Christians of St. Peters Nanga Contribute to Wakonyu ‘OMA-project’.

Recently Christians from four parishes under St. Peters Nanga Catholic Church (Dunga sub-parish, Bala sub-parish, Sigala gala sub-parish and Got Owak sub-parish) all gathered together for a joint mass. This particular mass was of importance to Wakonyu because at the end of the mass there was going to be a second collection from Christians.  The proceeds of the collection were to go to Wakonyu to help support it.

The mood in the church compound that day was that of excitement and happiness. You could tell that Christians were happy to gather together once again to celebrate the holy mass.  Normally the joint mass also known as family mass, is celebrated on the 5^th Sunday of a month. In a year there are only four Sundays that happen to fall on the fifth weekend of a month. which is rare, and maybe that is why the Christians were happy that it was finally happening. In his profound sermon Fr. Kraakman touched on giving back to the less fortunate and its significance, that ‘God blesses the hand that gives’ he explained.

The second collection was proposed in the church council though Wakonyu’s area representative of Nanga. The representative had initially explained to the Parish council the fundamental role of Wakonyu and its importance to the community, he also told them of the financial challenges that Wakonyu had been facing due to reduction in donor funding. It is through that, that the parish council members together with the parish priest Fr. Jerry Kraakman, saw the need for there to be a second collection from Christians. “We want the Christians to have a sense of belonging to Wakonyu, its time they should own it as there’s” Mr. Makunda said.

At the end of the mass, Christians were briefed on the history of Wakonyu and what Wakonyu does. It was important to brief the Christians about this, so that they get a clear picture of what Wakonyu is all about. And also to remind them that there were still many people within their community that needs help but cannot access it due to the financial challenges Wakonyu is currently facing.

Fundraising

Wakonyu is currently coming up with ideas on how to raise funds to support the ‘OMA-Project’.  The project has been facing major financial challenges for the better part of this year. This has prompted us to reduce the number of beneficiaries benefiting from the medical insurance to 180 beneficiaries from the previous 290. So far we have written letters to all the neighboring parishes (Christians can contribute through second collection) and local political leaders requesting them to support us financially. Also one of the parishes already had their Christians contribute money and through that we managed to get kshs. 10,000, which is good but still very little. We are hoping and looking forward to having a positive response from this initiative, that way Wakonyu can stay afloat and more people can be helped.