Update from Niassa... by Dinos Kousoulou

I had the privilege of working for four weeks with Bishop Mark in the Diocese of Niassa during August/September. The purpose of the visit was to work with Bishop Mark in attempting to review the organisation of the Bishop’s Office and to help implement a computerised accountancy system. The visit also gave me an opportunity to experience first hand, the work being undertaken through the Diocese and to gain an impression of northern Mozambique.

My general impression of the province was that it was very poor with many people living at subsistence levels and dependent on what they could grow. There are very few employment opportunities as there is no industry or commerce in the province. Potentially, the forestry project that the Diocese is directly involved in will be the biggest employer in the Lichinga area.

The country clearly is beginning to recover from the years of civil war and the horrendous floods. However, the country’s basic infrastructure is seriously lacking and much of what we take for granted either does not exist or is poorly developed. The vast majority of homes have no electricity or running water. Many schools, hospitals etc were destroyed or damaged in the civil war. Schools have to operate a shift system, with children attending for three or four hours a day in three separate shifts.

The importance of the Church and the growth of the Church is one of the success stories. The churches that I visited were full and because of a lack of capacity many have two services on a Sunday, one in the native language with a second conducted in Portuguese.

The challenges faced by Bishop Mark are very much a result of the growth of the Church and its related activities over the two year period since he was elected Bishop.

The significance of the rate of growth can only be understood by comparing the structure of the Diocese when Mark took over to what was in place when I carried out my review. Two years ago the Bishop’s Office consisted of the Bishop, a Secretary, one Archdeacon and the Kuchijinji Conference Centre. At the beginning of the review there were 14 people reporting to Bishop Mark including four Archdeacons, there was a fleet of five vehicles and the responsibility of the Kuchijinji Centre. In reality Bishop Mark was trying to manage all the activity single-handed.

The growth in the activity reflects the success Bishop Mark has had in attracting new funds into the Diocese to support a number of new initiatives. These include a health programme, a wells/bore hole project (both based in the Largo district), a literacy programmed based on the Lichinga district and a Diocesan wide project to deal with HIV / Aids. Plans were in place for these programmes to be extended and new projects covering work specifically with young people and evangelism are being planned.

It was clear to me that a more effective infrastructure needed to be put in place to manage both the Business and Administrative processes and to manage the growing number of projects.

Working with Bishop Mark, I devised a new management structure for the Diocese including writing Job Descriptions for all staff and devising competency profiles to ensure that there was clarity over the skills, knowledge and experience needed for each post. I also helped put in place a business plan and marketing strategy for the Kuchijinji Conference Centre that should ensure that it produces sufficient profits to support the work of the Diocese.

One of the significant advantages the Church has over the Government and other NGOs is that it operates far closer to local communities and it is these communities that are identifying the issues and concerns that they want to be addressed. This means that the projects put forward by the Dioceses are particularly relevant to local people.

Even though the Church is growing, it is still not generating sufficient funds for the Diocese to be able to pay the stipends of all the clergy.

Bishop Mark faces a number of other significant challenges; the size of the Diocese will be difficult to manage and in reality needs to be split into two if not more separate Dioceses. Although the Diocese has been organised into four Archdeaconries the development needs of each Deaconry is significant. The development of the Archdeacons and their staff will go some way to ensuring that the Diocese as a whole is managed more effectively.

The needs are immense and in many other situations the Government would be expected to meet many of the needs, however the Church is in prime position to develop services and projects to meet the needs and in reality the pressures on the Government are immense.

It was very clearly demonstrated to me that with a little external help, encouragement and support the local population were able and felt very positive about working with the Church to change their lives and living conditions.

The challenge for us in St. Andrews, I believe, is how we can support all the good work the Church in Niassa is involved in over and above the funds we have committed to ALMA.