Dear Friends of Mission,
Rejoice in the Lord! With God’s help, we are doing well. As you know, the Covid-19 pandemic is global, and for almost a year now all the schools on the island of Nias-among which our “St. Nicholas” School-have been closed. Fortunately, since early February 2021 permission for school reopening has been granted by the local government provided that the schools take some prevention and control measures (against the disease). This means that not all students must come to school at the same time, but only 30% of them on Monday, another 30% on Tuesday and so on. These conditions are supposed to be valid temporarily and until this situation has considerably improved. Naturally, our students were very happy to return to school. However, there is a big problem we have to face now, which is that for the period from March 2020 to January 2021 the vast majority of our children cannot afford to pay the tuition fees. We certainly understand the fact that their families have financial difficulties. At Nias St. Nicholas School we have 13 teachers and 2 employees. Our expenses for their salaries amount to 1,000 euro per month. We pay the teachers by the hour because we cannot afford to pay a monthly salary. However, the Covid-19 outbreak has brought about severe financial crisis and we cannot afford to pay either the teaching staff or the rest of the employees. I am making an appeal to you for financial support, dear brethren. If you have the ability to help us in this matter, please do so. If you respond favorably to our earnest appeal for help, I intend not to take tuition fees from the students for 6 months in order to relieve their financial burden.
Due to the abnormal situation, the teachers did not receive their salaries regularly, so some of them have stopped coming to school. I had no other option but to send from the city of Medan two young people, Peter and Alpine. These two are graduates of our St. Paul Theological Academy in the field of Christian Education. As for Fr. Chariton, he will be working as a missionary in our Church only, because we now have 3 parish communities there. Father Chariton has already got a motorcycle as a means of transportation, but for Peter and Alpine we intend to buy a second-hand one, whose cost is estimated at about 1,000 euro.
I would also like to inform you that in Nias we have 172 students, 13 teachers and 2 employees and we want to give them free face masks. We intend to buy them from Medan and send them there, which will cost another 500 euro. If you can, please help us in this matter as well.
That is all our news from Nias, Indonesia, dear brethren. May the Benevolent God grant His abundant blessings upon you.
Fr. Chrysostomos Manalu
