ACN provides electricity for a Catholic care home for the elderly
The diocese of Badulla lies in one of the poorest and most neglected regions on the island of Sri Lanka. Catholics represent only a tiny minority here. Most of the people live and work on the tea plantations and are desperately poor.
Hence the Church here is likewise very poor. 45 years after it was first established, the diocese is still almost entirely dependent on outside help for its support. Parishioners are unable to provide for the support of the parishes or their priests – to say nothing of the other Church structures within the diocese.
One such institution is a care home for the support of the elderly and needy who have no one else to look after them. The residents of this home are lovingly cared for by a congregation of religious sisters but they are too poor to contribute anything towards the cost of their own care.
Consequently, it is the diocese that has to bear the cost of running the home. One of the heaviest burdens is the cost of the electricity supply. Since it is so expensive, all the cooking is done with wood fires, and the sisters have to do without many of the electrical gadgets that would otherwise make it much easier and more hygienic to maintain the home.
So now the bishop has turned to ACN for help to purchase solar panels, in order to provide the house with a less expensive electricity supply. We have promised 7,000 Euros for this.
