Our Links With Africa - Mongu Zambia

During the International Year of the Child, in 1983, the Presentation Sisters founded a Cheshire Home for disabled children in a remote town called Mongu in the Western part of Zambia.

Soon after, Dorothy Rance, a parishioner of St Teresa's, was developing the Justice and Peace initiative in Beaconsfield. By happy chance she heard of the Home at Mongu through a Sister Louis who explained that the main aim of the Home was the rehabilitation of the handicapped child through surgery, physiotherapy and education.

The need was desperate: polio and cerebral malaria were wreaking havoc among the young of Zambia, and there were such few resources there.

And so the parish "adopted" the Home and for many years has been raising money to help expand and maintain it. Fund raising events are many and varied: from the annual Fete which raises many thousands of pounds each year, to the Sunday Mass Coffee Rota which pays for the postage to send about 20 kgs of gifts for Mongu every few months.

Should you wish to make a donation please make cheques payable to St.Teresa's Church and send to:-                                                       St Teresa's Presbytery
                                                             40 Warwick Road
                                                             Beaconsfield,
                                                             Buckinghamshire
                                                             HP9 2PL
                                                             UK

Mark back "Mongu" if you want to giftaid please e mail the office

Over the years, people as well as money and gifts have gone to Mongu.

Fr George McCann visited the Home in 1990, followed by the Hughes family two years later; then John Jolly and, most recently, Katrina Kelly. Each year, one of the Presentation Sisters visit our Parish, and two years ago Mr. Ikaffa, Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Home, came to our Fete and helped with the fundraising!

In 1997 the Parish covenanted to maintain its support for Mongu, and help is also being extended to a Care Centre for young orphans and babies at Kaoma, about 200 kms from Mongu. That same year we installed a new stained-glass window in the church to commemorate St Teresa being declared a "Doctor of the Church."

Stained glass window of St Teresa of the Child Jesus

In it St Teresa holds the Bible with the words "Sicut Parvuli" - "Become like children." Around her are depicted children from the different continents of the world and the 2 African faces are those of Kanyanga and Massaleeso, children from the home at Mongu. Our links with Zambia provide a focus for all the parishioners, from our children who send Christmas gifts, to their parents and all who are in many ways involved in the various fund raising activities.

Some would say that the flow of benefits is very much two way: Zambia contributes to the Parish in ways that the people of Mongu do not realise.

Update 2009

St. Teresa's Fundraising for Mongu

Where did our money come from this year?

Summary	2005/06	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09
Fete/Raffle	6,614	8,242	8,922	8,255
Candles	3,086	3,383	3,704	3,379
Donations	3,005	3,181	4,001	2,742
Lottery	2,364	2,426	3,585	1,886
Lenten Boxes		1,651	1,652	1,981
Car Park	1,549	1,250	2,000	2,250
Parish Supper	910	865	0	260
First Communion Collection	171	832	496	812
Crib - Dons, Raffle & Service	382	605	503	626
Folk Group	249	468	260	380
Christmas Cards & Dons		265	46	230
Cards fro Good Causes			750	750
Concert			320	440
Hick's London Marathon				518
Confirmation Collection		181	0	400
Advent/Xmas Gift Sales			378	445
Westminster Abbey visit		126	0	0
Ladies Lunch	204	37	0	0
Wine Tasting			560	0
Kidsathlon			300	0
Lindisfarne / Malta Pilgrims	23	0	0	0
Rebecca's Bingo	395	0	0	0
Less Mongu Postage Votive Candles	-£320	-£567.00	-£451.00	-£715.00
	£18,632	£22,945	£27,026	£24,639


Fr Francis Parish Priest of St Teresa's presented the 2009 cheque to Sr. Helen of the Presentation Sisters for £23,000 at the Parish Supper
	The Home in Mongu
For more pictures of Mongu, please click here