AwAreness - survive-miva.org 54.pdf · FREE The twice-yearly magazine of SURVIVE-MIVA - Issue 54...

Getting others back on the road to self-help

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n www.survive-miva.orgRead on to see how your support is providing practical, everyday mobility to our beneficiaries overseas, and how your contributions bring hope to so many...

FREE The twice-yearly magazine of SURVIVE-MIVA - Issue 54 July - December 2013

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nAwAreness

those living here don’t have any public transport service at all.”

There are some thirty villages dotted up and down the hills around the Dispensary, where the population totals about five thousand in all. A recent Association grant of just over seven thousand pounds has already caused an impact among them, and has enabled the Sisters to begin

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‘Where there’s a ‘wheel’, there’s a way’

The Diocesan Congregation of the Saint Joseph ‘Sevika Sanstha’ or ‘service organisation’, was founded in India in 1965, and is dedicated to pastoral work, as well as to the running of mobile medical teams and non-formal education programmes - particularly in rural villages.

Sanna Mission station and Dispensary is located in a hilly part of the North-East of the country, where a small community of ‘Sevika’ Sisters has been living and working since the year 2000. It is an area where agriculture is the main economic activity and the biggest employer - though this is entirely dependent on the one annual monsoon rain.

Sr Sudha Beck, our contact there, tells us of the common difficulties this can cause: “At times the crops fail because the rain does not come, and the rest of the time the fields are empty, so life can be very precarious. Added to that, the educational situation is poor, and the population consists of mainly ‘scheduled tribes’ or people from the supposed ‘lower’ castes. They follow their age-old customs and culture, and are often caught up in outmoded superstitious practices, some of which, medically speaking, are either ineffective, or can actually be dangerous. They cannot afford to hire a moto-taxi or get the bus, which is infrequent in any case, so when they get sick they struggle on foot to the Dispensary - the majority of

www.survive-miva.org Getting others back on the road to self-help (Missionary Vehicle Association UK Registered Charity No. 268745)

A greAt role to plAySanna Dispensary, Diocese of Jashpur, India


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n www.survive-miva.orgGetting others back on the road to self-help

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n www.survive-miva.orgAll images in this edition provided by those you have made mobile.

David Johnson Volunteer Speaker

For ten years David has been a member of our team (of about 70 volunteers) raising funds for the Association by making appeals at Sunday Masses. About 25% of our total income comes from appeals.

Appeals Organiser Sue Valentine

Finance Officer Margaret Jackson

Chairman of Trustees: Paul Robbins

Director: Simon Foran

Assistant Director: Theresa Codd

SURVIVE-MIVA (Missionary Vehicle Association) is a Catholic Lay Association (Reg. Charity No. 268745) founded in 1974. We exist to provide funding for essential transport for missionaries and others working in the developing world.We have about 70 lay Speakers based all over Wales, Scotland and England, who represent the Association via lectern appeals. We are grateful to all the Bishops of Scotland, Wales and England for their support in our endeavours. For more information on our work and a booklet with details of all grants made in 2012, contact us at

5 Park Vale Road, Aintree, Liverpool, L9 2DG.

Tel: 0151 523 3878 Fax: 0151 523 3841

E-mail: [email protected]

visit us at: www.survive-miva.org

Who’s who at...survIve-mIvA

Margaret JohnsonOffice Volunteer

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Since 2011 Margaret has been assisting us by doing various clerical tasks. Most of her time is spent writing to parish priests trying to secure a date for an appeal (some of which she expects her husband [above] to cover for her!)

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(continued)...A greAt role to plAyregular mobile health clinics throughout the villages, and give much-needed attention to those who cannot travel - the very young and the elderly.

A delighted Sister Sudha tells us: “Now the sisters can go to attend delivery cases where and whenever they are called. They can reach the place quickly and safely, and in the cases of more serious patients with complications, these can be referred to the big hospital in due time.”

Sr continues: “Village visits have become so much easier; we can save the journey time we spent walking, carry much more kit, and so can have more time to work with the people in the villages. We can treat more patients, get to know their problems at first hand, and do all this in a considered way.”

There are also other, unexpected (and indeed unintended) benefits to be had: “Our poor children had never gone for an outing, now they are able to enjoy and have a new experience of outings away from home and school, and see the world beyond their village limits. When we had no vehicle we were not able to take children to the church for Sunday Mass, since the church is situated 5 kilometres away over unsafe ground. Now the children come with us every Sunday to church. In these ways, the vehicle has become very useful in our mission and many sick people and children are getting many benefits out of it. Your gracious generosity has had a great role to play in saving and helping them. We remember you and all the people over there each day.”


