From Desks to Boreholes in Benin

I come before you once again to thank you for your immeasurable help and support in our missionary endeavor, which is carried out under difficult and arduous conditions. We glorify God for all things.

The strength of our Church and the future of the mission lie with our youth. Let us care for all of them, ensuring their sound spiritual upbringing. For this reason, my beloved readers and friends of the mission, education is at the heart of our missionary work, because we must, from now, through our youth, cultivate cadres who will continue the missionary struggle. Therefore, we support them in their studies and help as much as we can to pay tuition fees for schools and universities.

The month of September is significant for children, and our Holy Diocese, as a mother, has made it a custom since its establishment to relieve parents. Each year, we also provide school supplies for our children, which are distributed to all in the three countries, as you can see in the attached photographs.

As I write to you, we have not yet managed to secure anything for our 300 children whom we support. Please, come and let us prepare together for the new school year for the children, by covering the amount of 6,500 euros. Come this year too, and let us brighten and beautify their school commencement. We ask for your contribution so that these children, who start school on September 14, may find cause and opportunity to raise, in their own way, the Precious Cross, as a sign of victory in their lives over the poverty that afflicts them and denies them the opportunity to study properly.

Beyond this, we cannot overlook another issue that requires your care. We may not always have a warm meal, but at least there should be clean water in our communities. We wish to acquire, with your care, a borehole at the seat of our Holy Diocese, which is Porto-Novo, as well as in the city of Abomey.

A borehole at the seat of our Holy Diocese is very important and symbolic, because it constitutes the center where all come to draw strength so that they may go to the villages for missionary work. With 10,000 euros, we can open a borehole that will provide clean water and save lives, not only at the seat of our Holy Diocese but also in the large neighborhood of Porto-Novo where we are located.

Our faithful who come to our various parishes face great difficulty due to the lack of toilets, every time they come for catechesis or to attend church. They usually resort to neighbors, but for how long will they endure this? The authorities have sent us notifications many times, and we are now at risk of a fine for this unacceptable sanitary situation. The construction of toilets for each of our regular parishes costs 5,000 euros. We already have ten parishes operating normally without toilets. I have fallen victim to this situation many times in the parishes I visit; I find myself at the point where the priests bring me a bucket or bottles to use as a toilet, and I too am forced to resort to neighbors. It is not a joke, but a sad truth that, of course, bothers us. This situation does not help us to be respected as an Orthodox Church and exposes us greatly.

Not to burden you further, I also want to remind you about our orphanage, which cares for abandoned and neglected infants; we strive to provide warmth and security to these innocent creatures and await your support.

Our beloved ones, you who are our oxygen, solutions cannot be provided unilaterally: we, with our presence as the Orthodox Church, already constitute a part of the solution and do what we can, while the rest we entrust to you, as the Apostle of the Nations Paul tells us: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

We thank you in advance for all your efforts. May the All-Good God always bless you.

† Athanasios of Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso