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Of Wind and Water

Working with the People to Counter Thirst

Growing up in rural Minnesota in the 1930s, Daniel Ohmann was well acquainted with the iconic windmills that dotted almost every farm on the prairie. His father owned the local hardware store and was responsible for installing many of the windmills that pumped water before electricity reached the area.

Years later, as a Maryknoll priest in Tanzania, Ohmann was on his way one morning to say Mass at an outstation chapel when he stopped to give a ride to a woman carrying on her head a five-gallon bucket of water from a river six miles from her home. Moved by her labor, the missioner remembered his childhood.

Children collecting water (Tanzania)

A Maryknoll priest draws on his Midwestern heritage to bring water to parched African villages

“You don’t need to be here long to see that water is the number one need in this part of Africa,” explains Ohmann, who has served the Ndoleleji Parish on the arid plains of Tanzania’s Shinyanga district since 1967, including being pastor there for 15 years.

Windmills are in Ohmann’s blood and it was a logical step for him as a young missioner to serve his community in Africa with water pumped by wind. Over the years 20 windmills have been installed to pump water to 18 villages, each filling a 2,000-gallon concrete tank. Two of the windmills irrigate the Ndoleleji Mission garden and orchard, providing fruits and vegetables all year round. Villagers come on foot or with donkeys to the village tanks to collect the water, paying two cents to fill a five-gallon container (recently raised from one cent) to cover running costs.

The first two windmills came from Ohmann’s hometown of Greenwald, Minn. On home leave in 1969, he was describing the need for water in Africa to his father and discussing the idea of windmills while enjoying beers at a local bar with some area farmers. Then one of the farmers said, “He can have mine; I’ve switched to electricity!”

That summer Ohmann and his father disassembled the two windmills, crated them and shipped them to Ndoleleji, where they were promptly installed. They are still pumping. As the project grew, Ohmann and his family purchased other windmills from Nebraska and more recently from Australia and South Africa. Ohmann installed the first four windmills himself with the help of a Dutch volunteer.

The need for water grew dramatically as a result of Tanzania’s socialist “villagization” program, Ujamaa, that started in the early 1970s, when people were moved to newly created villages with about 2,000 inhabitants in each. The government’s aim was to make all homes accessible to water, schools and hospitals. While one positive result of Ujamaa has been to make Tanzanians proud of their nation over and above their tribe, thus avoiding the terrible consequences of tribalism suffered in other African countries, there still were many teething problems with Tanzanian socialism.

Ohmann describes how his project fell foul to the villagization progam and its inherent inefficiencies in the 1970s. The windmills were promptly nationalized and within a year all became idle for lack of proper service—except the one for the mission garden, which the priest serviced himself.

The villagers are required to dig the trenches to bury the two-inch plastic piping that carries the water from the windmills to the tanks. The run averages one mile but in one case stretches for four miles.

Fr. Daniel Ohmann, M.M. explaining the windmills concept
Fr. Daniel Ohmann, M.M. helping people in Tanzania
People collecting water (Tanzania)

 Today a fully installed system costs about $20,000, compared to about $5,000 in the 1970s, and Ohmann has often relied on personal endowments to buy them. Ohmann’s sister and brother-in-law purchased the first one, years ago, when their daughter was killed in a car crash and they used the insurance money for a windmill as a life-giving memorial. A New York nun did the same with her parents’ inheritance. Much of the money has come from Minnesota farmers who well remember how valuable their windmills were in the old days.

Despite their obvious benefits, the windmills were plagued for years with problems, Ohmann says. From the start people dug up the pipe and used it to make bracelets. Sometimes nuts and bolts were removed from the towers so farmers could repair their ox plows. One windmill tipped over as a result. Money was stolen from water sales until water meters were installed at the tanks and the income from water sales doubled. Then there were problems importing equipment, tax clearances and other bureaucratic headaches.