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eDItorIAl“Be faithful in small things, because it is in them that your strength lies.” - Mother TeresaIs being small a strength or a weakness? Is it beautiful, as Schumacher believed?

Though we are blessed with volunteer fundraisers based up and down the land, we usually consider ourselves to be a comparatively small charity - just two full-time and two part-time employees based in the one office here on Merseyside. Then again, how are we really supposed to measure these things? What are the criteria? How do you judge?

As established readers will know, I have often said in these pages that we don’t pretend to have answers to the daily challenges our beneficiaries face in their work, and also that we can in no sense be said to be ‘major players’ in the charity sector. Mind you, we don’t exactly spend much on advertising ourselves either; just £214 in 2011, and, from what I can see, nothing at all in 2012! Again, is that good or bad?

What we do have, however, are the pages of this magazine - which we know reaches over twenty thousand of you, one way or another - so I thought it would be a good idea to pass on some figures from last year, now that we have the annual audited accounts ready for our Members’ approval.

If whether we are small (or not) is to be judged, let’s say, on how much we raised, then I should straightaway point out that this is, of course, just another way of saying how much you, our supporters, gave us - so kindly give yourselves a very generous pat on the back for what you have achieved.

Let’s see: Annual income from all sources last year came to £499,149, which is a fantastic tribute to your consistent great generosity, in good times and bad, and at the same time, I’d like to think, is also a sign of the trust you have in us to carry on doing the one thing we have always done for nearly four decades now: getting others mobile so that they can use the skills and gifts they already have in order to help others.

I am proud to say, then, that in 2012 we spent over £370,000 on transport grants, or, as our auditors prefer to say, ‘funding transport for overseas health and religious activities.’

During the course of the year, a total of three hundred and one different modes of transport were provided thanks to your donations.

This total was comprised of the following mix:

Ambulance/community health outreach vehicles 14

Motorbikes 23

Boats with outboard motors 2

Bicycles 262

A total of 43 grants were made to Diocesan accounts overseas, for in-country purchase of the above vehicles as follows:

Health/outreach vehicle grants

India 3

Uganda 9

Nigeria 1

Republic of South Africa 1

Motorbike/moped/scooter grants

India 16

Uganda 3

Tanzania 4

Boat/outboard motor grants

The Peruvian Amazon 2

Bicycles funded

Uganda 188

Tanzania 74

As you read through this edition of our magazine, I hope you get a fuller picture of how such numbers and figures are turned into ‘direct action’ via the provision of essential modes of transport - tangible pieces of equipment, be they bicycles or ‘off-roaders’ -which get used each day to bring about change for the better.

I hope established readers already know this, but for anyone reading these pages for the first time let me say this: we recognise that none of what we manage would be possible without your continuing support.

Yet again, in return, all we can say is a big ‘thank you’ to you, once more.

God bless,

Simon Patrick Foran, Director


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news from overseAsEach issue we do our best to keep you up-to-date with the progress being made by those you have supported. There are no easy or quick solutions to the problems our beneficiaries face each day, but we know that being mobile does enable them to tackle jobs they would otherwise have great difficulties doing. Here is an update of just some of the work being done:

ugAnDAKitovu Mobile AIDS Organisation, Diocese of MasakaTo be found in southwest Uganda, Masaka Diocese has a population of almost a million, but 50% of the people are under 15 years of age, due to the ravages of AIDS and HIV-related deaths.

The organisation at Kitovu is run by the Medical Missionaries of Mary, and Sr/Dr Brigid Corrigan, originally from Holy Rood parish in Swindon, tells us more: “Here in Masaka alone, there are about 80,000 people living with HIV, 20% of whom have AIDS and need antiretroviral medicines – 10% of these are orphans. There are about 2 million orphans nationally, and Kitovu aims to alleviate the impact of HIV and AIDS and improve the quality of life of those infected and affected by the virus.” The Organisation works with over 700 community health workers in rural areas and more than 5,000 people receive medical and nursing care which, as they live in the hardest to reach areas, they would not otherwise receive. The £19,000 grant made is our response to Sister’s request to “help us to keep moving and bring the message of ‘new life’, in the spirit of the healing mission of Christ.”

