Dear
JCTR Bulletin Readers:
It is more than a century now since the State and the Church started working together in Zambia. The early missionaries took upon themselves to do a lot of development projects apart from preaching the word of God. They believed that to be a Christian we have to be real human beings and more to be a Catholic calls us to be socially involved. In being social we look at the societies we live in. We take a keen interest in improving our communities. This is the call to be a neighbour that Jesus emphasised in the story of the Good Samaritan. The early missionaries saw this need and hence built schools, clinics and social centres for the people they were working for.
The trade schools helped Zambians equip themselves in bricklaying, carpentry, home craft and other skills that needed practical knowledge. A number of primary and secondary schools in Zambia were started and run by missionaries. For a number of years Zambians preferred to send their children to mission schools because of the formation that they impacted on their pupils and students. The third level institutions have a long history of priests and religious lecturing in them. There is always a chaplain in these institutions who looks at spiritual welfare of the students.
In health, a number of clinics and hospitals were also set up by missionaries. It is common knowledge that wherever the missionaries settled, they always built clinics. This helped to reduce distances to government hospitals and clinics since most of these missions were in rural areas, where the government had not yet reached in terms of providing social services. In these areas, we can applaud religious sisters who have single-handedly tried to provide health services under difficult times. Complete letter
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