Community of Kwediboma
Health Centre Community Rosminian Sisters, P.O. Box 46, Handeni
Antonio Rosmini Children’s Centre Community, P.O. Box 46, Handeni
There are two Kwediboma communities that take care of:
– “Kwediboma Health Centre” – hospital
– “Antonio Rosmini Children’s center – orphanage
– Primary school up to the seventh year
– The farm
The mountain of God and the mission
From year to year many changes occur and the whole mission expands.
You can see the nuns’ house, the building for welcoming guests, the kitchen-laundry area and new departments in the hospital, the cisterns for collecting rainwater, which is very precious in this area.
“Betania”, the structure dedicated to boarding school for children who live far away, was inaugurated. The School has also expanded. primary school now has classes up to 7 years. A building is also under construction which will house the kitchen and refectory.
The hospital has expanded both in terms of patient rooms and medical services.
The stables where the nuns milk the cows and the vegetable garden are flourishing in their production.
“Kwediboma Health Centre”
Sister Agata takes us to see what’s new in the hospital area:
the Radiology room, the Emergency Room, the Operating Room, the X-ray rooms
“Antonio Rosmini Children’s center – Orphanage
In the morning, Sister Lilia accompanies us to visit the dormitories of the orphaned children and children who attend the primary school run by Sister Demetria and the nursery school run by Sister Lilia. Not all children are orphans. Their parents, by paying a fee, have the possibility of making them study well. In fact, the problem in Tanzania is that public schools are few and it happens that a single teacher has up to 150 students! Then we visit the refectory, the water cisterns, the stables where the nuns milk the cows and the vegetable garden. With Sister Alberta we go to see the hospital. In the middle of nowhere it is an unthinkable reality. Women can give birth without the risk of dying just because the baby is breech. In fact, the caesarean section is performed in an operating room which is finally active thanks to contributions from various supporters. There is a department for malaria patients, clinics for blood tests, and a machine for doing ultrasound scans. With us, all this is taken for granted but believe me, in the midst of the red earth and banana plants, it is a miracle. It immediately occurs to me that man can accomplish great things without falling to ruin. It would be enough for everyone, in their daily lives, to do what they can for others. Sister Lilia and Sister Alberta are no longer young, they are thirty years older than me, but I assure you that compared to their strength, their courage, I am the older one. They will never be old because they have an edge that can only come from a non-earthly dimension.
We immediately want to go back next year with our 9 and 13 year old children because we are sure that they can learn more there in a month than in a year of school. Kids are fantastic. That day is a holiday and so they are not at school but play in the courtyard while the older ones wash, clean or do small chores. I visit the empty classrooms, I peek at their notebooks, I look at the blackboards… How I wish that after these precious years there was a guaranteed tomorrow for them, with small carpentry or tailoring workshops or modern farms and schools with teachers. A future for these little ones who run towards you to be picked up. Everyone has a heavy story behind them. Those who were burned by their mad mother, those who saw their father kill their mother… Here, finally, they are all called Gioia by Sister Lilia who probably manages to make them feel welcomed and loved as only children. There is a Guest House and I invite anyone who feels like it to stop by and see that all this is not a dream but reality. The world could start again from Kwediboma. Thanks to the Rosminian nuns for their work.