In tandem with the 4x4 vehicle used over the vast area the Mission covers, a set of one hundred bicycles provided via your generosity (costing £59 each) will be used by Community Volunteers to ensure medicines and antiretrovirals reach some 650+ patients who can be monitored by them much more easily and practically than could be managed by Staff at the main Mission Clinic.

“To expand into even the remotest villages, the Volunteers’ dedicated service is essential to manage the everyday running of the programme and its everyday needs. They are a vital link between the HIV/cancer patients in the communities and the clinical and multi-disciplinary staff of the Home-based care team in Kitovu itself.

Numbering eight members in total, it would take the team itself approximately six months to visit each patient just once, whereas moving in a radius of between 10-15 kilometres, the Volunteers can make daily visits and the care given can be increased phenomenally - and in a matter of days.”


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ugAnDA Lugbari parish, Diocese of Arua“The number of Christians here is always on the increase,” enthuses Fr Simon Aluma, PP of Lugbari. “Parishes are vast, which means pastoral care is challenging, to say the least. That is why our Bishop created five new sub-parishes which will soon become parishes to address the increased need.” Fr Simon also tells us that his parish itself has eighteen chapels to cover, the furthest some 54 kilometres (34 miles) away.To help out, a grant of just over two thousand pounds has recently been made to mobilise the forty-five parish catechists in his jurisdiction. “We live in a remote, rocky, hilly area which is sandy and semi-arid, and have more than twelve thousand parishioners in all. Our pastoral agents number about one hundred and fifty in all, and will share use of the bikes in groups of two or three. Their work is fundamental to our pastoral plans as they are our eyes and ears on a weekly and monthly basis, and it is through them that we can keep abreast of events and the needs arising throughout the area. They are our on-going formation teams, and prepare the youngsters to receive Holy Communion, help us to prepare liturgy which is relevant and meaningful, make us aware of those who are sick, and of any deaths which occur. They help us keep the Faith alive and part of the ordinary people’s lives. The bicycles would make all Christians of the sub-parishes well informed of our work and would help attract more laity to take an active part in our work of evangelisation.”


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republIc of south AfrIcA Noyi Bazi Clinic, Pomeroy, Diocese of Dundee, Kwazulu-NatalLocated in the southeast of the country, the province has a long shoreline on the Indian Ocean. It borders three other provinces and the countries of Mozambique, Swaziland, and Lesotho. Its capital is Pietermaritzburg, and its largest city is Durban. At around 92,100 km2 in area, Kwazulu Natal is roughly the size of Portugal.

Erected in 1983, Dundee Diocese covers an area of 51,867 km2, and has a population of 1,706,000 of whom 94,484 are Catholic, based in just 29 parishes served by only 30 priests in all, and has been twinned with Brentwood diocese in Essex, England, since 1985. The Augustinian Sisters of the Mercy of Jesus were founded in Noyi Bazi in 1965, and are thus pioneers in the provision of healthcare by the Church in what is considered the second poorest municipality in the country.

Our contact there, Sr Madeleine Rouille, tells us, “We operate on three fronts, our Home Based Care (HBC) programme, the Peer Educators scheme [see group photo], and the OVC or Orphans and Vulnerable Children outreach programme [also pictured], sponsored by the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The HBC is run mainly by volunteers who look after patients in their own areas, and our Sister-in-charge is responsible for distributing Anti-Retro-Viral medicines to almost three hundred patients each month. The Peer Educators are all youngsters who visit four schools and community centres to teach students about HIV transmission and TB, but with transport want to reach another sixteen primary schools and seven secondaries.” A double-cab four wheel drive has greatly improved the effectiveness and scope of the Sisters’ schedule.

“We have four hundred orphans registered in the OVC programme, and the vehicle means we can keep in regular touch with them, as some live in very remote areas, even by our standards in Kwa Zulu Natal. It provides a wonderful means to bring hope and compassion to the people we minister and want to minister to. In our area, with 90% poverty and a 48% HIV+ level, we are a pocket of deprivation within the modern South Africa. We want to contribute to restoring health and dignity to our people, and assure them of a better future.”


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tAnzAnIA

Murutunguru Parish, Nansio, Diocese of Bunda, Mwanza

We continue pedalling furiously now, with an update on another ‘block’ grant for bikes. Established as recently as February 2011, Bunda Diocese caters to the needs of some 335,000 Catholics who make up the population of just thirteen parishes, administered by twenty priests who cover more than two thousand square miles of territory. Murutunguru parish can be found on the island of Ukerewe in Lake Victoria.

