St. Joseph's, Norton, and the Link With Ghana

Since August 2005, St. Joseph's, Norton, together with SS Peter & Paul's in Roseworth, Stockton-on-Tees, have formed a strong link with Woriyanga in Ghana. This link is with Fr. Vincent Lubenga and his parishioners.

The background to this link is recounted, below. You can also find out the Latest News with respect to Father Vincent's Woriyanga parish and how St. Joseph's and SS Peter & Paul's are helping.

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"The School Under the Mango Tree"

Parishioners of St. Joseph's, Norton, and SS Peter & Paul's, Stockton, are fundraising to enable a Ugandan priest Fr. Vincent Lubega, to build a small school in the village of Woriyanga in a remote area in the north of Ghana.

Currently children are taught under a large mango tree and during the rainy season no school is possible. A small permanent building will allow the children's education to continue throughout the year. The school, to be called the St. Vincent de Paul School, will consist of two classrooms and will be the first solid building in the area. Woriyanga is just one of 70 villages in Fr. Vincent's parish and is about 20 miles from the main Mission. There are 34 Mass centres in the area.

August 2005, - the Beginning

Fr. Vincent, a member of the Missionaries of Africa known as The White Fathers, worked in the two parishes in Stockton-on-Tees in August 2005 when Fr. Shaun O'Neill was on holiday. Both parishes promised to help his Ghana Mission when he returned to Africa.

By Easter 2006, £6,000 had been raised for a second hand air-conditioned 'Pick-up' truck which has made a huge difference to life there. It is used regularly to take people in remote villages to hospital. Father Vincent's journeys around this remote desert are now more comfortable as for most of the year temperatures are over forty degrees centigrade.

Previously Father's only transport was an unreliable and often dangerous motor cycle. Several times he sustained cuts, bruises and back problems after falling off on rough roads or when animals strayed across his path in the dark. The motor cycle doubled as an 'ambulance' when sick people were tied on behind him for the hazardous journey to the nearest hospital 25 miles away. Snake- bites are common in the area during the rainy season when poisonous snakes are disturbed, but this year all those who were bitten reached hospital quickly and survived.

The Need for a School

The needs of Fr. Vincent's people are many and much prayer was needed to decide what was the next priority. Eventually he asked for help to provide a permanent school building for Woriyanga where the people are subsistence farmers with 98% of adults unable to read and write. There is great excitement at the prospect of them having 'a proper school' as they are very keen for the children to be educated. Villagers of all ages have already started collecting sand and stones for the foundations. The cost of materials will be around £5,400. All the labour will be provided by the people and supervised by Fr. Vincent who says the classrooms could be ready two months after the work begins.

Even though education is compulsory for children in this remote part of Ghana it is much affected by poverty. With only three to four months of rain a year harvests are often bad and by February, many families eat only one meal a day consisting of corn flour with water and dried fish.

The 'School under the Mango Tree' has generated great interest in St. Joseph's & SS Peter & Paul's parishes. So far fundraising ventures have included a Coffee Morning, a Grand Easter Draw and Book Sale at St. Joseph's and SS Peter & Paul's donated proceeds from Lenten Lunches. The 6th Norton St. Joseph's Scout Group also organised a Raffle, Book Sale and Tombola. There have also been many individual donations.

In February four parishioners from St. Joseph's visited St. Joseph's primary school to speak about the project. There was an enthusiastic response when the children were asked if they would help buy 2,500 building blocks for the school at a cost of 25p each. Each class recorded in different ways the total number of bricks bought and on the Fifth Sunday of Lent children presented a cheque for £750 after the 10.00am parish Mass.

Often in the north of Ghana children have no chairs or benches and sit on the ground or on stones. Materials for study are scarce and many write in the dust using sticks. Only as they progress do they start using pencils. Normally one pencil is cut into 3 pieces for 3 children to share. Often a child has only one book in which to do all their writing. Parents find it difficult to buy books and pencils in addition to the school fees of about £150 a year and the cost of a school uniform. A pencil costs 30p and a book 25p. There are some schools of about 90 pupils with only 2 teachers. Many teachers don't want to serve in this area because it is so poor and lacks social services like electricity, phone and nearby hospital. The salary for a teacher is about £15 a month but they are often paid in kind.

Many children leave home without eating breakfast. Those who can afford it carry a small amount of food with them to school in a plastic bag and eat it at break time with water. They play football bare foot as often they have no shoes but a few have sandals. The football is made by tying plastic bags with a rubber band to make a round ball. If it unwraps it is tied again.

Normally schools have no toilet facilities. The surrounding bushes and stones serve as toilets. There is no running water and the ground is too hard and stony to dig toilets so at break time the children disappear into the nearby bushes. Father says "First we shall build the classrooms then after we shall think of toilets. For the moment, there is still enough bush around to use!!'

Father Vincent says as soon as the building is finished it will be used even before it is painted. St Vincent de Paul's School Woriyanga will also be used for Mass as the roof of their little mud church collapsed during the rainy season.

Fr. Vincent's people were determined to give something back to show their appreciation for the help that they have received. As well as praying for both parishes often, they decided to make two altar cloths to be used during the Christmas liturgies. Both parishes were requested to send two pieces of thread measuring the length and the width of their altars. Little by little over the space of a month Fr. Vincent and his people contributed to buy the materials and pay postage. Two days before Christmas the finished cloths arrived and were in place for Christmas Eve.