1999

1st October 1999
Tanzanian Bishop to Exchange Stories with Hunter Catholic Groups
Every day, Africa buries 5,500 people who have died from AIDS. One in five pregnant women in South Africa is infected with HIV. Throughout southern Africa, girls are taken from school to nurse their dying parents. Boys leave school to look after orphaned siblings. In 1997, more than eight million children had lost their mothers to AIDS.

Representatives of the Hunter Catholic community will have the opportunity to hear a first-hand account of life in a remote African community and discuss common areas of Mission with Bishop Justin Samba, Chair of the Tanzanian Bishops' Conference, when he visits Newcastle next week (October 5-7). The issues of the education of women and the tragedy of HIV/AIDS in his country will form the basis of the discussions.

The vulnerable position of women throughout Africa leads to many problems, among them, the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. These are two major areas of concern for Bishop Samba and his colleagues in the Tanzanian Church.

During his visit, which is being sponsored by Catholic Mission, the Australian Church's official mission aid agency, Bishop Samba will meet with Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, the Most Reverend Michael Malone, organisers of the Society of St Vincent de Paul's Empowerment for Women Fund, and staff at MacKillop House, Carrington, a home for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Bishop Samba was invited to speak throughout Australia in the lead-up to World Mission Day (24 October). He will elaborate on the special problems being faced by the Church in his country. The church of Tanzania has been a recipient of funds from Catholic Mission over the past two years. Bishop Samba has co-operated enthusiastically in feeding back to Australian donors the results of their generous giving.

Bishop Samba has a strong commitment to the education of women in Tanzania, which he states, "must be our priority. If a woman is educated then the whole nation is educated."

He also believes the family should be the centre of the Church. "We need to train more lay catechists and involve them in our pastoral outreach work to all peoples of our diocese, no matter their tribe, religion or standard of living," he said.

Bishop Samba said, "Education is the key towards the success of our pastoral endeavours. In this regard we are working hard to establish sufficient kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and vocational training centres. I have been so grateful to the people of Australia who have shared this vision with me and supported much of the hard work in setting up the necessary infrastructure to achieve our education goals."

Following his time in the Hunter, Bishop Samba will travel to Kempsey. He specifically asked to see and interact with the indigenous people of Australia, and will spend time with the Sisters of Mercy and Marist priests in their outreach to indigenous people in the Kempsey and Macksville areas.

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