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The Catholic Leader, November 10, 2019
www.catholicleader.com.auWorld
Franciscan brother announced
UN Person of the Year in Africa
UN winner:
Franciscan
Brother
Mokaya
Tabichi,
who teach-
es math-
ematics
and physics
at Keriko
Secondary
School near
Nakuru,
Kenya,
has been
named
Person of
the Year by
the United
Nations in
Kenya.
Photo: CNS
A FRANCISCAN brother who
teaches mathematics and physics in
rural Kenya has been named Person
of the Year by the United Nations in
Kenya.
Br Peter Mokaya Tabichi, who teaches at
Keriko Secondary School near Nakuru, was
recognised for his work in promoting education
for all young people.
He received the award during United Nations
Day celebrations in Nairobi on October 24.
Br Tabichi declined to take full credit for
the award, saying he preferred to share it with
others.
“I feel shy to describe it as Br Tabichi’s or that
of the Catholic Church where I belong to in mat-
ters of faith,” he said.
“It is for each one of us, as many have
chipped in – teachers, students and the local
community.”
During the UN recognition, Br Tabichi, 37,
said about six million girls of school age around
the world – the majority of them in Africa – did
not have the opportunity to attend classes.
“At the same time, 72 million children are in
danger of missing education in Africa due to
war, floods and other challenges,” he told the
UN gathering.
Education, he said, should not be a matter of
luck but should be a right.
“Today people continue to struggle even more
than what I went through,” he said.
“The role of education should be to unlock the
best in people and giving them the ability and
skills to be able to relate and connect with others
in the society.”
The Franciscan encouraged the audience to
take any steps possible, small or large, to impact
the lives of the people around them.
An individual did not have to hold a high
position in society in order to effect change, he
said.
“Start by doing the ordinary things and have
dedication, generosity and passion in what you
are doing, and if you believe it can happen, then
it will,” he said.
The award was the second honour for Br
Tabichi this year.
In March, he received the Global Teacher of
the Year Award from the London-based Varkey
Foundation.
The award came with a $1 million prize.
Br Tabichi is the first African to win the
award.
He was chosen from among 10,000 nominees
from 17 countries, according to the foundation.
He said he planned to use part of the cash
prize to boost technology at the school, improve
the school’s physical facilities and support the
local community in Nakuru.
“Openly speaking, there are many chal-
lenges, but we shall confidently and hopefully
overcome them, all in the name of making a
difference in the education field around us,” he
said.
“As a local school, my school as well as stu-
dents is in dire need.
“I plan to chip in some of the money to the
needy areas.”
In addition to the awards, Br Tabichi was was
invited to the White House by United States
President Donald Trump in March and addressed
the UN General Assembly in New York in
October.
CNS
Patriarchs pressing
for preservation of
Christian presence
SYRIAN-born Catholic and
Orthodox patriarchs pressed
the need to preserve the
Christian presence in the
Middle East during a meet-
ing with Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Hungar-
ian Prime Minister
Viktor Orban.
The
patriarchs
– Syriac
Catholic
Patriarch
Ignace
Joseph III
Younan,
Melkite Pa-
triarch Joseph
Absi, Syriac
Orthodox Patriarch
Ignatius Aphrem II and
Greek Orthodox Patriarch
John X of Antioch – met
with Hungary’s foreign min-
ister Peter Szijarto, as well
as Mr Putin and Mr Orban
during their official visit to
the Hungarian capital.
In a speech to Mr Szi-
jarto, Patriarch Absi said the
exodus of Christians from
the Palestinian Territories,
Lebanon, Iraq, and most re-
cently Syria, had become “an
alarming issue” for Christian
leaders.
“The failure of different
groups to live together in
harmony in Middle East-
ern countries is a threat to
convivial relations between
different groups all
over the world,”
he said.
“Failure
to help the
Middle-
East to
remain an
oasis for
different
religions to
live peacefully
together will set a
dangerous historical
precedent.
“Soon, similar conflicts
will start to take shape
in different places of the
world.”
CNS
Syriac leader:
Syriac Catho-
lic Patriarch Ignace Joseph
III Younan.
Photo: CNS
(Seventy-two)
million children are
in danger of missing
education in Africa
due to war, floods and
other challenges.
Program helps the poor, elderly in
Armenia heat homes in cold winter
Warming homes:
A man is seen at his home in Armenia. Catholic Near East Welfare
Association has launched a campaign, partnering with Caritas Armenia, to provide
heat to more than 700 Armenian households.
Photo: CNS
POOR, elderly Armenians will receive
an extra hand in staying warm during the
upcoming frigid winter weather under a
three-year-old program developed by two
Catholic charitable agencies.
Called Warm Winter, the effort of the
Catholic Near East Welfare Association
and Caritas Armenia will open on Decem-
ber 1 and will provide fuel to more than
700 households.
Recipients will receive firewood or gas
or electric heat through their local utility
company.
The fuel will be supplemented by food,
hygienic supplies, first-aid supplies and
medicines.
Caritas Armenia director Gagik Tara-
syan said extreme weather conditions and
poor housing stock made life difficult for
thousands of the country’s elderly citizens.
“(To keep warm), they burn whatever
is flammable, pasteboard, cardboard,
garbage, paper, plastic, old clothing, shoes
and young tree saplings,” Mr Tarasyan
said in a statement released by CNEWA.
Some of the materials produced toxic
fumes, endangering the health of people
– and at times leading to death – while
damaging the environment, he said.
Social workers and volunteers have
identified people most in need in 125 loca-
tions around the country.
The most vulnerable people were those
living in crumbling temporary housing in
rural and urban regions that dated to the
country’s devastating 1988 earthquake,
CNEWA said.
Aid agencies have determined that about
300,000 Armenians 65 years old and older
– about one-third of the country’s elderly –
live in poverty.
CNEWA said most elderly people lived
alone.
CNEWA president Monsignor John
Kozar said in a statement that the program
was part of a broader effort to support the
churches in Armenia and Georgia.
“Despite their relative obscurity and
poverty,” he said, “these churches witness
the Gospel in so many beautiful ways,
upholding the dignity of all human life,
especially in their commitment to the
marginalised among them, the abandoned,
the powerless, the impoverished.”
CNS