We post messages from Mokicco here to keep you informed of their developments.
We received the message below from Overa, Carl-Erik’s widow.
It is a great sadness that our friend and my husband Carl-Erik has left this life. We know that he is at home with Jesus whom he loved with all his heart. He helped many in Tanzania such as the poor, orphans, widows and other needy. It feels important to me to continue with this work that he has started.
Thank you so much for your support and prayers!
One of the things he did was inform you about the progress of the work. In 2021 he wrote a monthly newsletter and I am trying to pick up where he left off with a letter this month. I want to start with the last letter he wrote but was not sent at the time, and also added the latest situation.
MOKICCO MONTH LETTER NOVEMBER 2021
The emergency in Tanzania has many faces. Just like in Sweden, there are also people with intellectual disabilities here. The difference with Sweden is that there are houses in Sweden where these people can receive care and attention. Here in Tanzania, as a rule, these houses do not exist. This means that an already poor family, almost struggling to survive, has to be with their disabled children regularly and thus cannot work like others. I was in Mwanza in October and visited two families with severely disabled children. In one of the families, the man was blind after going blind a few years ago. Inhuman need – and in the midst of it all, contentment and belief that the future can be better. After the visit to Mwanza, we came into contact with an organization that has 43 homes with disabled children on the list and who are regularly visited. <br>So now it has been decided that MOKICCO will support that task on a monthly basis for a year and see how the cooperation between us is going.
Today (September 2022), we want to continue to support the organization that helps the 43 families.
Our organization MOKICCO supported with 200,000 Tanzanian Sh. (€ 85.00) per month. From the agenda for the month of October I also get the information that there are now 24 children in the newly opened kindergarten in Kituri. The Bible School in Mwika has started a new semester and during my visit to Mwanza I was able to give guest lectures at the Lutheran Bible School in Nyakato.
I visited a Lutheran congregation to talk about the kindergarten in that congregation. On that visit, a boy from one of our family homes was baptized there, and the parents decided that the boy’s name would be Carl-Erik! Today there are three children in Tanzania named Carl-Erik. So much is happening and so much good is happening.
Of course there are challenges to tackle, but in doing so I get the invaluable help of my good wife Overa. Thank you for standing with us in prayer for our work! The challenge that arose after Carl-Erik passed away was that one of the families tried to take over the MOKICCO vocational school, but with the help of friends in Tanzania and advocacy, we were able to keep our vocational school.
Another challenge is the economy, but we solve this by helping each family to keep a project running (eg raising chickens, cows and goats) so that it can generate money. An example is the salon MOKICCO that we have on the market in Marangu (see the photo with this news)! It provides money for the group of widows. At the same time, we are controlling finances by not currently taking any new children into the MOKICCO families, except in emergency situations.
For example, in the month of June 2022 we were forced to take in a girl, Teresia, 14 years old. She came from Arusha, quite far from Marangu where we live. She was sexually exploited by her uncle. While hospitalized, a woman asked her if she wanted to work as a housekeeper and help her elderly mother. Teresia accepted, but when she came to the new family, she was very unhappy with the new family. Social workers in Arusha called MOKICCO and asked for our help to take care of Teresia. So even though we can’t take on new children right now, there are urgent situations where we need to intervene.
After Carl-Erik passed away, we had three new children who lived in difficult circumstances. Despite all the challenges, we have seen God’s hand in MOKICCO’s work. We have been able to continue our work. We now have 25 families and once a month we usually celebrate church together and pray for work and talk.
Thanks again for your support.
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