Things are now running smoothly, Ohmann says. Four men are employed full time maintaining the system, and each village employs a seller, who earns one third of the sale price of the water. As the windmill towers have become commonplace, silently pumping from the water table to the village tanks, the health benefits have multiplied.

Ohmann says the water is safe to drink. “The water is filtered through miles of sand in the riverbed. My dad told me, ‘You can drink urine once filtered through 25 feet of sand.’ I never tried it, but I believed him!”

The missioner says all the windmills pump water from riverbeds because deep wells bring only salty or alkaline water, and sometimes hot water. The only other sources of water are the rainwater collected in rivers, water catchments, small dams or from corrugated tin roofs. “We’ve tried all of them,” Ohmann says. People enjoy better health in the villages served by clean water. Diarrhea and cholera once common are now rare.”

Ohmann attests to drinking the water without treatment for 40 years and says he’s never suffered a problem.

Maryknoll Continues To Help In Nepal

Maryknoll Continues To Help In Nepal

By Fr. Joseph L. Thaler, M.M.

Since the earthquakes struck Nepal earlier this year, Father Joseph Thaler and the Maryknoll staff have helped hundreds of people rebuild their homes. They also have assisted principals and teachers so that classrooms are stabilized and books again are available for the students.

With local colleagues, Father Thaler also is rebuilding his many programs that for decades provided the people with income, health services and food for the family table.

The following information and photos from Father Thaler describe the progress that has been made to normalize life since the earthquakes and aftershocks shook the country. All of this work is delivered with God’s guidance and with the support from many Maryknoll friends.

Maryknoll thanks everyone for the donations and prayers that are assisting Maryknoll’s rebuilding efforts for the people of Nepal. Read more about the ways to help Maryknoll’s ongoing initiatives in the country.



Homes Rise From The Rubble

You can see a lot of construction when you travel around the village of Bhimtar. These are the new homes. The village of Bhimtar has nine wards and the recent construction has occurred in Ward 9.

Most of the houses now only will have the side walls rise up about four or five feet. The rest of the walls will consist of light weight bamboo or wood. The fear of another earthquake exists, so the present construction is stable and light-weight to provide families with security. For the new construction, most of the people are incorporating the door and window frames from homes that were destroyed.

Since the monsoon rains started to subside, we have been able to move more building supplies to the village. The trip by truck takes about four hours to reach just the outskirts of the village. The condition of the roads determines how deep into the village we can travel to deliver the supplies.

Many of the people have been waiting to return to their home sites with the building materials. There is just no easy way to deliver the materials to them. So, villagers must meet us to pick up the materials and then carry the items to their homes.

We see a tremendous amount of community spirit to make this happen. Families are helping each other. The people have a determined look on their faces along with expressions of joy as they know now they will be living in a new structure that will keep them safe and sound.

As of early September, Maryknoll, with the contributions of so many of our friends, has provided construction materials for 295 homes. Many people are creatively working on their homes and it is so inspirational to see a very positive dramatic change in the lives of these families.

2015_nepal_update5Back To School

Besides working tirelessly to help rebuild homes in the village, we have traveled to all the schools of Bhimtar to identify the separate requirements needed in each region. Some schools lost all classrooms and offices. Other schools also lost text books.

Up to and including grade 10, text books are free for students. For the higher grades, the students must buy their books. But, many students in rural villages are unable to afford the text books. They must share. It is not unusual for 10 or more students to share one book from the school library. With the earthquake, the school libraries were lost, with books ruined and buried in dust, bricks and mud.

Along with me and my college classmate, Frank, the Maryknoll staff brought boxes of books for the students. These books will make a major difference not just for their studies but to provide each student with the opportunity for higher education.

When traveling around the village, it always is a great joy to meet the students and see how interested they are in their studies and how they can do so much with so little in their classrooms. Of course, the principals, teachers and students would like to see a better school environment. With your continued help and assistance, major changes will take place in these schools in the months ahead.

Thanks so much for all the post-earthquake positive changes you are helping us bring to the families and children of Nepal.

