Dear brothers and sisters, donors and friends of the project “Well4Africa“,
May the Lord give you His peace!

Last spring, while preparing for the 3rd European OFS and YouFra Congress in Lithuania, the National Council of the OFS Lithuania has launched a social initiative together with components of the European Franciscan family – “Well4Africa“. The main aim of this initiative is to respond to the call of our beloved pope Francis to ensure the human right to drinking water for all and to express our solidarity with the poor for whom we are obliged “to create conditions of life worthy of people redeemed by Christ“ (Rule 13). The idea to help to drill water wells in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Malawi was meant to be a special fruit of the Congress.

15 national OFS fraternities (Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Gibraltar) and 4 national YouFra fraternities (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Poland) responded to the call and contributed according to their possibilities. Some of them involved Catholic media channels and organized creative fundraising campaigns. They testified that we do not necessarily need to be rich in order to help others, sometimes it’s enough to be creative and brave enough to offer our two fish and five loaves of bread to the Lord.

By the end of the 3rd European OFS and YouFra Congress 38.122,50 Euro were already collected, and at the moment the total amount of donations is 69.320 Euro. We praise the Lord for this and want to express our great gratitude to all the national fraternities and benefactors who responded to this call, because the word is becoming flesh! Works have already been started in Uganda and Malawi!

A borehole is already drilled and operating in Namane community, diocese of Blantyre, Malawi. The total cost of the project was of 8150 Euro and the money to cover the payment has already been delivered to the local responsible persons. You can find information about the results of this project in our website well4africa.eu.

Whereas a more sophisticated water supply system project has been started in Kihani parish, Mbarara archdiocese, Uganda. This project is going to be implemented in three phases. First phase includes excavation and construction of a shallow well, construction of a pump house, election of solar panel stands and installation of a water pump, construction of 50.000 L capacity water tank at Kihani parish church, trenching and pipe laying from the well up to the church tank and further extended to St. Joseph’s primary school and St. Anne’s secondary school. Phase 2 shall involve construction of 50,000 L capacity water tank at St. Mary’s primary school, trenching and pipe laying from the well up to the primary tank and extension of water to two community villages of Irwaniro and Kitambeya, construction of tap stands and control chambers. Phase 3 shall include extension of water line from St. Mary’s primary tank to Katunguru community village, Allied primary school, Katunguru community marketplace, Bright Model primary school, St. Anne’s staff quarters and Kagunga community village. The total cost of the project is around 41.420 Euro (depends on changing rate of Ugandan shilling). The project should be completed within 4 months, starting from the end of November. You can follow the progress of the project in well4africa.eu.

The third project is supposed to be implemented in Zimbabwe, Nehumambi village. We are finalizing the documentation and we hope to be able to start the works at the earliest possible moment.

During its fall session CIOFS Presidency has agreed that “Well4Africa“ social initiative is going to be continued under the responsibility of Lithuanian National Council in order to become ongoing mission of the Secular Franciscan Order. Moreover, CIOFS gives it's patronage and a spiritual support for this mission. Thus, soon the floor will be opened for new applications from Franciscan communities in Africa.

Therefore we invite all national OFS and YouFra fraternities to continue with fund-raising activities for “Well4Africa“. You can be creative and join this social initiative in various ways, not necessarily by a direct donation but also through your work, donating time, selling handcrafts, organizing specific fund-raising events or inviting other communities and organizations to participate. You can also translate the website well4africa.eu into your tongue and to use it as a tool for promotion. The website will be updated once respective projects are implemented. Feel free to use the logo of the social initiative for the purposes of fund-raising; you can ask for all necessary material.

Thank you once again for your generosity and involvement! This social initiative enables us to act as one spiritual family and to help our brothers and sisters in need. As St. Francis told his brothers towards the end of his life: “Let us begin, brethren, to serve the Lord God, for hitherto we have profited little or nothing”.

We entrust “Well4Africa“ initiative to Our Lady – Queen of the Franciscan family – and ask you to remember this mission in your prayers, especially praying the Franciscan crown during the pilgrimage of the Icon Regina Familiae Franciscanae.