Fr Jo Kizito wrote a letter to the Parish for Easter but due to postal delays it has not arrived yet; however, as the camp’s electricity supply has just been restored after several weeks, he was able to send an email message which arrived on Maundy Thursday.
“Thank you a million times for keeping me close to your thoughts and prayers- what a gift a virtue only given by the Holy Spirit. The news (an Easter greeting emailed from Kettering) is quite inspiring and nostalgically takes me back to the beautiful memories of St Edwards Parish community where due to the present structure, I may not be able to access. God knows. Thank You”
Up to 9th April Covid-19 had not entered his Kyangwali Refugee Camp, which is now home to 120655 refugees (it housed 38136,in 2015), from such places as Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Sudan. As the practice is to provide each arriving family with a plot of land and materials to build a basic shelter, there may not be the dangerous overcrowding which some refugee camps have to cope with. The whole settlement covers 38 square miles. In normal times there are 32 humanitarian organisations working in the camp, all supervised by UNHCR, but at this time of crisis many have evacuated from the Camp, putting more strain on Fr Jo’s “St Patrick’s Spacid Organisation”, which has responsibility for the “Integral Development of Refugees which incorporates Spiritual Animation”
Fr Jo writes “As you may imagine, today, without the approved medical cure of the Pandemic Virus, everyone looks for God’s intervention. Here Fr Jo looks like the solution. Everyone is looking at me. It is the most challenging situation that I have ever faced in this type of Postolate.”
As in the whole of Uganda all of the seven Chapels of Fr Jo’s Mission have been closed. He is having to say Mass in a small room with only one other person, the project coordinator able to attend.
Footnote Recently we experienced a hiccup in forwarding, in a secure way, money to Fr Jo, but, that problem has been resolved now, so, once things return to normal, the parish will be able to transfer donations to him again.