Blessings,
Father Joe

The Whole Church is in Mission

The Whole Church is in Mission

For Father Raymond J. Finch, the new superior general of Maryknoll, “nothing is more rewarding than to go out and help people deepen their faith.”

“If you don’t share the faith, it stops growing. The more you give of it, the more there is. The less you give, it shrinks,” he added.

Maryknoll, the 103-year-old Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, works in 26 countries around the world. Father Finch began a six-year leadership term in November. He spoke to Catholic News Service Dec. 8 at Maryknoll headquarters.

For Catholics, mission today is more of an everyday experience and less of an exotic concept than it was in the past, Father Finch said. “The world is much smaller and people come and go. You won’t find many young people who haven’t left the country.”

There are also more people from the United States working in mission than ever before, Father Finch said. “Mission is so much bigger than Maryknoll. We have a role and a contribution, but the whole church is in mission.”

Pope Francis talks about people becoming missionary disciples and that’s what Maryknoll is trying to promote, Father Finch said. “He said we have to go beyond our needs to share with one another, deepen our own faith and be transformed by God’s grace.”

“He speaks of the joy of mission and becoming who we are called to be,” Father Finch said.

In Maryknoll’s early years, the United States was considered a mission-sending country and the overseas locations were mission-receivers. But Father Finch said the Second Vatican Council helped Catholics appreciate “a growing awareness of the mutuality of mission.”

Missioner priests, brothers and sisters have been joined by significant numbers of laypeople and parish groups, he said. Laity serve Maryknoll through both a long-established lay mission program, Maryknoll Lay Missioners, and a newer initiative that welcomes volunteers for stretches of six weeks to 12 months.

A group of five people joined the ranks of Maryknoll Lay Missioners Dec. 1 after a 10-week orientation period. They will leave in January 2015 to serve in El Salvador, Kenya, Tanzania and Cambodia for at least three and a half years.

Maryknoll Lay Missioners came out of the umbrella and tradition of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, but it functions independently.

“We help people motivated by the Gospel find situations, adapt to them and use their talents in culturally appropriate ways,” Father Finch said. Lay involvement in Maryknoll has always been strong, but has grown as more laypeople take responsibility for parishes and their faith lives, he said.

Individual lay volunteers in short-term assignments work alongside Maryknoll mentors in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Groups from parishes and universities experience Maryknoll through immersion trips. Father Finch said the experience is more valuable to the participants than the Maryknoll hosts, but is a blessing for the church in the United States. “There’s something privileged about being able to live the faith and share it with another culture on a deep level,” he said.

“Mission isn’t just for professional missioners. It’s for everybody. You were called by God in Baptism to be a messenger of God’s presence in the world,” Father Michael J. Snyder told CNS. He is the coordinator of Maryknoll’s program for short-term volunteers, which was formalized in 2004.

Volunteers do not accomplish physical tasks, such as digging latrines, but develop a camaraderie with the people they encounter overseas and come to appreciate the richness of the world, he said. “It helps us realize we’re all brothers and sisters in God’s family.”

Father Finch, 66, entered Maryknoll in 1966 and was ordained a priest in 1976. He served in Bolivia and Peru for 38 years and was superior general from 1996 to 2002. Although he was elected by a majority of his Maryknoll confreres, the Brooklyn native attributes his return to the leadership post to God’s sense of humor.

He was very happy in Latin America but said, “One of the things very important in mission is to listen to what I am being called to do and try not to say no.”

Father Finch said he will try to do better in his second term. One of the biggest challenges is “we are fewer and we are older. At the same time, I see people still giving and doing what they can to bring the Gospel and God’s love,” he said. There are 350 Maryknoll priests and brothers, a decline from 400 in 2011.

“We do what we can,” he said, quoting Maryknoll co-founder Father James A. Walsh. “Our job still is to go where we are needed but not wanted and stay until we are wanted but not needed.”

“Numbers are not the point. Maryknoll is about giving things over to the local church, forming the local clergy and the local people. Today, we call all people to mission,” Father Finch said.

