WORDS Liz Lillis

A unique bond has been forged between two parishes, one in Victoria the other in Uganda.

The parish priest at St Bernard’s in Belmont, Geelong, says ever since a ‘sister parish’ relationship with St Luke’s in Mannya Uganda first began, the two communities have been linked in a way that overcomes the vast geographic distance between them.

‘St Luke’s has become like another church in our own parish’, says Fr Peter Foley. ‘Everyone talks about it like it is.’

Mannya is a remote village of 40,000 people, around 200 km south‑west of the Ugandan capital Kampala. The community relies on small scale agriculture for their livelihood, and ongoing drought limits their ability to produce food. The average income of the villagers is less than $1 a day.

An annual collection for Mannya began during the 1990s, after a chance meeting between a parishioner and an African priest. About $1500 was sent each year.

By 2003, the Parish Pastoral Council wanted to do more. After consultation with the St Luke’s community, they decided to raise money to establish a health centre. Four years later, St Bernard’s Health Centre, Mannya began providing basic medical care where none was previously available.

Fr Peter says the relationship has evolved since then. St Luke’s parish priest Fr Nestus visited before World Youth Day in 2008, bringing a personal thank you from his parish.

‘He is a charismatic guy’, says Fr Peter. ‘His presence and ability to talk personally about his community, strengthened the relationship.’

Every part of the St. Bernard’s community is involved in supporting their sister parish in some way. The local Catholic school, Clairvaux Primary School, holds an annual walkathon which raises about $6,000 to provide breakfast porridge for school children in Mannya.

Other partners include the Geelong-based ‘Cotton On’ Foundation, which supported the medical centre and now has other education projects in Mannya. The Christian Brothers Foundation assists the parish with the safe transfer of monies to Mannya, a task which is often difficult in Africa.

He stresses that the projects supported in Mannya are all about helping the community to help itself. It is a case of a hand up, rather than a hand out.

‘Our parish mission is to bring the good news to the poor, to go out and be good news in the community and in doing this, it has really changed our parish for the better’, Fr Peter says.

Personal visits have been a key to strengthening the ‘sister’ relationship. Fr Peter said his own trips to Mannya have been memorable.

‘They have a culture where if given to, they must give back. The women’s group gave me a goat, I thought, “What am I going to do with a goat?”’ he says. The goat later became a meal in honour of his visit.

Fr Foley feels the ‘sister’ parish relationship will continue beyond both his and Fr Nestus’ time in their parishes.

‘There is a real sense of hope around the parish from seeing the difference the relationship is making, for both sides’, he says.

Pictured: Fr Peter Foley at Mass at St Luke's with a young woman in one of 50 wheelchairs donated by the parish, in conjunction with the Christian Brothers Foundation and a rotary group in WA. 

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