Students at HTA raised and donated over £740 to help fund missionary work in Zambia. Chairs of Governors, Mark Anderson and his wife Kate travelled to Zambia in the summer where they worked on Our Lady of the Rosary Mission in the remote bush village of Nabwalya, in the north-eastern part of the country. The Nabwalya Mission has been supported by Fr Michael Hartley from St Mary’s Madeley, who is also a HTA Governor. This year the parish of the Good Shepherd, which serves south Telford, raised over £2,500 which Mark and Kate were able to take directly to the mission. The journey was not for the faint hearted, starting with a 15 hour long flight followed by 17 long hours by road. They helped carry out much needed work on the mission and involved themselves with the local community during their four week stay. One poignant memory for them was the village school which had very few facilities and typical class sizes of over 100. One lasting memory they had was of every student taking great pride in their school uniform. They were always immaculately turned out which must have been a real challenge when most of the local dwellings were mud huts with grass roofs. Much of the funds donated are being used to purchase maize in bulk. This is stored on the mission and distributed to support the hungry local communities in the coming months, due to poor harvest this year. The weather around the time of hurricane Adai, passing just south of this area washed away much of the young crops. We thank Mark and Kate Anderson for sharing their experiences with us on what was a very worthwhile and interesting journey.