There are 12 men in formation now to become Maryknoll priests. Three are former Maryknoll volunteers. “We are constantly inviting and reaching out,” Father Finch said. “I would love to see Maryknoll be a reflection of the Catholic Church in the US, with more Spanish-speaking missioners.”

He said in the past three years, Maryknoll has enhanced its program for mission education in U.S. parishes and schools and reached out to deacons. “We don’t think we can do it alone. Mission is from everywhere to everywhere.”

Maryknoll does not recruit from the countries where it serves, but welcomes local clergy called to work in mission in other countries, Father Finch said. There are Korean priests serving with Maryknoll in Cambodia and at least one from Hong Kong working in Africa. “The bottom line is mission,” he said.

“We’re trying to be more faithful each year to what we’re being called to do, here and around the world. There’s always room for improvement,” he said with a smile.

U.S. missionary visits North Korea as silent ‘apostle of peace’

U.S. missionary visits North Korea as silent ‘apostle of peace’

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, no Catholic priest has resided in the North of this divided peninsula, where autonomous religious activity is effectively forbidden. And no enemy of the communist regime there is more detested or fiercely denounced than the United States.

(more…)

The Pope’s Call to Mission

The Pope’s Call to Mission

During his first overseas trip, Pope Francis encouraged all Catholics to become animated missioners without borders.

“Where does Jesus send us?” he asked World Youth Day pilgrims on July 28 in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. “There are no borders, no limits: He sends us to everyone.”

Will you answer the Pope’s call to mission?

For more than 100 years, Maryknoll missioners have been living the message of missioners without borders. Maryknoll has been the heart and the hands of the U.S. Catholic Church serving those who are most in need around the world.

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers is a community of Catholic priests and Maryknoll Brothers who work as missioners in 27 different countries, including the U.S. For more information visit www.maryknollsociety.org or visit the Maryknoll Vocation’s website.

The Maryknoll Sisters is a congregation of women religious, who are dedicated to mission working with those in need throughout the world. They currently minister in 26 countries. For more information: www.maryknollsisters.org

The Maryknoll Lay Missioners is a Catholic organization inspired by the mission of Jesus to live and work in poor communities in Africa, Asia and the Americas, responding to basic needs and helping to create a more just and compassionate world. For more information: www.mklm.org

The Maryknoll Affiliates are communities of people who commit themselves to the mission goals of Maryknoll in the context of Chapters in the U.S. and overseas. They challenge one another to witness to mission as a way of life while striving for peace and justice for all of God’s creation. For more information visit www.maryknollaffiliates.org

ABOUT MARYKNOLL

We are a Catholic Society of priests and brothers based in the United States. We are dedicated to missionary work overseas in over 20 countries. Additionally, we animate Catholics in the United States to follow their own baptismal call to share God’s compassion and love with the poor, the sick, and all those in need.

OUR GENERAL COUNCIL

L-R Tom O'Brien, Ray Finch, Joe Everson, Russ Feldmeier

(Fr. Lance P. Nadeau, Fr. James M. Lynch, Fr. Timothy O. Kilkelly, Fr. Juan Montes Zúñiga)

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers is overseen by our General Council, led by Superior General Rev. Lance P. Nadeau, M.M.

OUR FOUNDERS

L-R Tom O'Brien, Ray Finch, Joe Everson, Russ Feldmeier

(Our Co-Founders Father Price and Father Walsh)

PLACES WE SERVE

EVANGELIZATION, PARISHES, AND PROJECTS

USA

STORIES OF MISSION

(Africa) Education and Formation of African Clergy

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers Africa Region will provide tuition assistance to African clergy, male and female religious at institutes of higher education or specialized training. Read More

Stories of Our Global Mission

The calling of a lifetime

The life of a Maryknoll missioner is challenging, fulfilling, and deeply rewarding. Follow your baptismal call to mission by sharing God’s compassion with the poor, the sick, and people most in need.