MOZAMBIQUE: ‘Help us survive the storm’ plead Mozambiquan Christians
Impoverished Catholic communities in Mozambique building their own churches need help to stop the roofs blowing off in extreme weather or being destroyed by jihadis.
The diocese of Lichinga, northern Mozambique, has a population of 1.6 million people in an area roughly the same size as Greece.
Around 20 percent of the population are Catholics, and the diocese is divided into 21 parishes, which include a total of 929 smaller villages and settlements, some of them up to 65 miles (100 km) away from their parish centre.
Many of these villages have no chapel where people can pray together and attend Mass.
They are forced to celebrate Mass under a tree or attempt to build a rudimentary mud chapel, roofed with branches and straw thatch, which are easily destroyed – by natural disasters or terrorism.
Now 15 of these communities have begun to build more solid, permanent chapels using their own limited resources.
Bishop Atanasio Amisse Canira of Lichinga, asked ACN to help with roofing materials as the cost far outweighed the financial resources of parish churches.
ACN has agreed to fund the 15 churches so that workers can complete the build and parishioners can pray under a proper roof.
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries on earth. A brutal civil war between 1977 and 1992 caused major damage to the country.
Damage has also been caused by natural disasters including tropical storms, droughts and flooding.
And since 2017, many parts of the country, especially in the north, have been devastated by jihadist terrorism, leaving thousands homeless.
According to report by the United Nations, by 31st May this year, there were 461,237 internally displaced people (IDPs) in northern Mozambique who fled conflicts in the Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa provinces.
In February 2024 priests, religious Sisters and other church workers were forced to flee after Islamist insurgent groups in Cabo Degado destroyed houses and churches in several villages.
Bishop Canira said: “We will continue to pray for all our benefactors.”