Five ways to reduce our reliance on plastic
Our daily choices matter: Turn the tide on plastic Plastic is so prevalent in our lives that we don’t even notice it anymore. It is convenient. It is cheap. It is ubiquitous. The unfortunate truth is that more than 70 percent of the plastic we use does not get recycled, and much of this plastic […]
Costa Rica: A Paradise of Renewables
The first country to produce 90% of its energy from green sources. The development of the electricity sector of Costa Rica began in the nineteenth century when, in 1884, the first public service generator, producing 50 KW, was installed to supply the needs of San José. During a process of amalgamation of several private companies, […]
Vocation Story: My work is my message
A ‘spiritual vacuum’ filled by granny’s tears. A parish youth group that offers peace and opens to others. And the decision to plunge into the sea of mission that offers unbelievable joy. A Comboni Missionary, Brother Gaspar Abarca Andrés tells us his story. I was born in 1975 at Chilpancingo, the capital and second-largest city […]
African Witness: South Africa – Archbishop Denis Hurley
As Chairperson of the Southern African Bishops Conference, he denounced the Apartheid system as “intrinsically evil”. Denis Hurley was born in Cape Town in 1915 of Irish parents. Educated at St Charles College in Pietermaritzburg, he joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) and was ordained a priest in 1939. In 1947, he was […]
Malawi: Rock art and biodiversity
Lake Malawi, a unique habitat. One of the deepest water deposits in the world. Distinctive rock art representing the cultural traditions and the history of the people who inhabit the Malawi plateau. Twenty per cent of Malawi is covered by water and it has the fifth largest lake in the world, Lake Malawi, the third […]
Africa: The Fight Against Plastic Waste
34 African countries have passed strict laws. Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda as models for the world. From the first of June 2019, tourists arriving in Tanzania must take care not to bring plastic bags with them in their luggage as these will be confiscated on arrival. This is the final move in a struggle which, […]
Madagascar: Poverty can be beaten
Pope Francis is going to Madagascar in September. During his stay he will visit the Akamasoa Humanitarian Association. Its Founder, Father Pedro Opeka speaks about it. With the help of a group of young people, Father Pedro founded the Akamasoa Humanitarian Association – in the local language it means “The Good Friends” – to help […]
Herbs & Plants: Funtumia elastic – A Medicinal African Rubber Tree
Highly valued in traditional medicine for treatment and management of a number of diseases and disorders. Funtumia elastic common name silk rubber is a medium-sized deciduous tree with distribution from Guinea to Cameroon and in the Congo basin, and along the Nile basin in Egypt, Sudan, east Africa especially in Tanzania and Uganda. Bark greenish […]
African Witnesses: Blessed Pierre Claverie
In January 2018, Pope Francis approved the beatification of Bishop Pierre Claverie and his eighteen companions. The murder of Pierre Claverie, a Dominican and the Bishop of Oran in Algeria, was the latest in a series of tragic killings that cast the Church of Algeria into grief between 1994 and 1996. The other victims were […]
Ethiopia: Metema, the loss of all hope
Each day it is criss-crossed by invisible travellers who arrive after placing themselves in the hands of human traffickers, under cover of darkness, crossing the frontier with Sudan along paths lost in the thick undergrowth. Welcome to Metema, a city in the north-west of Ethiopia, on the Sudan border, the Launchpad of the migration routes […]
