout and end up not having completed the Primary education. So it is a challenge to convince the parents about the value of education and keep children in school through family visits by Sisters and Formees awareness is brought to the people to educate their Children and live a good moral life. Parents have begun to respond and have brought their Children to our school; the strength of the school has increased to 52 in number.

Challenges faced
Distance:

Dar es Salaam to Mbinga to reach it takes 2 days. And Distance from Iringa to Mbinga by road.9 hours From Mbinga to Myau which is 24km drive on the mud road it takes almost an hour. We don’t have any market or shops in our village. We need to go 24 kms for all our shopping.

Weather:

St.Charles Borromeo  is at Myau,this is a village surrounded by hills and valleys. May to August is cold season; temperature experienced is from 8 – 17C.  And other times it is rather warm, but nights are pleasant.  The rainy season is from December to April.  The road is usually very bad and slippery when its rainy. Its very risky to travel to Mbinga during rainy seasons. 

Expansion of the mission

Our main another apostolate is formation. At present we have 8 aspirants’ two candidates and three postulants. Since we lack the formation house, for the earlier stages, three stages are put together with two directresses. The community makes lots of adjustment to accommodate these formees and they are completely depends on the region for their needs.

They are involved in teaching catechism in the neighboring schools. The sisters and formess take turns to proclaim the word of God in the neighboring villages. Especially during the month of October and May. Visiting the families and attending masses in the substations preparing the children to receive sacraments. Presence of formess has brought life and spirit in the community as well as in the apostolate.

EXPANSION OF MISSION- FORMATION

Srs. Anita Pinto,LalitaMinj Arputham, Reginajothimani  and Winni Adrian  and Formees from Myau –Mbinga.