Marian Fundraiser Event a Success!
Within the first two weeks of December we celebrate two big Marian feasts in the Catholic Church—the Immaculate Conception on the 8th and Our Lady of Guadalupe on the 12th. And since Mary Immaculate happens to be the patroness of our home parish, we organized a festival in her honor to help raise funds for the Building Up Bukoba campaign.
On the 29th of November we visited five masses throughout the day to show our short promotional video, request financial support, and extend invitations to the event the following Saturday. We collected close to $1,200 in donations and passed out lots of flyers. We are grateful for the generosity of all those who donated, especially to Hilda who donated various images and statues for us to raffle off including a large image of Our Lady of Guadalupe said to have been blessed by St. Pope John Paul II. Sister Martha also encouraged us to keep up the good work and promised us her continued prayers.
The following Saturday, December 5th, with the help and participation of the parents of children enrolled in our Family Catechism program we organized an all-day festival in honor of the Immaculate Conception. Through the sale of home-cooked Mexican food, home-made carnival games, and raffle ticket sales, we were able to raise over $3,100 bringing our total amount raised to about $4,300!
Thank you so much to all those who participated, who prayed, and who made donations. Thanks to your generosity we will be able to make the first big step in the construction of the convent—the foundation! Make sure you sign up to our email newsletter, if you haven’t already, to keep up-to-date with the progress of the construction.