Dear Readers... Kivumu has once again been blessed by the arrival of a forty-foot sea container filled with wonderful things for our Padri Vjeko School!

Upon off-loading the container we discovered so many useful items……things like computers, office supplies, student stationary supplies, sewing machines, tools and equipment for our Tailoring, Construction, Carpentry, Welding, Electricity, Plumbing and Computer Science departments, as well as all sorts of clothing and footwear.

All this happened due to the good souls under the guidance of Anton Tesic, who has been a visitor to our Friary at Kivumu on two occasions! The idea came from Anton and after messaging back and forth the wonderful event happened and the container arrived. Croatian people from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Austria and Germany pitched in and donated so many of the items.

Toliko se dobrih ljudi odazvalo ovoj akciji…

Alojz Stanic from Austria sent us boxes and boxes of industrial clothing that will certainly be put to good use. And the kitchen supplies from Nediljko Najev from Split were a delight to unpack! So many pots and pans and dishes and all sorts of cookware!

The San Paulo Bank from Zagreb donated many supplies for our computer department.

We even received beautiful new quilts made by a humanitarian organization in British Columbia, Canada that arrived to Croatia in time to make the shipment. These came from Bread of St. Anthony from the Province of Bosnia who also sent us plastic containers filled with towels and other hygiene items.

And from Kap Ljubavi, run by the Franciscans of Herzegovina Province, we received boxes and boxes of bags containing soaps, towels, toothbrushes, etc. as well as huge boxes of footwear. Nenad Amanovic sent boxes of sports equipment and team sportswear for our young, aspiring basketball and soccer players. A young woman, Katarina Baotic who has spent a couple of extended visits with us here in Kivumu was very instrumental in organizing and inspiring different groups of people to donate to the project.

Marinela Banovac managed to secure some brand new beautiful clothing which our teachers and we friars are thrilled to be wearing!

A final huge thank you to the Mission office in Zagreb. They paid for the entire transport cost of the container and even sent us a very good professional standard photocopier!

The administrative paperwork that was required by Croatian law in order to ship the goods was facilitated by a most capable humanitarian registered organization, ‘Heart for Africa’ run by Maja Sajler-Garmaz.

And so we now have another container on our school premises, emptied of its goods, standing ready to become a small shop where we can sell items created at our trade school, made by our very own students.

Our deepest gratitude to Anton and to all the generous people who made this possible!