CICM MISSION IN ZAMBIA

Singapore - 26 Nov 2009 -- Talk by Father Anthony Lim, cicm, on the eve of his return to his mission in Zambia.

Three years ago, in 2006, when I came back for home-leave, I happened to meet a fellow parishioner at the front of our church of the Holy Cross. When this parishioner saw me, she recognized me immediately and said, "Hi Father, you are back! It is already three years! So fast! Are you back to serve in our church here?" I replied, "No, I am here for home leave. I will return to Zambia." She responded, "Wah, not yet finished with Zambia!"

Sent to the Nations
It must be quite surprising for some of you to know that I am serving as a missionary priest in Zambia when there is a shortage of priests in Singapore. Is it because I don't want to work in Singapore that I run to Zambia to work there? No, definitely not. Like my fellow CICM missionaries working here in Singapore, we all heard the call of God for us to go out to the whole world to proclaim the Good News of Salvation as preached by our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we are happy that all of you have come to share with us the joy of celebrating the Foundation Day of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) in Scheut, Belgium on 28 November 1862.

Like, our Founder, Theophile Verbist, all of us have been called and sent by the Lord. This is the big difference between a tourist and a missionary; a missionary is sent to carry a mission, the tourist chooses where he wants to go and makes his own itinerary. Since 1995, I was sent as missionary to Zambia and I continue to serve as a missionary there until today.

Ecomomic Development in Zambia
When I first arrived in Zambia, the country was gradually moving from a single-party state to multi-party democracy, from a state-controlled economy to a liberalized economy, from the rationing of commodities through the distribution of coupons to the money-driven distribution (no money, no goods). The big news then was the arrival of SHOPRITE, a supermarket chain store from South Africa. The liberalized economy led to the privatization of the copper mines and to he influx of foreign investors. We began to see a growing number of South African companies in Zambia flooding the country with their products.

Five years later, a new group started coming in. This time it was the Chinese from the East. In search of raw materials to feed their double-digit economic growth, the Chinese have come aggressively into many countries of Africa. In Zambia, they have acquired mining rights to the copper and coal mines. Economically, the wealth of the nation is gradually going into the hands of foreigners. What about the government? What is being done to safeguard the wealth of the nation? It looks like government officials are just happy to be offered hefty sums of appreciation for their cooperation in sealing these deals in the name of foreign investment for economic progress.

Social Consequences
What is the result of all this? The result is the widening of the gap between a small minority of rich Zambians and a big majority of poor Zambians. Eighty percent of the Zambian population of 12 million lives in poverty. They are found in the rural villages, in the peripheries of towns and shanty compounds in the cities. Lack of money means no access to basic necessities like electricity, running water and proper sanitation. It is not surprising to hear of cholera outbreaks in the shanty compounds in cities like Kitwe and Lusaka every year during the rainy season.

Lack of money also means no access to the already low standards of health facilities offered by the government-run clinics and hospitals. Very often the parish receives people who comes to us with a prescription for medicines, requesting for financial help to buy these medicines or a request to pay for admission into the hospitals. The problem is compounded by the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. At the moment, 16% of the population are HIV positive. Poor health facilities and poverty push the life expectancy down to 37 years. Parents dying at a young age leads to an increasing number of orphans.

Lack of money means some of the children cannot go to school, and orphans usually are the ones to drop out of schools, all the more if they are girls. The number of educational facilities does not increase despite the increased number of children eligible for schools. Of course, this means overcrowded primary schools and irrational assessment criteria to reduce the number of eligible senior high school students to fit the existing places in these schools.

Our Mission Goes On
Is there no good news? Of course there is also good news in the midst of difficulties. As CICM missionaries in Zambia, in our District Assembly of October 2007, we chose as our missionary priority: to form communities that will seek to respond to the challenges presented by the political and economic realities of the people of Zambia. We identified for ourselves that our missionary presence in Zambia will be to live and work closely with the poor in Zambia. Therefore, in 2007, we accepted the request of the Archbishop of Lusaka to establish two new parishes in two areas where poor people are found. One, in MULUNGUSHI AGRO near Kabwe, a rural area comprising of poor farmers doing subsistence farming, and another in MAKENI VILLA, a poor compound in the capital city of Lusaka.

Our priorities in these communities are; outreach programs in health and education, especially for orphans and vulnerable children; women empowerment projects through small micro-credit facilities; farmers' cooperatives; and water and sanitation projects. Working together with these people, we hope that the gospel we preach will be transformed into actions of care and concern for the well-being of people. The Christian community's faith formation through liturgical actions and catechetical instructions, organized by the parish, are supposed to lead people toward active participation in outreach programs to love and to serve one another.

Outside of the Catholic Church's intervention in the difficulties of the people, there is also a growing number of NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) which seek to address one or another problem affecting the people. Some of these NGO's are faith-based, others are UN sponsored. All these groups seeks to address and alleviate the suffering of the people.

One Mission in Many Forms
Over the years, in the different communities and programs, we have helped young people to finish their education, communities to have access to running water, HIV patients to have care and treatment, orphans and vulnerable children to have access to primary education, street-children to be re-integrated with their families, and women to gain economic independence so the will be able to care for their own family. These are the small successes, and I am happy to be part of the whole process.

Will we be able to change the economic and political situation? Not now, maybe never. But we are part of the people's search for meaning in life and their journey of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ! That is what it means for me to be a missionary in Zambia!

To contact Fr. Anthony Lim, cicm
Email: alpleng3@yahoo.com