Brother Giusti is visiting the Comboni Missionaries of South Sudan

Bro. Rosario uncovers the commemorative plaque of one of the sections recently completed, while Fr. Giuseppe Pellerino, the pastor, looks on while preparing to give his blessing.

The visit of Bro. Daniele Giusti to some activities of the Comboni province of South Sudan started on August 19. Unfortunately, weather conditions made it impossible to fly to the technical school of Leer. Therefore, the meeting with Bro. Nicola Bortoli, director of the school, and with Bro. Hans Dieter Ritterbecks, administrator, took place at the provincial house in the capital, Juba.

The technical school of Leer was opened in order to offer opportunities for professional formation in agriculture, mechanics and, shortly, secretarial work to young people – especially the Nuer – who, after finishing primary school, have no access to superior secondary education.  The formation curriculum in the agricultural field, put together at the school, has been adopted by the country’s authorities as a model of professional formation and is recognized with an appropriate diploma.

The visit of Bro. Giusti to some institutions of the province of South Sudan in order to evaluate their organizational sustainability also extended to Mary Immaculate Hospital in Mapuordit. The hospital was started by Bro. Rosario Iannetti on behalf of the diocese of Rumbek and was developed by the diocese with the help of many benefactors and donors, starting with temporary structures located at the time in an area rather far away from the main lines of communications. For this reason, the SPLA, which was then fighting the Khartoum government, considered the territory as a refuge area for people running from situations of violence. These people from different ethnic groups have since settled. Today, the hospital has more than one hundred beds and is able to provide permanent medical and surgical services. For this reason, the government of the Lakes State (one of the federal states of South Sudan) has chosen it as a place of formation for the national nursing school which has its main center in Rumbek, the capital of the State.

The last activity visited by Bro. Giusti in South Sudan was the carpentry shop started by Bro. Erich Fischnaller, a Comboni brother from Sud Tyrol, in Lomin, in the state of Central Equatoria, on the border with Uganda. The carpentry shop also includes a mechanics sector and one that produces bricks, a small oven for the production of bread and a textile section with hand looms. The institution gives employment to a large number of people.

In the presence of his confrere, Fr. Philip Andruga, Bro. Erich shows to Bro. Nunes and Bro. Redaelli an oven to bake the bread that the institution produces and offers, upon request, to many other entities in South Sudan.

The small workshop of sacred art in Lomin.