From there, P.P. Fr Robert Ibengwe writes: “Our main objective is the teaching of the Faith, especially to the youth of the parish. We have seventy-four trained Catechists working in each of the twenty-five parish outstations I try to cover, but with a bicycle for each they can make visits twice a week – they are in practice the only ones to deliver pastoral services with any regularity. Our progamme of preparation is linked with the Diocesan Pastoral Plan, so that by the end of the school year, students will be able to take their examination for the first time ever, thanks to the support they now receive.”

Fr Robert and his team have counted on your support too, via a grant of £5,350 - sufficient to purchase, transport, and assemble seventy-four cycles at a total ‘kerbside’ cost of £72 each.

So there you have it; something tangible, practical, in everyday use, and bringing real change to small communities at a level that simply couldn’t be more grassroots. In other words, the best possible use of your donations.

A few from the queueWe receive on average more than 400 requests for some form of mobility every year. We do not have the funds to meet the needs of all those who match our basic criteria of urgency, impact and sustainability. This means there is always a queue of applicants hoping and praying we can increase our funds. Our aim is to provide suitable means for them to carry out their important work, and what follows is a ‘cross-section’ of different projects urgently in need of a vehicle.

Please note that all donations are paid into a central fund, to be distributed by the Allocations Committee, who between them have over fifty years of service on overseas mission. The administrative costs involved in having a separate audit trail for each and every donation made would make our core work impossible. This means that we cannot say in advance where your particular donation will be distributed – but what we can say is that together we are much, much greater than the sum of our parts…

ugAnDASt Raphael Clinic and Health Centre, PayaRun by the Daughters of Mary, the Centre has a capacity of just 15 beds, and so focusses a lot of its work on mobile clinics. With a grant of just over £18,000, we could provide a four-wheel drive for the Centre (which would benefit from tax exemption on the purchase) to widen its catchment area from the seven outstations it is currently limited to helping. Programmes include routine immunisation campaigns, distribution of ITNs or insecticide-treated nets, nutritional awareness, and pre- and post-natal care.

colombIAClaretian Mission to the Indigenous peoples of Caño Mochuelo £11,300 would provide a vital form of transport for a part of the country where the motorways are rivers and the sideroads tributaries – a locally produced launch with an outboard motor. Fr Hector Guzmán has requested just such a grant to enable him to reach his parishioners, who are cut off for nine months of the year and only have land access to the ‘outside world’ when the river levels drop.

We are pleased to report back to you that those featured in this section of issue 53 have now been funded. It may take time, but in common with our beneficiaries, and solely thanks to you, our supporters, we reach our goal in the end.


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enD of the roAD?We hope you found this issue of ‘Awareness’ informative, and have enjoyed reading about those your donations help. We also hope that we have managed to illustrate just how important mobility is for those who share their lives with the poor.We are the only UK-based Catholic charity which funds exclusively for all different modes of transport. Making a donation will help ensure this is not the end of the road for the aspirations of so many people.

cAn you help?

I wish to donate the sum of £ to SURVIVE-MIVA (Reg. Charity No. 268745.)

By cheque postal order CAF voucher made payable to ‘SURVIVE-MIVA’ (please tick appropriate box)

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Expiry date: / Valid from: / or Issue No:

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5 Park Vale Road, Liverpool L9 2DG E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: 0151 523 3878 Fax: 0151 523 3841 SURVIVE_MIVA Issue 54 designed and printed by Gecko Design Ltd www.geckodesign.co.uk

This newsletter uses paper from managed, sustainable forests, where planting of new trees exceeds the trees harvested.

PEACE OF MIND: WE WILL NEVER ENGAGE IN THE UNSAVOURY BUSINESS OF ‘PASSING ON’ YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS TO ANYONE ELSE.


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There are various ways in which you can support us:-

Make a donation – and don’t forget to ‘Gift Aid’ it! Supporters of SURVIVE-MIVA can now make donations of up to £10 by texting MIVA29 followed by a space and then £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10 to 70070.

The donation is debited from your mobile phone account and No CoMMiSSioN is taken i.e. ALL of the donation will be passed to SURVIVE-MIVA.

Organise a fundraising event in aid of SURVIVE-MIVA.

Leave a legacy to the Association in your Will.

Represent us as a SURVIVE-MIVA Speaker making lectern appeals on our behalf.

Pray for the work of the Association and our beneficiaries

- rest assured that they pray for you!

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AwAreness - survive-miva.org 54.pdf · FREE The twice-yearly magazine of SURVIVE-MIVA - Issue 54...

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