Ethiopia - Help and train the population of Pugnid

19 June 2017

(ANS - Pugnid) - In the Pugnid area, near Gambela, Ethiopia, the rainy season has come. For many young people it is a time of school exams and the missionary activities are many and flourishing, as usual. The relative calm does not, however, eliminate problems, especially those with deep cultural roots, such as polygamy. Here is the testimony of Fr (abba) Filippo Perin, Salesian missionary.

Almost every day we have our time for the rain, torrential and abundant, so many roads and areas of the countryside are flooded. (...) Year-end examinations for the students of secondary schools and for ours are beginining; (...) we hope everything goes well for everyone and that the students of our hostel obtain a good result to allow them to go to university or preparatory school.

The activities of our parish continue every day, the masses here and in the chapels, the activities of catechesis, the kindergarten and the canteen, the oratory ... and just last week we put our salon into operation where we shall be projecting movies for children. We bought benches, window curtains, video and audio equipment for the movies and, now there is a movie screened especially for children every Saturday. Already last Saturday, which was the second screening, there were almost a thousand kids! (...)

We inaugurated two hand-powered water wells in two different villages, one completed after one year of work and many difficulties, while the other was started and completed this year. A water well is always a precious gift made to the people of a village who can finally tap and drink clean drinking water and this is thanks to the many benefactors who help us and support us.

Now that the rains have arrived and the souls of people have calmed down, hence the relative peace in the whole area, we must face other problems that arise within our community ... a cultural problem. When a person marries a woman and has children, and this person has a job, he can somehow take care of the needs of the family - home, food, clothes, and other things. The situation becomes critical when the man decides to take a second wife and have other children. (...) How many meetings we've had to try to support these people, see where mistakes have been made, find a solution together, give hope ... and it's not always easy!

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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