{"id":129,"date":"2016-01-22T11:20:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T11:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/01\/22\/kenya-only-church-in-refugee-camp-in\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T09:40:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T09:40:33","slug":"kenya-only-church-in-refugee-camp-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/2016\/01\/22\/kenya-only-church-in-refugee-camp-in\/","title":{"rendered":"KENYA: The Parish that operates in the refugee camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fr. Augustine Kharmuti, <\/i>
\nDon Bosco Technical Institute <\/i>
\nProject Coordinator<\/i> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

\nHoly Cross
\nCatholic Parish in Kakuma is the only Church in the entire World that operates
\nright inside a refugee camp. The Parish managed by the Salesian Fathers was
\ngiven the access to operate in Kakuma after consultations between the Diocese of Lodwar
\nand UNHCR.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe Parish
\nhas a vocational centre which offers various courses to the refugees and the
\nhost community within the camp. These courses include; carpentry, electrical
\nmasonry, welding, tailoring, dressmaking, motor vehicle mechanics, secretarial,
\ncomputer and English courses.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe main
\nobjective of the training is to empower the students with life skills and curb
\nlanguage barrier since some come from countries where English is not spoken.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>In an
\ninterview with the Don Bosco Technical Institute Project Coordinator Fr.
\nAugustine Kharmuti, both the parish and the vocational training centre face
\nspiritual and financial challenges. \u201cWe are two priests here and reaching out
\nto all the faithful is a challenge, we also have trained two catechists to
\nassist in the small Christian communities and working together with three
\nsisters who, follow up on pastoral needs in the families.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFr. Kharmuti
\nrevealed that due to over population caused by recent influx of refugees
\nespecially from South Sudan, the Church\u2019s capacity can no longer  accommodate the ever increasing number of the
\nfaithful hence the need for expansion.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHe appealed
\nfor financial and material support from the Church, the government and
\nwell-wishers in order to be able evangelize widely, to improve the quality of
\neducation and to train more students at the centre.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe train
\n3,000 to 3,200 students every year and serve 500 to 600 Christians at every
\nMass\u201d He said.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nMeanwhile
\nspeaking during World Refugee Day, the refugees spokesperson Demien Hakiza from
\nCongo said the needs of the refugees have not been fully met as a quarter of
\nthe 280,000 from various Countries have not yet started  benefiting from the handouts given by UNHCR.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHakiza said
\nothers have stayed in the camp for more than five years without official
\nrecognition as refugees, an issue which should only take six months from the
\nday of reporting to the camp.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe refugees
\nare mainly from South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo and
\nEthiopia.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nBy Rose
\nAchiego; Waumini Communications KCCB<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr. Augustine Kharmuti, Don Bosco Technical Institute  Project Coordinator  Holy Cross Catholic Parish in Kakuma…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1575,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/1575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communications.amecea.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}