Divine Word Missionaries - SVD - Botswana Province
Self-Reliance
The Mission is ever larger and larger. Little the Apostles knew that the missionary task ordered by Jesus Himself would expand and it will take so long to accomplish it - in fact, as long as the world exists, it will never be finished. Rather the opposite is true: the mission field is today as huge as never before, and the labourers are fewer and fewer.

The generation of Catholics interested in mission and supporting the missionary work is fast passing away. The young people of today are not so generous any more, the mission is not a priority, and there are people who are even against mission of the Church.

In practical terms this means much less support for the missionary work coming from Europe and the USA. At the same time the available cake must be divided into many more pieces, to cater for ever growing needs.

In this context it has become clear that we have to build our self-reliance in order to sustain the mission development and to keep the missionary work alive.
That is why we are trying to organise projects that might have the potential to generate some income and help us to finance our work.
Have a look at those projects mentioned below, and perhaps you might be able to help us to be more self-reliant.
To develop a school is a major investment. It will take some time to finish the infrastructure, then to break-even, and then to generate profit.
We hope that our confreres will succeed. The profit from the school is seen as a bonus to other important priorities: providing good education and having our own Catholic school - where you can form young Catholics and others according to our values and principles.
This project has enormous potential in Botswana and most probably in other African countries. It is strange that we get very little or no support from other SVD provinces (USA). We don't ask for money! We ask to help us to be known among the Catholic population in the USA and in Europe. If you can, please, advertise us, put a small note, our website address on your newsletter, website, magazine, mail.
If you have comments or other ideas how we could be more self-reliant, share them with us: